I am using Csound to produce my own music on a shoestring budget.  However,
I've spent a little time in larger studios, read about it constantly, and
talk to many people about pro techniques.  I believe that if Csound is to
be of any significant use to studio musicians, it needs to support GM
format.

I realize that 90% of computer users have a low estimation of GM.  This is
because most GM soundcards, and about half of the GM sound modules sound
cheesy.  Many people would prefer to listen to .MOD or other tracker format
files, because at least if someone wants to use a high quality patch in
their song, they can include their own samples.  This appears to be the
case with DLS as well.  There is nothing wrong with the concept of
including a sample in a portable music file, and GM does not support this. 
I myself get no thrill from downloading GM files for "I will survive" and
hearing them cheesily rendered by some lame MIDI card or module.

However, I have before me, product info on the Ensoniq ASR-10.  A friend of
mine who is way into synths says that all of the really large studios he
has ever been in all have different equipment, except for this Ensoniq
keyboard/sampler.  One big advantage, in my mind, is not only phenomenal
sample processing ability, but the ability to be linked into a SCSI bus,
and transfer its info directly into a computer for mastering, instead of
not having a direct digital out like many samplers.  My point?  This, along
with many other pro studio pieces of hardware does NOT support MOD, Csound
..orc format, or even DLS format.  I don't know of a keyboard which does
have a .orc out plug, and probably never will!  If you are in a studio, and
on a schedule, you do not want to muck around trying to get the industry
standard format converted (non-realtime is obligatory) to the favorite
format of academia.  You want to either record your MIDI tracks, and render
them using Csound, or do it in Csound realtime if that feature works well
on your computer.  All of my sequencers use MIDI format as well.

Supporting nifty new formats is good and fine.  If Csound is ever to be
more than an academic curiosity, intended to study sound theory, but rather
to be a useful production tool, GM, or perhaps some other format which is
more powerful, and widely accepted as a studio standard, is the future. 
Also, for the foreseeable future, I don't think samples are going to be
going over synth connectors DURING A PERFORMANCE, as to move samples down
the pipeline realtime will choke most current machinery.  I do agree that
it is a big oversight in GM not to have a sample transfer format.  Doing it
with sysex is criminally slow, as in the Turtle Beach Monterey.  I urge the
adoption of new formats that can do this.  I do not urge building Csound
around a format which no existing studio hardware uses.

Uh, ... warmest regards, really!

Jackee Criswell
TheSilverSurfer@themall.net