Best Sound Card for MIDI

[sswingle]

A friend of mine is using MIDI a lot making music, and isn't happy with his SB Live. What is a good affordable sound card for MIDI? Is Audigy 2 the way to go, or is there something out there thats better.

Thanks!

 

[mircea]

I owned the Audigy and now have Audigy 2, both platinum editions. I use often the front MIDI interface connecting my Triton while working on music editing software. No problems at all.

 

[sharkeeper]

If he isn't happy with SBLive he isn't going to like the Audigy or any Creative product for that matter.

One of my favorites is the Yamaha SWXG1000.

Very nice MIDI and effects. You can still find people selling them.

Cheers!

 

[sswingle]

He says the Live sounds "tinny"

I can't find that Yamaha board anywhere. Even ebay. Any other ideas?

 

[mikable]

Why not download a better general MIDI soundfont? Even the best sound card will sound crappy with the included set of sounds. I'm a bad explainer and it is really more of a software thing so google up "soundfont" and read up!

 

[flamingspinach]

Don't only Creative and E-MU cards have hardware soundfont support? I'd go with the Audigy2 ZS. I'm going to buy it for the same reason.

-fs

 

[xgsound]

MIDI has fallen out of favor since mp3s have gotten popular, so modern cards pay less attention to midi quality and have a lag for live performance since they are done in software.

A software player solution is availiable called Wingroove. It is an old shareware program with limited instruments, but very good sound for the ones it supports.

For live performance or playback the old Wavetable Daughter cards; Yamaha DB50 or Roland SC-15 are hard to beat. I know the TBSC supports a Wavetable card. These would be hard to find unless you get them used.(? ebay?) If you get a Wavetable card , it can be a synthesizer on a card, giving 400 to 600 instruments.

Jim

 

[ProviaFan]

I found this while searching through the archives, and heck, it's only been about a week, so here goes...

What he needs is a softsynth. They can get expensive (*ahem*), but something on the order of Gigastudio along with a good sound card with ASIO (or GSIF perhaps) drivers so the latency will be manageable (SBLive has them not, Nvidia soundstorm surprisingly does have them, and of course M-Audio and other professional cards have them) can make very nice sounds. I tried out the softsynth thing with a Bosendorfer piano sample, which was nothing short of freakin' awesome. Now I just need to find an afforable but decent MIDI controller so I can play this thing some other way than with a mouse.

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: xgsound
For live performance or playback the old Wavetable Daughter cards; Yamaha DB50 or Roland SC-15 are hard to beat. I know the TBSC supports a Wavetable card. These would be hard to find unless you get them used.(? ebay?) If you get a Wavetable card , it can be a synthesizer on a card, giving 400 to 600 instruments.

For the above reason, I refuse to give up my Diamond MX300 sound card with the Roland SCD-15 daugterboard, and I'm still using it in my otherwise current up-to-date rig.

Somebody will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

 

[Terumo]

Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers
A friend of mine is using MIDI a lot making music, and isn't happy with his SB Live. What is a good affordable sound card for MIDI? Is Audigy 2 the way to go, or is there something out there thats better.

Thanks!

Is he a keyboard player and mixing tracks? If so he needs a something better than Audigy products (good for desktops, poor for musicians)....

Here's a good MIDI sound module (don't worry he can tweak it all he desires)....

http://www.edirol.com/products/info/sd80.html

Looks so good I want it too.