software for USB MIDI interface

[kburdic1]

My church is considering the purchase of an expensive keyboard, but I believe there is another option. I want to use a laptop computer with a USB MIDI interface to control multiple keyboards. I would use a 4 port MIDI box(4 in, 4 out) to control 3 keyboards. I want to be able to pre-program synths for each keyboard and place them into a macro so that during the praise service, the lead keyboard player with the laptop nearby can just press one key when we change songs, and all three keyboards' MIDI synths are changed for that next song. This type of interface would allow me to download MIDI synths from various internet sites and have thousands of different keyboard sounds available to is for all our keyboards without buying an expensive Korg. And, if we buy that keyboard, we still only have one good sounding keyboard.
Does anyone know what software I should use? I called Cakewalk and the sales rep said their software would not do this.

Thanks, Kenn

[BagHun]

What laptop do you have and what are its current audio capabilities? Do you have a USB or firewire audio device for it?

[kburdic1]

I do not have the laptop yet, nor the USB MIDI connect ports. Getting the hardware is not a problem. I'll buy what is necessary. I need to know the software will work first before we decide which route to go.

[Alan]

Originally posted by kburdic1:
I want to be able to pre-program synths for each keyboard and place them into a macro so that during the praise service, the lead keyboard player with the laptop nearby can just press one key when we change songs, and all three keyboards' MIDI synths are changed for that next songI called Cakewalk and the sales rep said their software would not do this.

I'm not sure you explained yourself to them properly,but with Cakewalks Sonar,I can have any variety of Virtual synths set to any patches and saved and called up as a project file ready to go.The same can be done with Cubase as well.I'm not sure what kind of latencey/performance your going to get in relation to what app your using with a USB portable audio interface.Also most Lap Tops seem to be centered around a P4 proccessor which still suffers from a denormalazation problem(spikes)with certain plugins and especially softsynths,so you might want to think about an AMD based Laptop,especially for softsynths.Also keep in mind that using softsynths on a computer is not crashproof either,something to think about as far as "live" use goes.But I think I might have a solution for you,a new hardware product called "Plugzilla" that let's you load VST plugins and Vst soft synths into a hardware unit that can be triggered by a keyboard controller.Check this http://messe.harmony-central.com/Musikmesse03/Content/Manifold_Labs/PR/Plugzilla.html

[BagHun]

You have a multifacted problem that has multiple solutions, I'm sure. To get to the best solution someone would have to ask you several more questions about the setup at the church.

The Cakewalk guy may have been telling you that, no, there is no "one button" solution to your needs. I know that you could do everything you're talking about with Logic Audio, except that someone would have to switch between "songs" (that YOU have pre-configured) on the laptop. Would only take a few seconds for most 3 instrument setups.

If I were you I'd get on the phone to Sweetwater or Audiomidi.com and pick their brains.

[kburdic1]

thank you both for the info...i'll look into both solutions.
Any more ideas out there?