Best MIDI quality Soundcard?

[Dan__Marcy]

I currently use an SB Live! and Santa Cruz with my computer and I'm looking for a soundcard upgrade. Now here's the catch. What's the best soundcard for midi playback?

I don't mean sound fidelity here. I mean the actual quality of the onboard midi instruments/wavetable synth. I'm not too happy with my SB live! or Santa Cruz and they both sound fairly bad. Now I know there are plenty of Software Synths out there that can do the job, but I need a soundcard with Midi In/Out.

I remember some of the Roland soundcards were able to do this but I don't think they make them anymore. I do have Sound Canvas but I just need a new sound card.

Which soundcard has the best onboard midi instruments (sounding the most realistic)? A good soundcard with realistic pianos, great basses/guitars, great brass sections, good strong synths and just overall excellency. I don't want to hear anything about fidelity this time either. Just a soundcard for high-quality Midi playback and recording for listening to Midi files at MP3 quality sound. Somebody must make good affordable soundcards with great sounding onboard wavetable synths. Thanks for your time for those who reply.

[fossil]

have you tried using Soundfonts with your SBLive card? If you want a "soundcard with realistic pianos, great basses/guitars, great brass sections, good strong synths" you allready have it. You just need to use it to its potential.

Try www.hammersound.net for some Soundfont downloads

[Dan__Marcy]

Actually I've tried MANY MANY soundfonts and unfortunately, both the SB Live AND Audigy have serious problems handling them (SB Live with clipping notes with critical ram restraints, while Audigy mishandles the looping). Besides, they don't sound as good as an Roland SCC1 soundcard (well, at least with some of the MIDIs I've listened) and unfortunately, I can't find them anymore, even on E-Bay. I've also tried many soft synths (Sound Canvas was Incredible) and I'm interested in Gigastudio, but even then, I need a soundcard with midi playback because the one I currently have doesn't have any midi in/out or midi compatible joystick port.

[Styrerra]

Try Audiophile

[JimNdave]

Yamaha makes a card, the 1000something or other. I've heard really good things about it.

[Skinah]

Here's a new products thats just been released and begun to ship this week. it has a Built in gm/gs Hardware Synth ! licensed Roland GM and GS sounds and a RIAA phono preamp for transferring vinyl to your computer. Only card thats got true 24bit converters with a hardware synth. Its 24bit 96khz with AKM converters, 2 in and 8 out plus digital I/O in coax and optical spdif. All converters mounted externally in half rack sized box for better S/N ratios >100dbA. Has a mic preamp and a headphone amp built in.

Estimated $$$ is US$319 MSRP

http://www.staudio.com/photos/media71.gif


For more info visit....
http://www.staudio.com/products/media71/index.html

[grahawk]

The Yamaha SW1000XG, as previously mentioned, is one of the best options. Good sounds (with something like a 20mb sample ROM, good effects and the sound editors available can be used for great results. It's also getting much cheaper these days. If I wanted decent sounds on my computer I'd look no further. It doesn't have great input/output options.

You could of course just keep your existing card for midi in/out and use one of the new Edirol (Roland) Sound Canvas products which look good from the specs and have over 20mb of waveform memory.

[Dan__Marcy]

Good prices for the sw1000xq? Where can I find good prices?


Err... anything cheaper?