Need New Sounds -Recommendations

[Middleman]

I am finally going to retire my SCC-1 Sound Canvas Card and am looking for some new sounds. Looking for a broad palette as I write in several veins pop, jazz, country etc.

Here are some of the options, please comment or suggest something better.

JV1010
JV1080
Gigasampler Studio 96
E-MU ESI2000

Would like to keep this under $500.

[Chriss]

unless you got the biggest computer i'd take the e-mu

[Middleman]

OK, maybe I should up the budget.

From a sound quality perspective, if I pumped up my computer, would I get similar sounds from Gigastudio 96 vs. say a XV-3080 from Roland. Also, the 3080 does not sample, can Giga do this?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Chriss]

yea.. giga can provide you with the same samples, but it will take some serious cpu and soundcard power.. the thing is latency.. a sampler haven't got any latency, but unless you get a killer soundcard and powerfull computer, you'll experience delays in playback.. and it'll cost you the beefing up anyway, and you won't have a nice hardware sampler interface..

[Rubo4]

If you're going the Giga route - check out Steinberg's Halion.