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Topic: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else? (Read 72070 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #50 –
G'day Duncan,
unfortunately I'm only relating what I've been told in another forum.  I've quoted his reply to me below:

Quote
I have been testing the X-Fi range for sometime on XP and Vista and is many times better than Audigy - the info you want is as follows -

If you want to use the card for music creation and soundfonts then the first X-Fi card was the X-Fi Music card which has a soundfont manager loaded with it - I used this card for sometime without problems

However the X-Fi Music card is to be superceded by the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer (don't be put off by the name) it is also a half card as opposed to the X-Fi Music being a full card

Both do the same job and have Entertainment - Gamer and Music Creation modes and both have a Soundfont Manager and "What You Hear" feature which makes it easy to record without leads out and leads in.

The X-Fi Xtreme Gamer card has several extra features like - lower noise and a connection on the card that with take the Intel HD soundcard lead so that you can then also use the front panel sockets as well.

The X-Fi Music card has better brass sockets and more of them for things I do not use SPDF etc - but the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer has what I want and the one I recommend.

You can of course go to their higher level card like the fatal1y/Pro but we could find little benefit for the much higher price.

Keep away from the X-fi Xtreme Audio as it has none of the music creation requirements.

From this I gather that you can use soundfonts fine if you don't have the "Xtreme Audio".  This being the case, then you only need to be concerned with the quality of the sound fonts you have...

As for the Yamaha SW1000, I know nothing about it except that it seems to be a very old (circa 1999) PCI card.  I doubt there'll be vista drivers for it...

A possible alternative I've recently come across is the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas...  I recently purchased "Band in a Box" as a practice tool - it's working quite well in this role too I might add - automagic rhythm section :)   

It (BiaB) came (as part of a Christmas special) with a copy of Roland-VSC as both a straight softsynth AND a DXi synth.  The softsynth works fine in XP but isn't compatible with vista...  The DXi version works in vista but you don't have GM support - NWC would need to be modified in order to use it...  Or possibly a GM "frontend" or host for DXi synths may be available - I haven't explored this...

 I do know my Yamaha S-YXG50 won't work in vista either... :(

Edit - I meant to mention that the VSC is fundamentally similar to the m$ GS wavetable synth - just bigger and with more instruments - some of the basic sounds don't seem to be a lot better but there is some improvement...  E.G. the brass is "smoother"
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #51 –
G'day all,
This link was posted on the Band-in-a-Box forum which I've been visiting lately:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/31/microsoft.technology

The article provides some interesting information and is worth the read if you have some technical inclinations.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #52 –
Thanks for publishing the link. It is a good one.

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #53 –
I don't know if this helps, but I've recently purchased an HP Pavilion Elite M9000T.  It's an Intel Core2 Duo 2.66GHz, 3GB (really 4GB, but Vista only shows 3.1 GB) RAM, 750 GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive, and a bunch of other stuff.  It has Vista Ultimate on it (and I'm starting to get used to it).

With the RealTek onboard sound card, I was able to make it sound okay, but as has been pointed out, you're really stuck with the Microsoft GS Wavetable sound (which is really a version of the Roland VSC soundset).  Also from the PGMusic forum (as Lawrie pointed out), a gentleman named Brian pointed me to the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card.  I went ahead and bought one (I found on one the web for about $85 with free shipping).  It installed nicely into the one PCI slot available in the computer.  I loaded the software and soundfonts work great.  I loaded my favorite soundfont that I've been listening to for years, and it was like an old friend came home.  It also uses ASIO drivers, so if you have software that takes advantage of that, you can get extremely real-time performance even using DXi or VSTi softsynths (I have software that uses them).

I've been very happy so far and I found it made everything sound better right away.  Even the Microsoft GS Wavetable sounded better (even though the instruments aren't really up to par).

Hope that helps some.
John

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #54 –
G'day John,

Quote from: John Ford –
I loaded my favorite soundfont that I've been listening to for years, and it was like an old friend came home.

and just out of curiosity, which one would that be?  Does it have good brass?
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #55 –
In case you wondered why...

Quote from: John Ford –
It's an Intel Core2 Duo 2.66GHz, 3GB (really 4GB, but Vista only shows 3.1 GB) RAM

The addressable memory limit for 32-bit Windows Vista falls short of a full 4GB. Here is a good link that describes the situation:

http://www.vistaclues.com/reader-question-32-bit-vista-memory-limits/

See also:

Relevant Google Search

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #56 –
Hi, Lawrie -

I like the "Reality 32MB" soundfont.  Brass is just okay, but generally the mix is pretty nice.  It is definitely a lot better than the GS Wavetable.  It was generated from the (now defunct) SeerMusic Reality Sound source (which I own, but can't use because they never updated it for Windows XP - you need a Windows 98 box for it).  But, at least I have a soundfont version of it.

I tried the Airfont (340, I think), but I found some of the instruments weren't looped right, so on long tones, you got breaks in the sound.  But otherwise, it was pretty nice.

If you are interested, you can download the Reality Soundfont from Allanah's site here.  You'll need SFArk decompression utility to uncompress the file.

Also, if you haven't been there, you should look around Allanah's site, as there are a lot of goodies there.  A lot of soundfonts, Band-In-A-Box files, MIDI files, and more.
John

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #57 –
Quote
In case you wondered why...

Hi, Eric -

Yep, I knew that, but thanks for the link.  I do understand that even though it may not use it, Vista SP1 will actually show total installed RAM (we'll see when it comes out).  I wanted to install the RAM in pairs (because they work more efficiently that way).  It came with 3GB (2 1GB chips + 2 512MB chips), but since you have to subtract video and other add-in board memory anyway, I decided to go for 4GB (and let it subtract from 4GB rather than 3GB).  That way, even with the RAM Vista doesn't use, I still have the max available.  And with 2GB RAM (from NewEgg.com) for less than $45, I just couldn't pass it up (I just replaced the 512MB chips with the new 2x1GB chips).
John

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #58 –
G'day John,
thanks for that.  I have seen Allanah's site, once I think, so thanks for the link and the heads up - I'll look around it some more.

I'll have a listen to the "Reality" font and see what I reckon...  Sadly, one day I'll have to move to vista and will lose my Yam, so I really want a good replacement before then and either a truly sensational sound font OR NWC support for VST will just have to happen...  Preferably BOTH (Hey Eric, that's a hint mate)  :)
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #59 –
Lawrie, I'm sure you can tell me regarding our fave Yamaha S-YXG50 not running on Vista - can it be made to run on Linux/Ubuntu?  Just thinking ahead...

Re: Sound sucks on Vista or is it something else?

Reply #60 –
G'day Milton,
while I haven't tried, I don't see any way that the Yam could be made to work in linux.  It installs as a device and AFAIK none of the Windows "environments" like wine will support windows device drivers.  They may in the future but my quick bit of research suggests they currently do not.

That said, if anyone out there has linux, wine and a Yam, perhaps you could let us know...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.