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Topic: New PC, new setting, old soundfonts, new doubts (Read 3898 times) previous topic - next topic

New PC, new setting, old soundfonts, new doubts

Hello, my dearest community!

I'm a veteran NWC user (25 years of love, more or less). I'm going to build a new computer for myself soon and I'm looking for your kind advice regarding soundcards and soundfonts.

I'm now using a SoundBlaster Audigy RX, which supports soundfonts and has been working great for the last 10 years. I was wondering whether I should get a new one for my next PC. I've seen some cool looking new soundcards around, e.g. the SoundBlasterX AE-5 Plus.

I will definitely need 16 MIDI channels and the capability of using soundfonts, but I really don't know if any "recent" soundcard (or even the one integrated in each motherboard) supports them anymore.

Do you have any advice for me? Would I be able to use soundfonts on any device other than my beloved old Audigy RX?

Even more importantly... Will NWC2 be working smoothly on Windows 11?

Thanks in advance!

Re: New PC, new setting, old soundfonts, new doubts

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Aure –
<snip>
I'm now using a SoundBlaster Audigy RX, which supports soundfonts and has been working great for the last 10 years. I was wondering whether I should get a new one for my next PC. I've seen some cool looking new soundcards around, e.g. the SoundBlasterX AE-5 Plus.

I will definitely need 16 MIDI channels and the capability of using soundfonts, but I really don't know if any "recent" soundcard (or even the one integrated in each motherboard) supports them anymore.

Do you have any advice for me? Would I be able to use soundfonts on any device other than my beloved old Audigy RX?

Even more importantly... Will NWC2 be working smoothly on Windows 11?
Hey Aure,
I can't really give you any definite advice, BUT I remember when I was last doing a desktop upgrade I had a terrible time finding a Soundblaster that supported soundfonts at all.  It appears that you have one that does, and that is PCI Express compatible - wish I'd found it when I wanted it...  This is so I can say: RESEARCH the card you want, make sure it has soundfont support!

From memory, I'm pretty sure all Soundblasters that had soundfont support supported 2 banks of MIDI, and the standard for each MIDI bank is 16 channels*, so having 16 channels is no problem, and you will likely have access to 32 if you configure both banks.

While I'm not using Win11 myself, I believe the concensus of users here that do say NWC runs fine.

* 16 channels is a MIDI standard, not a Creative one.

Hope that all helps.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: New PC, new setting, old soundfonts, new doubts

Reply #2 –
NWC2.8 Beta 1 runs fine on Windows 11, to the extent Windows 11 runs well (I hate it so far - another unmitigated Microsoft disaster, IMHO).

You probably don't need a sound card; your motherboard will suffice.  If I understand it correctly, sound, video and graphics cards were supplements to motherboards that were nowhere near as powerful as they are now. 

You will need to copy the NWC fonts (including Lawrie's suite) to the new computer, and the user tools as well.  Somewhere in this forum since June somebody helped me to figure out how.  It wasn't hard.   You may want to copy your soundfonts / instrument trees too, but those are things I've never played with.

Cautionary notes:
1/
It's suprising how many ports and drives you forget you want when you buy/set up your new machine.  I had to add an external optical drive, and the new machine doesn't have a memory card slot on the face, which I forgot I wanted when I went shopping. 
2/
I ran Windows 10 on my old machine and have Windows 11 on the new one.  Windows 11 has a steep learning curve, and still surprises/angers/disappoints me after 3 months.  Open files close unexpectedly or work very slowly when W11 puts most of your working apps into Efficiency Mode. 
3/
When the vendor copied my files across, he said my existing programme files can't be used, and they weren't copied.  I've been able to run some from the backup external hard drive, but some can't be found, including my favourite image editor.  I had hundreds of emails needed for my big webpage project, and the Outlook (now Office 365) did not bring across the current ODT file.  It seems to have chosen one that was on the second hard drive on the old computer, mail from many years ago but little from this decade. .   I might be able to recover them, but I haven't had the energy to try yet.  I suggest you review everything you have on the old machine, and back up anything you don't want to lose, before you try upgrading to Win 11.  

Re: New PC, new setting, old soundfonts, new doubts

Reply #3 –
David, posts like yours trigger my anxiety!

Re: New PC, new setting, old soundfonts, new doubts

Reply #4 –
Aure, it's great to hear that you are still using NWC after all this time. I guess that is most of us here now! I don't have time, money, or inclination to switch to the other notation programs, but I am a very active composer. What do you use NWC for?