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Topic: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use? (Read 14705 times) previous topic - next topic

Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

I use a SoundBlaster PCI 64 with a 4mb waveset. I have tried SB Live! and did not like it at all, though I am sure I did not have the correct setup...

Which card do you use?

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #1 –
Yamaha DB50XG. (Now more-or-less replaced by the newer SW1000XG.)

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #2 –
Creative Vibra 128 with 2, 4 and 8 Mb wavesets. Its supposed to be the same as a PCI 128, except it doesn't support 4 speakers, only 2.

Spec for the PCI 128 says I should have 10 midi drumsets but I have only found one so far. Can anyone suggest where to look for the other 9?

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #3 –
I use the Ensoniq PCI (which I think is equivalent to one of the Soundblasters). Love its wavesets!

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #4 –
I use an olde SBAwe32, but the sound is perfect! and more than that , it is an Orchestra!!

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #5 –
okay punk don't delete me again.
All I said was a had a soundblaster 16!
but I do have several synths and recording decks that make all the difference! :-P

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #6 –
I have the SBLive! which is the cumulation of all things good in the consumer-priced sound card world. I have about 50Mb of sounds loaded (a 40Mb custom version of GM, and 10Mb of wonderful instruments from HammerSound) that capture the sound very well.

This is the sound I've been looking for for years. The closest I've come before this was with the Yamaha Soft Synth 100.

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #7 –
Hi Gordon,

How do you get hold of a 40MB soundfont?!

Thanks, Clive

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #8 –
Hi Clive,

http://www.hammersound.net has plenty of soundbanks that run from 30 to 60Mb. He also has many great individual instruments.

Cadenza is a great one at 50Mb, Jurgen at 60Mb, Fluid and Unison are smaller. If you only want a GM, one way to make it exactly what you like would be to gather some individual instruments you like, take the GM to Vienna and swap out the instruments. You might also put instruments you like into the high positions of the bank that currently have instruments you don't use. (Most everything from 100 to 127.)

I believe the rule of thumb is that the size of the soundbank can be half the size of your RAM. I have 128Mb RAM, so I can load a soundbank up to 64Mb.

SBLive! puts an icon on your desktop. One of the selections is SoundFont. You can go there and add and delete all your instruments, up to the limit noted above. I love it. I can be playing a song in NWC, stop it and select another instrument from the list in the installed SoundFonts, and resume playing in a few seconds. If I no longer like an instrument, I delete it from the list and add another.

Hope this answers your question.

Regards,
Gordon

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #9 –
What's even more, you can get a single instrument soundfont that is even larger. Every semitone sampled, at three different dynamics layered so that when used for MIDI the soud changes according to attack velocity, with different playstyles. Easily over 80MBs. But that is how you get realistic playback.

BTW, I do have an SBLive, and with NWC, I don't even need a fretboard/keyboard (just hours and hours and hours and hours and...)

Sterghios

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #10 –
I have a SoundWave Pro by SIIG, witj 6MD wavetable. Sounds real good, and only about $30 - $35.

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #11 –
I just bought creative PCI 128. Nothing spectacular, but it's good one. The problem is I don't know how to make it support 4 speaker. Can you help me? Thanks.

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #12 –
There's a jumper on the board to configure for 2- or 4-speaker use. As I recall, it's nearby the output jacks.

On the topic of this card, does anyone know if any other wavesets exist for this (other than the 2, 4 and 8 meg files that come with it)?

Fred

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #13 –
Thanks to Fred for his answer. Unfortunately I have another question. If I connect front speakers to "speaker out", where should I connect rear speaker? Thanks again.

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #14 –
Sorry, I should have answered more fully. The jumper selects Speaker output or Line output. For 4-speaker systems you apparently have to select the line output option, because the built-in amplifier is only a stereo (two channel) device.

For four-speaker systems you have to use the line out jacks, and use amplified speakers. The jacks on the card are as follows (starting from the end furthest from the joystick port):

1: Speaker Out jack. The manual then promptly contradicts itself by staing "Connects external devices such as a cassette, DAT, or minidisc player for playback and recording."

2: Microphone input jack.

3: Line Out (Front) jack.

4: Aux In/ Line Out (Rear) jack.

So you'd presumably use jacks 3 and 4 for the two pairs of amplified speakers. You also have to set it for four-speaker use in softare. Right-click the mixer icon in the system tray and click "Configure 3D audio". In the window that then opens, you have to select 4-speaker mode.

Hope this works for you.

Fred

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #15 –
Now I can fully enjoy the sound of all four speakers, thanks to Fred

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #16 –
I might be a bit off-topic but I have a question and this seems to be a good place to ask...

I have a Soundblaster PCI 128 and I want to load a soundfont. The card itself has no memory on it. (I've looked at the card and there physically aren't any memory chips.) It happily works with the 2, 4, and 8 meg wavesets Creative supplies, but I have a killer soundfont and Vienna says I don't have a soundfont-compatible card, and I want to use this soundfont because it's sooooooo cool......

