sound

2006-11-07 07:58 pm

I installed NWC in my Compaq back in 2000(Windows 98). Very happy with the way it works and SOUNDS. Since then I have tried to install in in 5 DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. Visuals appear fine ... but they all sound terrible. I've talked to techies at Dell and Compaq. They all give up. Any help out there?

Re: sound

Reply #1 – 2006-11-07 08:27 pm

G'day Calexico,
bad sound - it's all in your MIDI synth.

If you search/explore this forum you'll find lots of discussion on what sound card to choose and what soundfonts are best (for cards that support soundfonts) and even softsynths.

If you still have the Compaq, perhaps you can determine what sound card/softsynth/wavetable/soundfont was installed. Otherwise there are some choices to be made.

Perhaps the easiest way is to install a sound card that supports soundfonts (you may even have one already and not realise it!). All the current Creative Soundblaster range have this capability as did many of their previous models. The you can have the "joy" of finding a soundfont (or combination of them) that suits your taste.

Another alternative, depending on what you have installed on your PC, is Microsofts "GS Wavetable SW Synth". This uses a set of Roland samples and isn't too bad, though it isn't truly great either. It should be there if you have WinXP, and I believe other updates to previous vesions of Windows also installed it (DirectX was one, I think).

I personally use a (no longer available) Yamaha softsynth as my primary synth but it isn't perfect. For this reason I also have seperate soundfonts installed in the 2 hardware synths of my SB Audigy - it can get much more complicated from here...