I am seriously considering the purchase of a Soundblaster Live Platinum 5 sound card. I need the MIDI connectors, and having them up front (on the connected firewire panel) with other connectors would be quite advantageous to me. I will be using it with a Yamaha QY700 MIDI music sequencer and - though I am not looking to exact professional level recordings on my setup - I do hope to gain some very decent sounding pieces of work. Am I off-base with what I hope to achieve with this card? This SB model is selling for $200 in local retail outlets, and I am scraping the bottom of my pockets in the consideration of purchase. Would I be able to do better with a different make of card, for the same amount of money? All info would be greatly appreciated.
Are you doing any multitracking on the computer? The SB will only accept a few channels of audio, which limits the number of tracks you can record at once. In order to get more, you'll need either a digital interface that will handle it (ADAT lightpipe, TDIF), or simply a soundcard with more I/Os. Both will cost more than the SB. It depends on what you want to use it for, and what your set up is.
Try going to this site on cakewalk's page. It has a lot of specs for different sound cards:
Thanks buddy, for such a speedy response, and I will indeed visit the site you mentioned. All of my music will be created on my QY700 MIDI music sequencer. I will then bounce (I believe that is the term) the music into Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, and the only multitracking that will be done will be within the regards of my vocals. From there, my desire will be to burn the product(s)onto CDR's. As I stated, my finances are quite limited - translating into my having no more than $200 to spend on a card. Do you think that the voice quality of the SB Live platinum 5 far exceeds that of the Creative Labs 64D card? This is really my biggest concern.
The numbers there will give you some idea of the differences. The sound of the platinum is the same as the 5.1, but the 5.1 has a joystick/MIDI port and no SPDIF outs which will help you mix down to CD. If you want the front panel, and to avoid a joystick adapter, the platinum is fine.
But if I were you, I'd make sure I never use the soundcard's tone generator. Nothing in the price range of $200 can hold a candle to the QY's generator (XG, no?). Assuming you get the soundblaster platinum, sequence with cakewalk (which supports XG) and run the midi out into your QY's midi in. Then use it's sound generator. At least that's how I do it with my PSR keyboard/sequencer.
Hope this helps, and that the QY information is correct.
