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Sound Quality

Can anyone recommend a good sound card for MIDI playback? I have an FM synthesis card, and the result is not pretty.

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #1 –
There are many cards around these days. Go for a wavetable card, as these use actual samples of the instruments to generate the sounds, giving much more realistic playback.
Roland do a SoundCanvas card, there are great cards by Ensoniq, SoundBlaster to the AWE-32 and AWE-64 (64 voices, but half are done in software), and some people will recommend the "software" sound "cards" (midi-drivers done in software, which will work fine on any Pentium) by Yamaha or ... er... wotsisname.
FOr a while, I used an external midi box, and then a keyboard, both of which sounded great, but don't have the ability to download new sounds if you're not happy with the ones you have.

A

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #2 –
>FOr a while, I used an external midi box, and then a
>keyboard, both of which sounded great, but don't have
>the ability to download >new sounds if you're not happy
>with the ones you have.

Another possibility to have an external midi box with the ability to download new sounds is to use a professional sampler (like EMU ESI-4000, up to 128M Byte sample capacity).

Millions of samples in many libraries (mostly AKAI-format) are waiting to be used. This is expensive, but the only (!) way (besides using the so called GIGA-Sampler, software based memory unlimited sampler-technology) to get the real sound of many instruments, sounding like the real ones, or what ever you are looking for. (Even you own voice, your own samples can be used)
If you are tired of searching a special instrument sound (a dulcimer!) in any "midi box", you can record (sample) it yourself at all events. This sounds are in CD-quality, and you can not distinguish them from their originals.
If you don't want to sample yourself, you just have to look for new editions of sample-CDs.

For samplers and sample-libraries look at:
http://www.emu.com or http://www.akai.com or
http://www.bestservice.de

Orchestra:
There is a 5-volume orchestra - sample - library
Peter Siedlaczek's Advanced Orchestra, Vol 1-5,
containing thousands of samples of a classical symphony orchestra.
A must for everyone, looking for brilliant, pure classical sounds.

Pianos:
The Ultimate Piano Collection Vol 1, East*West, containing four of the best Pianos ever built:
1) Steinway D
2) Steinway C,
3) Fazioli F228
and finally
4) Bösendorfer 225
in different memory size versions.
(This piano collection is even available for the GIGASAMPLER, look at
http://www.soundsonline.com/ew*TEMPLATE=/ew/htp/giga.htp)

Chris

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #3 –
I can highly recommend the "Audiotrix 3D-XG" by Mediatrix (their webpage is ...believe it or not... http://www.mediatrix.com ...) which sports full Yamaha XG compatibility, plus wave-table "soft synth", plus a SB-compatible FM synth. Lots of built-in effect... reverb, chorus, flange, distortion, you name it.

It comes bundled with an excellent wave editor/manipulator, XG mixer, media player, Hotztrax and other toys, and reasonable documentation on CD. Oh, yes, it also includes a "lite" version of Cakewalk.

The price is right, too. About $400 Cdn (about $250 US at the present rate).

I'm happy with mine, but should be clear that *in my opinion* this give the best bang for the buck.

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #4 –
If you're just looking for a cheap way to perform your songs at high quality (you have to export to midi first) consider MIDInight Express at

http://www.polyhedric.com

You can buy the sampler CD for $30!!! and the program itself is free. Check it out, there is a comparison between MIDInight Express and AWE64 somewhere on the site.