Third Take

Today Toontrack announced “Toontrack Solo” – a host application for their MIDI sample players, EZ Drummer and Superior. With Solo, you’ll no longer be tied to your DAW software trigger your samples. For those who’ve wanted to use EZ Drummer in a live situation, this is huge.

Toontrack Solo claims to be optimized for low latency operation, and also allows you to run multiple instances (on different MIDI channels) at once and to be triggered by a variety of MIDI controllers. This doesn’t look like a trivial application; they seem to have a handle on the needs of a performing musician. With the proliferation of digital music performances, this could be very popular.

From the Toontrack Solo page:

Toontrack Solo is a host application for Toontrack samplers providing stand alone operation, multi-instance operation and support for specialist MIDI controllers.

With support for ASIO and CoreAudio/CoreMIDI devices, a performer can optimize response from his preferred controller (keyboard controllers as well as from the majority of E-drums and Drumpads available on the market) with the use of factory presets and route up to 16 physical audio outputs to a mixer for real-time operation with minimal latency and the full flexibility of outboard soundshaping. Virtual Drummers can be layered/assigned to specific channels for triggering. Toontrack Solo is released as a free download for all registered users of Toontrack samplers before the end of october 2007.

Features:

• Stand alone operation of Toontrack samplers
• Optimized for real-time, low latency operation
• Full ASIO/Core Audio/Core MIDI support
• Routable mixer with support for up to 16 physical OUT
• Each instance can be assigned a discrete MIDI channel
• Support for specialist MIDI controllers

Toontrack is very smart when it comes to leveraging their technology; this isn’t the first time they’ve put a new twist on an existing idea. They also seem to be loyal to their customers, since they’re releasing this new application as a free download for registered customers.