Need Sound Card Advise

Tommy Mark · Post by **Tommy Mark** » 24 Jan 2008 7:54 am

Hey fellas, I do some demo type recording and am in the process of putting a new computer together. With my last system heres how I did it. I would use BIAB to get the basics, then save as a midi file and voila. When I opened it in Sonar 6 all of the separate tracks would be there to edit. My previous setup was XP on a P4 1.8 with 2 Delta cards and a SB PCI 512. This worked good for my purposes.My new setup is AMD Athlon 3.0.with Vista 32bit. My question is- is there a card that will do what the SB card did that is available with on board midi synth? Any input or help would be appreciated. Thanks Tom

John Roche · Post by **John Roche** » 24 Jan 2008 8:17 am

What i have used in the past with great results.
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/sound-card/yamaha-sw1000xg/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 24 Jan 2008 10:09 am

The CPU brand or type is not an issue and has nothing to do with the sound card.

However, I would avoid the SoundBlaster Xfi series of cards. They are their "latest and greatest" but many are having varied problems with them both on XP and Vista although more so with Vista.

The inexpensive SoundBlaster Audigy SE is a great card for the $$ and will do what your old SoundBlster card did, plus additonal features. It's cheap ($30 at Wal-Mart). You might want to check it out at the soundblaster site and read it's specs.

If you buy any other sound card it will be "soundblaster compatible" and emulate a soundblaster, why buy something that "emulates" or "is like" when you can buy the real thing?

Tommy Mark · Post by **Tommy Mark** » 24 Jan 2008 11:18 am

Thanks John and Jack. Jack I purchased a X Fi Extreme Music card at a local retailer but I canot get it to do anything in midi BIAB wont recognize it nor will Sonar. I figured on paying about what I did but didnt get the results.Unless I did something wrong.Creatives site is very vague about midi among other things.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 24 Jan 2008 1:15 pm

I have one of the Audigy SE cards installed in my XP machine and BIAB runs fine after I set up BIAB for the "A" MIDI synth on the card. (Like most SB sound cards it has a "A and a "B" synths on the card but I like the A a little better.

Tommy Mark · Post by **Tommy Mark** » 24 Jan 2008 1:35 pm

Thanks Jack I`ll try that tonite. Appreciate the help.