MIDI/Digital Recording Sound Card

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob Scott
  • Start date Start date
B

Bob Scott

New member
I could use some direction on sound card shopping. I am looking
for a sound card that I can produce midi rhythm tracks for my
digital recorded vocals and guitar tracks. I'm confused about digital processing for midi to include reverb and chorus on the midi
instruments. Many high ended cards are geared to having high ended digital audio quality but don't provide basic reverb and chorus for midi tracks. If the sound card don't provide DSP for
midi tracks is there another way of adding DSP besides from the
sound card. I mostly use Jammer Pro 4 sequencer to create my
rhythm tracks and export that to Digitial Orchrestrator Pro to add
digital tracks. Sometimes I also create midi tracks from a keyboard
controller from scratch, so my midi engine would be all sound card plus I need DSP for midi tracks, especially reverb on midi drums.
So I need a card that can do good digital recording plus meet my
midi requirements. Can anyone shed some light on this for me??
Thanks, Bob
 
I am looking for a sound card that I can produce midi rhythm tracks for my digital recorded vocals and guitar tracks. I'm confused about digital processing for midi to include reverb and chorus on the midi instruments. Many high ended cards are geared to having high ended digital audio quality but don't provide basic reverb and chorus for midi tracks.
Click to expand...

If by "high ended cards," you mean something like the SoundBlaster Audigy, they do indeed have basic reverb and chorus that can be applied to the onboard MIDI synth via the card's DSP. If you mean real recording cards like the Delta or Aardvark or Layla cards, they don't have onboard MIDI synths. There is an Aardvark model with effects DSP on the card but there are not may others, and again, it has no MIDI synth.

If the card has a MIDI interface (or you have a separate one), you can use it to trigger external synths, which you can route to your soundcards and record like you would anything else.

You can also use software synthesis with these cards, but thjey will consume some of the computer's resources. Your success with these will be more dependent on your computer (processor, amount of RAM) and recording software and will have little to do with the sound card itself.

Effects can be applied to any audio tracks, including softsynth tracks, by using plug-ins in the recording software, or the old-fashioned way -- route the outputs of the soundcard to a mixer and use the mixer's aux send/return to apply effects and mix.


So I need a card that can do good digital recording plus meet my midi requirements.
Click to expand...

There is no such card unless you find the Audigy acceptable for recording. Otherwise, any good audio card plus a MIDI interface to communicate with an external MIDI instrument, or a couple of decent softsynths that can run in your recording software's environment, will work for you.
 
Thanks AlChuck

This is helping!!!!! I do need a card with onboard midi synth sounds plus reverb/chorus. I've been looking at the M-
Audio Audiophile 2496, Turtle Beach SantaCruz , Lynx One
and the ECHO Mia 24/96. The SantaCruz looks like it may have
the midi requirements I need but seems short on digital resolution. I was really hoping to find what I need in the $200.00
range. Sounds like the Audigy is what I need but I'm almost afraid
to find out how much they cost??? I'll run a serch on it and see what turns up or if you know the price, let me know. I appreciate
your help, this is progress!!! Thanks, Bob

Note: I might have misunderstood about the Audigy, is it for
mostly midi only??? Need good digital recording, full duplex
and good digital playback.
 
I've been looking at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496, Turtle Beach SantaCruz , Lynx One and the ECHO Mia 24/96. The SantaCruz looks like it may have the midi requirements I need but seems short on digital resolution
Click to expand...

None of those cards you listed include a MIDI synth on board except the Turtle Beach. I don't think all of them include a MIDI interface either.

The Turtle Beach and Sound Blaster cards do include a MIDI synth and it's not a bad one for the price, but the recording capabilities of these cards are not in the same league with the other cards you listed. As they say, you get what you pay for. That said, you can do a remarkably good job with a Sound Blaster-type card.

The Audigy goes for somewhere around $75-100. There's an Audigy Platinum package that includes some extra i/o hardware that I think lists for about $250 but the regular edition of the card is fine.

I might have misunderstood about the Audigy, is it for
mostly midi only??? Need good digital recording, full duplex
and good digital playback.
Click to expand...

No, the Audigy is a full-featured consumer-level soundcard. Whether you consider its audio recording and playback capabilities to be "good" is up to you. Many people (including me) think they are just fine for home use as long as you don't expect too much. Many people here consider them to be total junk and not worth using.
 
Audigy 2

I am just upgrading from an old Gateway 2000 computer with
no CD burner. I've been mixing down my musical arrangements
from that computer to cassett deck. I just bought my daughter
a new laptop and inherited her older 2001 Dell Dimension 4300 ,
processor at 1.4Ghz, 128MB Ram, 20 GB hard drive which is a lot
more than the Gateway. The Dell has a 8X/4X/32X CD-RW, so
I want to mix down my digital audio/midi tracks down to a wav
file so I can burn a CD of my arrangements. At present every
digital recording I've attempted on the Dell has resulted in digital
distortion no matter how low I set the recording level and my best
guess is I need a better quality sound card. On the gateway I have a old goldwave 64 soundblaster and it records digital audio fine. The Dell don't have a sound card in the normal slots but the
audio inputs/outputs are not in a card and must be attached to the mother board??? The midi drums sounds really bad plus there is no reverb/chorus on midi channels. So I'm trying to upgrade the Dell to work for me in makeing a good CD demo machine for
my musical arrangements. I havn't studied the latest developments in sound cards in a long time, so I have a bit of a learning curve. Appreciate your help, I'm getting there little by little. I just need get to the bottom line of which card would work best for me. I need great drum sounds with a little reverb. I add bass, guitar and vocals myself with digital tracks. Of course I would like the other midi sounds to be great too so when I want
to add some keyboard sounds in the mix. Bob
 
Midi Effects

Hey AlChuck

Forgive me for pestering you on this but you've been a great
help and provided the info I need more than anybody else.
I getting pretty serious about getting the Audigy 2. I've been
reading specs and info on the net about it. I was wondering
if you could point me to what part of the spec spells out
the details on the midi effects(Reverb/delay/chorus).
Thanks, Bob
 
In the spec sheet it says

"32-bit Professional Quality Effects Engine with support for real-time digital effects like reverb and chorus across any audio source."

