multiOut card with soundFont support

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girvan

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Hi.
I am using cakewalk pro 9 on win2K with a SBLive Value.
I'm looking to invest in a multioutput (8 would be nice) soundcard with multiple inputs (at least 4) as well and midi connectivity that supports SoundFonts. Any recommendations?
Thanks.
scott.
I operate a 2 person midi band and do home recording (midi/digital audio).
 
If you can get 2 sound cards to coexist, more power to you! I have an SB platinum 5.1. It has optical i/o, mic in, midi i/o, aux i/o all in a convienient front of tower set up. It's a great set up, but there are much better sound cards out there. You may want to check it out though.
 
Thanks folks.
man@work, nice to hear from a Maritimer. Shockwave I agree. Getting two SCards to work is no fun.
My dilema remains. I want to be able to run out 4 channels for drums, 1 for bass and 1~3^ for synth to an external mixer. I like having the control with outboard gear at the gig. I would like to run everything midi (soundFonts) however I might have to resort to dumping the MIDI tracks to Digital Audio. I'm running an 800 P3 with 256 Mb o' ram.
Previously I used a Korg X3 sequencing everything. I used it for a bass tone module and synth, midied out to a SR-16 for the drums and played hammond(xb2) and piano live. My partner played all guitars.
I want to move to a PC system to, well make editing and file management easier. Plus the SoundFont drum kits sound great.
Anyhow got to go.
Any more advice is welcomed.
scott.
 
The only cards that support Soundfonts are Creative's BUT there are some virtual samplers out there that support soundfonts (do a Yahoo or Google search.) Latency might be higher but that would depend on your PC.

I'm running an SBLive and Echo Mia together. Had absolutely no problems installing and getting them running together (but I do have an Intel chipset PC; the AMDs may be more twitchy about this.)

The threads that I read before installing my 24-bit card suggested that Creative's cards and software are nasty about grabbing resources and IRQs. The advice was to have the SBLive card installed FIRST, let it grab what it wants and get it running properly. THEN install the 24-bit card.

That's what I did and have no problems with a dual-card setup.
 
Wow, that's cool Tim. I have an intel and maybe I should try that. I have, however, moved into stand alone digi units, namely Korg d1600. Excellent sync options and my Korg Trinity locks in perfectly.
 
Running two cards with no problems here....m-audio 24/96
and motu 2408MKII....I also had a SB live and the m-audio
working together...I wanted the soundfonts too....ended up
getting a copy of gigasampler le (which came with the m-audio
card) and forgot all about soundfonts...lol...but actually there
is a program that will convert soundfonts to gigasampler, so
that may be a solution. How are things in Moncton, girvan?
I used to play at the Bousejour (sp?) back in the mid 70s...
geez, giving away my age!!

Mike
 
Geez, I would have expected someone else to suggest LiveSynth by now... :D

Its a DXi softsynth that comes with Sonar. It lets you play soundfonts through any sound card, not just SB's.

http://www.livesynth.com/
 
I had the best luck installing the DELTA first and SB second.
 
things are good here in moncton.
Right now I am debating and researching sonar2XL vs. Cubase 32 v5.
I just talked to Shawn at musicStop in Halifax and he strongly recommended the delta 10/10 or any m-audio stuff along with cubase. Any comments on those products. LiveSynth looks really cool though.
I've played the Beausejour too. Although in the mid 70s I was more into sesame street.
how does gigasampler le compare to soundFonts option?
talk again soon
thanks
scott.
 
Glad to hear, girvan!
I did a bit of research on the Sonar vs Cubase thing too. I was
also talking with Shawn and Jeff , they are both hooked on
Cubase........lol. Previously I was using Cakewalk 9 and
also have an old program called Digital Orchestrator. After
downloading the demos, I finally decided to run with Cubase VST/32 5.1 of course this was a few weeks before Cubase SX was announced. To make a long story short, I don't regret buying Cubase. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's worth it. The new SX version is going to be amazing (same audio engine and code as Nuendo, and will support OMF for Protools compatability). I had a look at Logic, but a bit out of my price
range....nice program though!!

As to the gigasampler vs soundfonts....there is no comparison.
Gigasampler just blows the soundfonts away!! There is a
fair amount of free, useful gigasampler samples out there,
but not near as many as soundfonts, a program called
Chicken translator will convert soundfonts to gigasamples.

Hope this helps!

Mike
 
cool.
thanks for the advice. I'm going to try out cubase for a few days and see what happens. Another friend of mine stongly recommends gigasampler. I've heard what he's doing with it and it's great. I'm wondering about a live situation. I'm starting a 2 man midi band and I am going to program the drums and bass. The rest will be played live. Is cubase/gigasampler up to it. Currently I run a P3 800 with 256 mb ram. I'm stringly looking at that Delta 10/10 card. I figure it should do the trick live.
thanks
scott.

ps thanks for the lead on the Chicken translator
 
One more quick question.
Windows 2000. I am having a problem with SoundFonts crashing in win2K sp2. I get a blue screen with a sfman error. (not the exact screen). Any clues as to why? I am loading free sound fonts from http://www.naturalstudio.co.uk/ ( they sound great). Running cwpa9 at the moment.
thanks.
 
You *should*have no problems with that setup, girvan.
Just make sure your computer is optimized for audio
recording. Also you might want to check out www.cubase.net .
Steinberg are brave enough to have their own users forum. If you ask questions there, make sure you don't have a cracked
version of Cubase, or they'll come at you through your
monitor!!...lol

Good luck!!

Mike
 
ooops!!...didn't see your last post.
Not sure about the crashing, never had that
problem in CW9.....(using WinME here). If it
is just happening with certain soundfonts, then
I'd suggest the obvious and get rid of them, or
try downloading them again. Other than that
I don't know.

Good luck!

Mike
 
thanks mike. you've been a great help. everyone else too. thanks a lot.
scott.
 
external sound card

Contact Andrew at www.pcdj.com ... He is great and will help you with all your needs... he has loads of information and lots of products based on what you are looking for.

Good Luck

Kenya
 
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