Cheapo soundfont-capable soundcards

[six]

yep, that's what i'm looking for ("cheapo" meaning in the price-range of a creative soundblaster).

i have a soundblaster live! 5.1 now and - I dunno - there's just too much strange about it. i.e. when installing I have to skip a cab-file that can't be found, even if i remove all soundfonts there's still 3.5 mb ram used...

... and last but not least: the longer the system runs, the more clicks and hisses during playback and recording appear.

i had a sb live! value before that I had to throw away because the hisses got too many. then I put in the new card and there's still a hiss here and there (getting more, I guess).

anyway: I need to be able to use soundfonts, so I'm looking for a non-creative card that can handle them.

any suggestions?

 

[TimOBrien]

Only Creative cards are soundfont-native and you'll get the same sub-standard performance out of them all; they are gamer cards.

Your better bet is to get a real 24-bit audiocard (starting with a $150 Audiophile or Echo Mia on up...) and then use a software sampler that will play soundfonts on it.

I use the Bismark BS-16 ($50) and it works great. Load up a soundfont it in and output your midi track to it. Demo on their website... hunt it up in Google.com

I'm waiting for VSampler3 ($80) to be released. It can use soundfont, AKAI and Gigastudio sound libraries and looks like a good alternative to the much more expensive Gigastudio.

But your first step should be to toss the Creative card.....