Now I realize that doesn't specify the MIDI synth explicitly... but other clues suggest it is applicable to synth:

(1) The synth is General MIDI compliant, and General MIDI requires reverb and chorus (I believe).

(2) The Live! has these effects, and I don't think the Audigy would step backwards in this respect.

Further elucidation will have to come from elsewhere.

One more comment. I never use the chorus and verb on my Live card, I apply the effects I want to the MIDI instruments when I render them to audio. Why? Well, it's either on or off. You can't turn it on for some tracks and off for others. I find this totally useless for drums, where I want the kick to be nearly bone dry but the snare to be nice and wet...
 
Learning curve

Apparently even though I've been recording with midi for years
there are a lot of tricks this old dog hasn't learned yet!!! I understand what you mean about wanting some midi instruments
dry like a kick drum as opposed to a little reverb on the snare but
on my present set up with all my drums on midi channel 10, when I apply reverb to one, the whole drum kit gets the same amount
of reverb. I don't understand how to apply reverb seperatly for
each instrument when converting/mixing down to digital audio. As far as I know, I don't have that option with my current set up. If I did the DSP wouldn't be an issue for purchasing a new card. That's the way I used to mix on my old 4 track tascam is record everything dry and add effects in the mixdown, that way if you
get it wrong you can always go back and re-mix but to the best of my knowledge I haven't had that option with my current software/hardware setup. I'm at the point of transition on my
software/hardware setup and haven't purchased yet. Trying to
be budget minded and get the most bang for the buck, I'm currently leaning to Voyetras Record Producer Plus since I can
get the upgrade from my current Digital Orchristrator Pro for $70.00 and also the Audigy 2 sound card($100.00+??) plus I
will continue to use my Jammer Pro 4 and my Yamaha keyboard
to build midi tracks. but-----I'm open to suggestions because I
would like to obtain some of this flexibility that your talking about.
I have the feeling I'm not comprehending all you are talking about
applying DSP maybe due to the restrictions of my current system and not knowing what other systems will do???

Thanks, Bob
 
Here's what I mean:

If you use the DSP reverb on the SoundBlaster, you get reverb on all the MIDI synth tracks and audio tracks.

If you record the MIDI parts to an audio track (which you must do before mixing down to stereo anyway), you can apply effects on a track-by-track basis if you want, if your software allows this.

I took a look at Voyetra's website and Record Producer Pro doesn't seem to support third-party plug-in (DirectX or VST) effects. It does have some basic stuff - Compressor/Gate, Delay, EQ, Pitch Shift... what, no reverb??? Hmm, they don't list reverb in the feature comparison (to the other lite versions of Record Producer) but they do say reverb is present on the brochure page.

With MIDI drums parts, to apply effects differently to different elements of the kit, you need to first separate them to different tracks. (In SONAR there's a utility called "Split Notes to Tracks" that does this for you automatically, but if Digital Orchestrator Pro does not have this feature, you can always do it manually.)

Then you render each MIDI track to audio separately so you have each part of the kit on its own audio track.

Once the rendered-to-audio kick is on one track alone, and the snare on another, etc., you can apply whatever effects you want to them individually.

If there is no reverb and your software doesn't support VST or DirectX plug-ins, I guess you could always split the drum parts as I described, and adjust the DSP reverb to taste for each track independently as you render them to audio...
 
Stuff!!

Hello AlChuck

Is SONAR what you use?? I guess I should consider swapping
recording software, I just hate the learning curve on a new program. I know DOP like the back of my hand and Record Producer Deluxe is just like DOP with extra bells and whistles
improving the mixdown process to burn CD's. Got any recomendations for affordable midi sequencer/digital recorder
software that is more flexable than Record Porducer Deluxe?
Thanks, Bob
 
Yeah, I use SONAR. But why change if you like the Voyetra software? SONAR's easy enough to use but there's always some learning curve with something new. Also, it's expensive and possibly overkill for your needs...
 
Big Thanks!!!

Ok!!! Thanks so much AlChuck. You've pretty much helped me
make up my mind on getting the Record Producer Deluxe and the Audigy 2. One thing on the site under Soundfont Sophistication is states, " New for the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 is the option to add multiple hardware effects sends for the use with soundfont systhesizer." I need to find out what that is and determine if I need that. It sounds like it's an add on option for extra bucks but
haven't been able to find the details yet. Sound like something I might be interested in, but not sure. Thanks for your help!!!!Bob
 
Upgrade

:)
Hey I'm reading but not getting answers. I have a SoundBlaster Live card, and I like soundblaster, whats my next upgrade for better recording, and mixing, I use N-tracks.
 
Your next step might be to start your own thread rather than adding to an ancient one. It's free and I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.

With your topic of concern I would recommend our 'Computer Recording and Sound Cards' forum as the place to post...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top