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Sound Quality

Hi Kent

Thanks for your advice, but can I have it from someone who has made all the changes.

It is just possible that I could get what I need (it dosen't have to be CD quality) by tweaking a few commands.

Leonard

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #1 –
Leonard.

What MIDI device are you using? What drivers are you using? Operating system - Windows 95, NT or 3.1? Unfortunately, these are all important bits of info if you want a useful reply.

Andrew

PS: There are external "MIDI Boxes" you can obtain for a coupla hundred dollars (Aus, probly about $100US) which use wave tables to produce the sound and sound very good. Ask in your local music store.

I use a GoldStar MIDI ART GS100R and whilst some of the sounds grate, the piano is top notch.

I also use my Yamaha keyboard occasionally. It's a PSR-520 (again, Wave-table).

If you only have FM Synthesis for your midi device, in my opinion, you will never get realistic sound, even if the FM device was a Yamaha DX-10.

If you're feeling strong and interested, I can go more into how the General Midi drivers use FM (or used to 8 years ago when I was researching all that stuff). But I think it really still boils down to obtaining some good wave table sounds and using them.

Andrew

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #2 –
I suggest you invest in a MIDI keyboard if you do not now have one. I was also dissatified with the sound quality of my Sound Blaster Card playing thru the computer speakers.

I purchased a Casio CTK-530 MIDI keyboard from a Meijer Store for $199.00 on sale. It only covers 63 of the 127 available MIDI sounds but it suits my purpose. It reproduces everything I have found on the NET and does so with good sound quality. My only regret is that I did not buy a keyboard that had all 127 MIDI sounds on it. Too expensive for me. Besides, now that NWC has MIDI input, my notating is considerably faster. Kudos to NWC for MIDI input. A valuable asset (MIDI) to an excellent music program.

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #3 –
How about the software wavetable synthisizer (sp?) that is (or recently was) avalible for beta-test from Yamaha? It's main disadvantage, besides a limited shelf life, is that it interposes a ~5 sec. delay between NWC highlighting a note, and the sound coming from your speakers. Look at:

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/xg/

Last time I looked they were giving a three month trial (I think), but they were doing that last fall, and I haven't seen it turn into a product yet. Since it bypasses the FM generator on the SB16, it sounds very good, to my poor ears.

Cyril N. Alberga