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In my little investigation of software synths, I found ObjektSynth at http://www.objektsynth.com What is different about this one is that it runs on BeOS. Apparently the ObjektSynth folks tackled the computer OS latency problem by avoiding Mac OS and Windows altogether and throwing their lot in with BeOS instead. BeOS is a fairly new operating system that is being promoted by its creators as an OS that takes more advantage of the latest hardware than does Windows or Mac OS and was designed from the ground up for real-time issues. The Be corporation initially attempted to sell its own PowerPC box as the hardware platform for BeOS but eventually gave up and now sells its OS for PowerPCs (except the G3s - for some reason Apple refuses to provide assistance to Be on those) and Intel processors. The URL for BeOS is http://www.be.com >From what I can gather, ObjektSynth essentially does the same thing as the Nord Modular in that it simulates a modular analog synth (the most powerful kind of analog synth because you can configure it any way you want by patching together modules, but also the most expensive, high maintenance kind ) in software. But the Nord Modular has a greater variety of modules, is more portable (you bring just the Nord Modular - not your computer - to a gig), doesn't require you to invest time and money in a new OS, and best of all has two independent analog inputs so you can plug your guitar/bass/Stick/mic/whatever into it and trigger synths functions. Still, if you have an idea for a killer computer-based studio app that runs free of the latencies of Windows or Mac OS and are daring enough, BeOS is available as an option. Cheers, Paolo