hey all- anyone out there have any experience using the soft synths from X1 with a laptop in a live situation?  Preparing to play live and wondering if this is a valid/practical option instead of buying a new synth.  I would also be able to use some back tracks from X1-
 
Thanks in advance!

You can do this but understand a few things.


1. you need to have a very low latency interface to play in real time.

2. Beware the computer glitches and crashes. This will take you out of the show quickly. 


If I was planning to run a VST live, I would do it on a dedicated computer and a decent interface. 

Having said that, I have seen a few "bands" that used Cakewalk in a live show to play almost all the parts.  Everything seemed to go well for them. 

As Guitarhacker says.  Some kind of desktop/slimline or cube would probably be safer.

Also, have a backup method available - even a little handheld recorder that can play a song or two if necessary.  There is a reason people cuss computers.

@

I use an HP Pavilion Dv6 notebook PC running Windows 7 32bit (w 3gb ram) and the Sonar X1 soft synths run great. It is also my primary desktop computer for work, play, and music. Generally speaking it's not a powerhouse by any means and I certainly have never needed an audio interface. But it performs great. I even playback up to 20 audio tracks live plus the instruments.

Although it depends on the synth. I use the Pentagon and Dimension Pro mostly. I'm using the on-board sound system too (despite the bus noise of which I have worked around). I've never had a problem live.

One more note: The only way I'm able to get away with this is ASIO mode (using ASIO4ALL). It works BEAUTIFULLY! The OS simply cannot handle it any other way.

(An instrument note: The z3ta+ synth crashes quite often both on my notebook and on our studio towers that use interfaces. Therefore I would never use that particular synth live.)

Hey -thanks to all you guys.  I understand the latency/ interface issue. @ deved- funny, I am looking at an HP Dv6 right now. There is a free upgrade to 8gig RAM. It has an i5 2.8g quad-core and 750 gig hard drive. $660! There are so many cool sounds in these soft synths I hate to go out and buy a new synth.  I've thought about controlling with my old M1 but it seems like it doesn't communicate well with the soft synth. (sustain, etc.) I may be better off to get a midi controller and just take my M1 along in case of crashes. BTW- I will be dedicating this laptop to this function and  I appreciate the heads up on the zT3a+.  Thanks again!
 
X1/i7 3.3g quadcore/12g RAM/ 3-1T HD/Fireface 800
 

You are welcome. Keep in mind that the HP Dv6 does have a lot of bus noise due to the sound chipset. My solution was to simply keep the Master faders as far up as reasonable. That way I can keep my mixer/amp down and I don't hear the noise. I get a cleaner signal that way.

One thing I would do if I was using the CAKE synths live..... Allowing that you might not be on a dedicated musical DAW computer...... at least consider the following. 

I would invest into a dedicated USB music interface that is running Native ASIO drivers and not trust the gig to ASIO4ALL  which is another layer of software that is basically a wrapper that fools the other software into thinking it's dealing with real ASIO drivers....and remember......all that is running in Windows...... 

A nice audio/midi interface would be a worthwhile investment if you planned on gigging in this manner more than a few times. 

thanks again guys and yes I'll probably invest in a small interface (2 chan). I already thought about that. One other thing  I haven't figured out yet- what is the best way to access the soft synths? Do you have to set up a template? I am wondering about switching between synths as well as stacking them. Is this possible?  As long as I can easily switch between synths I'll be happy. For example using Rapture on a song and then Dimension on the next without a lot of dead air. I can't seem to find this stuff in the pdf manual.

what i do live is have audio tracks for rhythm sections.  then i layer sometimes maybe 7 or 8 instances of rapture, dim pro, z3ta+ and third party synths (mostly native instruments).  i the track inspector i assign a separate channel to each soft synth input.  all i have to do is change the channel on my midi controller and voila... brand new instrument.  the other thing i do is have midi loops assigned to matrix that i can trigger via the controller's pads.  so, say a little synth fill (extremely useful when there's a lot of midi controller automation that would be impossible to play without 8 hands) here or there while i'm playing a completely different part on a different synth.  works like a charm. running an m-audio fast track ultra.