So what's the deal with midi syths

[Doug H]

I've been rebuilding my "studio" and am trying to find decent rithym section sounds I can pencil in using a piano roll editor. I used tio have a built in Cancun chip in my SC which ws a step above the MS GM softsynth to my ears.

Soft Synths
Do any of these really work for full duplex monitoring and general sound quality. By this I mean drums that sound like real drums and can be monitored while recording an audio track.

Gigastudio
I've tried to assemble some samples and accessing this out of cakewalk with some success, but a final project seems a long way off. I'm also a little worried about latency. Is this ever going to pan out?

HW synth
You must be able to buy PCI synth cards, but I haven't seen any. If this the ony real solution for no fuss midi?

Any responses would be appreviated.

Doug

[James Argo]

This time I suggest buying SBLive! card and use SoundFont. It's not the top of the market, but could bring you few step ahead...

[drstawl]

I say go for an outboard MIDI synth like the Sound Canvas.

Many others are available such as from Yamaha, Kawai etc.

Buy them based on the set of sounds in ROM that you want.

Or if that doesn't suit you get a HW sampler and create your own.

Rock Solid and won't slow your computer down while it's doing the audio thing. The outputs of the synth become just another stereo pair fed to your soundcard.

[Doug H]

Thanks,
James Argo
That's probably the easiest and cheapest solution. I'm a little nervous about having two sound cards in my system tho, and the quality of the sound fonts. But I'm sure they would be better than the MS GS Wave Table SS.

drstawl
I like the sound of that. I spent yesterday researching midi and I think I've got my head around most of it.

Thanks

[Doug H]

I'e spent some time looking on the net and it seems like external modules are pretty expensive. What I'm trying to do now is access the wavetable on my old card.
It's an aureal based card so there is no XP support other than the reference drivers from MS. I can see one of the midi devices and map intruments on it via Cakewalk etc...but it doesn't make any sound. The card has midi in/out on a breakout cable, so I'm thinking maybe I can access it like an external midi device by looping it around to the Audiophile's breakout cable.

ANyone have a clue what it is I'm trying to do and if it stands a chance of working?

Doug

[TexRoadkill]

If it won't play then it doesn't matter how you trigger it. Have you hooked anything up to the audio outs to see if there is any audio?

IMHO there is still no substitute for 'real' keyboards and sound modules if you want to actually play synth or sampled sounds. Softsynths are cool for rendering drums and loops but that's about it.

[Doug H]

Ya it does audio ok (cuts out every once in a while forcing a reboot). I was hoping that accessing it using the midi port may not need drivers the same way accessing it through windows would. I figured it was a long shot.