What soundcard is good for Midis?

[pajon82]

I want to buy a new soundcard for playing midis. Do you guys have any suggestions what to buy?
Thanks!!!

[spicer23]

any sound card is good at playin midis

[Graeme]

Originally posted by spicer23
any sound card is good at playin midis

This is rather minimal advice and also a bit misleading, some soundcards have no midi capability whatsoever, some only have midi ports with no sounds of their own, etc., etc..

The problem with using midi as a medium for playing music is the results are highy dependent on the sound generation which you have installed - either software or hardware. If you consider just the GM soundset, then there is a specific patch number for (say) a flute - but the actual sound of that flute will vary considerably between the manufacturers of the various GM devices available.

So, whatever you might have (or buy) it's highly unlikely to be exactly the same as that used by whoever wrote the original file, so you are not very likely to hear it exactly as intended.

Probably the most versatile approach is to use a soundcard which has Soundfont capabilites (which, essentially, means a card from Creative Labs). That way you can download lots of different sounds and use the ones that please you the best. Unfortunately, Soundfonts are about the only plus for these cards, for audio they are way behind the competition.

[Bunyip]

I use a cport card and cubase to edit. it only cost me $500 and it works well

[Bunyip]

I use a cport card and cubase to edit. it only cost me $500 and it works well

[Bunyip]

sorry about the double post

[Zandro]

You can delete your additional posts through the edit button on the left side of each.

[DJTranz]

any really, aslong as you are able to play them, midis are actually fairly simple...

[bwaynem]

I'm using a $30 soundblaster live! and it seems to be doing quite well, it also runs doom3!

[MartyArts]

Originally posted by Bunyip
I use a cport card and cubase to edit. it only cost me $500 and it works well
only $500 !?
That's a lot of money for one single soundcard to me.

Which model do you have?

[Graeme]

Originally posted by MartyArts
only $500 !?
That's a lot of money for one single soundcard to me.

Not really - it's an eight channel device - as such, it's one of the cheaper options of its type around.

Good audio cards can cost a lot of money, check out the LynxOne for what a good stereo card really costs.

However, the answer doesn't address the original question, since the C-Port only has midi ports - no sounds of its own - so, unless you add some additional hardware or software, you won't hear any music!

[allocate]

My midis sound great on my Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS

[johnrowley]

I use the SB Live with 4 or 8mb soundfonts installed and it works a treat. If you use the Audigy with the breakout box you can hook up external midi rack devices to play back your sounds through a mixing desk.

[brc 103]

i use a sound blaster live too but for midis i use the roland virtual sound canvas, it has its own sounds, i would recommend checking out a demo version.

[Zandro]

With the Live!, you can use SoundFonts. Load one in the SF Manager applet AudioHQ control panel.