Two soundcards are necessary?

[EddieRay]

I've learned so much in the past few days here. But I need a quick reality check.

I want to lay down midi drum tracks in Cakewalk alongside audio guitar, bass, etc. Soundfonts will make better drums available to me, yes? That means, I need to replace my motherboard soundcard with a SB card, yes?

I also want more, quieter inputs. So I need an additional, higher quality soundcard, yes? Maybe a USB solution would be better.

The bottom line is, I need a SB card AND another card or USB device. I'm running XP Home Ed and it's my understanding that a multiple soundcard configuration will not pose a problem (or, less of a problem than with other MS OSes). Still, I can't think of a scarier mission considering the one on the motherboard. If this is indeed a foolish mission, please TELL ME NOW cuz I'm about to do it!

 

[moskus]

That means, I need to replace my motherboard soundcard with a SB card, yes?

I also want more, quieter inputs. So I need an additional, higher quality soundcard, yes? Maybe a USB solution would be better.

You should forget about Creatives cards, and check out M-Audios cards. The Audiophile 2496 is great, but check out Delta 44, Delta 66 or Delta 1010 if you need more inputs.

If you're using Sonar or HomeStudio you could just use LiveSynth Pro DXi to play your soundfonts.

 

[TimOBrien]

I used to have an SBLive just for playing soundfonts along with my 24bit Echo Mia card in my previous DAW.

But now I only have the 24bit Mia in my new DAW.... I use Bismark's BS-16 soundfont VSTi player instead. Works great and I can even load up giant General Midi soundfonts, too.

homepage.mac.com/bismark/bs-16/readme.html


You might want to spend a little bit more though and look at Vsampler (version3 is almost ready to come out.) It will not only do soundfonts, but Gigastudio and AKAI sample sets as well (at 1/3rd the price of Gigastudio...) I'm saving my pennies.

http://www.vsampler.com/english/index.html