MINIMUM arranger spec for composing/production with a DAW

[nonchai]

For any arranger workstation to be classed or marketed as suitable for use by a composer, songwriter or producer working in a home studio or composer production suite with a DAW - here are what I consider the MINIMUM requirements for a hardware arranger to be usable SEAMLESSLY and thus workflow wise, productively...... WITH A DAW....

Firstly I will state the two areas content-wise which need to be seamlessly accessible or shareable by the DAW user:

A ) MIDI ( song and style data, along with program change messages )
B) Internal sounds used by the hardware by the MIDI above.

So how to support A ) seamlessly ?

1 ) Allow the arranger MIDI data area used for internal sounds, as well as on any external memory sticks - to be accessed directly by allowing user data to be presented to the DAW computer as en external drive over USB.

2 ) failing 1 ) provide some kind of app on Mac/pc that via some proprietary means lets a user on a computer access data on the arranger AS IF IT WERE A HARD DRIVE.... failing even this - maybe some scheme where a common shared storage area made available to both DAW computer And the keyboard might be workable -but more complex in the end..

having to continually swop USB thumb drives between arranger and computer is simply not good enough for the purposes being discussed here.


So how to support B ) seamlessly ?

1 ) The arranger needs to support outputting digital audio over USB for at least 16 stereo channels.

The top workstations a( NAUTILUS, MONTAGE, FANTOM ) do this already. It requires that the Arranger has onboard a suitable chip for example from XMOS -

https://www.xmos.ai/usb-multichannel-audio/.



2 ) In order to have total-recall of patch choices when using instruments in an arranger piped over USB into a DAW project its not enough - and impractical - to always have to include PC+MSB+LSB midi data in ones MIDI tracks. So instead - two of the leading workstation brands - MONTAGE and KRONOS/NAUTILUS provide dedicated VST/AU plugins which when hosted in a DAW project, allow internal sounds and patches to be selected from the keyboard and piped into the DAW project.
But these plugins go further. Whenever the DAW project containing any of these plugins on one or more MIDI tracks is saved - a record of the actual patches used on the track gets saved into the plugin internal save-state. And whence the DAW project is reopened - say on a different day - the plugin sends the appropriate messages back to the connected keyboard in order that the same instruments that were used when the project was saved - get called up again.

Such "total recall" really is a time saver.

See here for how Yamaha and KORG themselves do this in MONTAGE and KRONOS. A top end workstation arranger purported to be usable as a composition, song or production tool in a home/professional studio or composing suite- needs to have this functionality too.

--- How montage supports DAWs

https://youtu.be/11ccxrU2QzY

"MONTAGE Connect is a convenient tool which lets you transfer data between your computer and the MONTAGE. Song data created on the MONTAGE can be transferred to your computer and the Performance data edited on the MONTAGE can be saved as a file (.X7B) on the computer. MONTAGE Connect, based on Steinberg’s VST3 technology, works as a VST3 plug-in with the Cubase series. The MONTAGE Connect also works as the same way as other VST instrument software, allowing you to save the edited settings of the MONTAGE, or use them for another project. MONTAGE Connect also works as an AU plug-in. For AU compatible DAW software, refer to the separate Release Notes. It can also be used as standalone software."

https://usa.yamaha.com/support/updates/ ... t_mac.html

--- How KORG supports DAWs

https://www.korg.com/uk/news/2021/0916/

https://youtu.be/wS2L97iBiO8