It does seem to like these things called "wavesets", as opposed to soundfonts... is there any way to convert between the two formats, perhaps? Is that how I'm supposed to do it?

Thanks

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #17 –
Hi David,

No, the PCI128 doesn't support soundfonts. Its "Wavesets" are a kind of soundfont, in that they are a representation of the sounds you hear, but there the resemblance ends.

I tried without success to find additional wavesets, it appears that Ensoniq made them deliberately arcane, preventing aftermarket wavesets. Then they went bottoms-up, and were absorbed by Creative, who sold the Ensoniq cards under the name PCI128.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings,

Fred

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #18 –
One thing you could try is the Yamaha Softsynth (or whatever the name is), which uses software to render the soundfonts, rather than hardware. I only ever tried their demo version, which has a few limitations, but the commercial version (unless you go for the super-deluxe model) is still cheaper than a soundcard that supports soundfonts.

Robin

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #19 –
Wait a minute; Yamaha SYXG supports external banks, but, does it also support soundfonts?

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #20 –
No, you're right. What you hear is what you get. Again, it's some sort of proprietary encoding. It appears to be hidden inside a virtual device driver, with an arcane name like sxgxgknl.vxd. Good luck trying to crack that!

Fred

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #21 –
Oops! Sorry for the bum advice. I obviously didn't try very hard with Softsynth, and I don't need it any more, 'cos I went and blew my money on an SB Live! (and a very worth-while investment if I may say so!)

Of course, as soon as I buy what I think is state of the art, I discover Creative now have this Audigy series, and the Live! series is old hat!

Robin

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #22 –
Hmm, I'll just join in with this discussion..I have a Creative Vibra 128 which does the job though
I am considering getting a SB Live so I can play games...ect. with Chunk free sound. Whenever I play a big game, Wolfenstien, AVP2 and the other big games, I get chunky sound which kind of spoils the game for me.

Two quick questions:
How good is the SB Live. Is it worth it or should I go for a more recent one?
And does anyone know what I could do to improve my Vibra 128's sound? Like maybe dissabling the Legecy device in Device Manager or something?
Would bigger wavesets help? I've got 2,4 and 8mb ones at the moment, but only use the 8mb as "The bigger the Better" says. Can you get bigger wavesets for a Vibra 128? Where from ..ect..ect.?

Pls Hlp if you can, I'm dieing to play Games with Chunkless sound...
THANKS

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #23 –
I too have a Vibra 128. AFAIK there are no wavesets available other than the 2, 4 and 8 Mb varieties distributed with the card.

To improve the sound of NWC playback:

a) buy better speakers.

b) use a good soft synth - I tried some demo versions from the Yamaha web site and they were quite impressive. However, for my limited purposes (proof listening) it did not seem worth the expense of registering and they are now long past their use by date.

c) print the music and get a good band to play it.

HTH

Stephen

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #24 –
I have an ensoniq made 1370 board with 3 outputs (speaker out, line in, mic in)

Unfortunately there is no jumper on board. And I dont have the software drivers of the card.

Just under line in slot, there is some writing like
Line in/Rear out

I asked creative, they said, they do not support this model but rear out should work.

I tried many different software drivers but I could not make rear output run.

Do you know how can I run rear output?

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #25 –
I have a sb pci 128. I understand that
it doesn´t accept soundfonts.The question is:
¿is there any software using soundfonts and
then it could be possible to use my sound card?
sorry..english is not my native language

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #26 –
 
Audio Compositor is frequently pointed out for its Soundfont capability. It's shareware, nn bucks.

You'll need to render a midi file into wav using the program in order to see if it works for you.

Hth,
Ertugrul
 

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #27 –
I use an older Soundcard at home, not sure what's here at work, though it sounds better. I only use the play capacities of NWC to check for mistakes anyway, and get a rough idea of balance and texture, so close is good enough.

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #28 –
HELP GUYS!!!

I'm trying to get my neice set up. I understand she needs a midi in and out card. She doesn't need or want sounds on her sound-card. All of these will be coming from  her keyboard.

1. What should I be asking for?
(We need a cheap, reliable, simple device to allow us to plug midi in to and out from her computer which is a PC 128 RAM 500 Pentium 3, Windows Millenium jobbie.)

2. Where can I get it?

Your help would be really appreciated as no one at PC World seems to know what I'm talking about!!!

Thank you

Lysette

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #29 –
Any sound card can receive and transmit MIDI. All you need is the right cable - one that plugs into the joystick port and has two MIDI plugs on the other end. I didn't have any problem finding one of these. If PC World can't help, try an electronics shop - I've found they're better for cables.

RObin

Re: Just for interest, which soundcard do you use?

Reply #30 –
I don't have an answer, but you would be best checking with either Sam Ash or B&H photo and electronics.  They both have websites:

http://www.samashmusic.com/

and

http://www01.bhphotovideo.com/

Even if you don't find anything on the web-sites they should have toll-free numbers.  The audio people at each of these places are very knowledgeable, much more so than straight computer shops.