Need Good Midi sound

[Tears June]

I'll use Noteworthy Composer Program to do play-along with my sax
for midi file. My question is, I just have a normal Creative
Live! SB Value sound card on my computer. I have installed some sound font
into my sound card folder. Which sound a litter bit better but all
instrument sounds is still far away with the original song (CD).

What else I need if I want the midi sound as MUCH as close to the CD ? A
small keyboard? Need memory card system's keyboard? Which brand & model, please suggest 2 solutions. One is more cheaper, another is a little bit expensive.

What about additional software ?

:cry:

[John Laughter]

Tears, as Bootman has suggested, you will need to pay some money to get the midi sounds that you are wanting to hear. A "workstation" is probably the best way to go if you are looking for the real sounds.

One excellent and powerful unit is the Roland XP 80 (no longer made) which can be purchased on Ebay for about $900-$1500. I use this workstation with one of my bands. It produces some fine keyboard, bass, guitar, string and organ tones. You can compose and arrange midi files on a workstation.

[Barry Graham]

I use the Chaos 8Mb soundfont on my AWE32.
Saxes and brass sound so good I don't think I will ever change to another soundcard.
If anyone would care to listen to an mp3 sample of the output Email me at btgraham(at)tpg(dot)com(dot)au

[MattC]

Bootman, I completely disagree. I USED to agree, but then I heard GigaStudio. This is by far the best way to use accoustical instruments. You have to hear the sound libraries to believe them. Almost all the accoustic instruments you hear scored today in television and film are coming out of the giga format.

[Billy The Fish]

I must admit, I think the days of the hardware synth and workstations are numbered. In the hardware vs software debate (something that in the studio world has been raging harder than any "Vintage vs Modern" / "Selmer vs Whoever" debate in the sax world) I have firmly been in the hardware camp for years - until recently. I have had to overcome my bias towards hardware in the face of overwhelming evidence that soft synths now simply outperform most hardware synths I know at far lower cost. I still love my hardware synths (Korg Trinity Plus Workstation, Roland JP8080, Nord Lead amongst others) but they don't get much of a workout these days when up against what I can get out of soft synths.

And when it comes to samplers, software (such as gigastudio mentioned by MattC, although I use Halion 2) wins hands down now - my Akai S3000XL doesn't even get switched on any more.

Looking at conventional General Midi modules, which is what I guess Tears June is really after, again there are plenty of hardward and software options:

1/ Get a better soundcard. For midi, you won't find better than the one I use - Yamaha SW1000XG. Pro quality card, with fantastic XG sounds. Not cheap though - hardware solutions will not be cheap.

2/ Try a software sound module, such as Edirol's Hyper Canvas VST plugin for Cubase. I must admit, I use this soft synth a lot when just playing around with sounds before I move on to using samplers or dedicated soft synths to get the exact sounds I want. Good value for money - but still not cheap.

3/ Get a decent hardware GM module. I wouldn't bother with a workstation as you probably won't use most of the functions if all you are after is the sounds (and thus will just be spending money unnecessarily). For the same reason, I wouldn't bother getting anything with keys, unless you plan to use them. Edirol again are proably the market leaders in GM sound modules (having taken over the production of these from Roland I believe - they used to go under the Sound Canvas name) ranging from the budget SD-20 to the pro-level SD-90.

Hope this helps, although frankly the sheer quantity of options and personal preferences makes this a difficult subject to tackle in a few simple paragraphs. If however all you are planning to do is use the sounds to get your midi files sounding more realistic, the above 3 solutions I have listed are probably the most cost effective ways of getting the improvement in quality you are after.

Billy The Fish

[MattC]

Billy,

I've been gearing up to buy gigastudio, but the hardware requirements are steep. I've noticed that you can now open gigastudio sample libraries in Halion (with no size limitation).

I'd love to hear what you think of Halion, why you chose it and how it handles acoustic instruments (as compared to say Giga)

THANKS!!!

[Minatar12]

Bootman, I completely disagree. I USED to agree, but then I heard GigaStudio. This is by far the best way to use accoustical instruments. You have to hear the sound libraries to believe them. Almost all the accoustic instruments you hear scored today in television and film are coming out of the giga format.

Yeah, Nemesys Gigastudio is really something. The instrument sounds, fx sounds and all are very realistic, and as MattC said you can hear a lot of music on TV that is done in gigastudio. http://www.nemesysmusic.com/index.php That's the website for the Gigastudio products and stuff.

[buddrobroy]

My roland is 4 Sale. Cost $400.00 2 yrs ago. Need $200.00 Buyer pays shipping and ins. Will include library of downloade standards. Andy

[Zuofu]

If the VST approach is too much check out Reason www.propellerheads.se. It's a "rack emulator" so you basically got your sequencer, drum machine, sampler, virtual analog, etc... plus various (emulated) FX boxes. Cool user interface if you're used to hardware, and much cheaper. My set up is Reason + the Yamaha VL softsynth and a WX-11. Basically using Reason as backup and the Yamaha VL as lead. The only problem right now is that the Yamaha isn't "ReWire" compatible, so I can't use Reason as a sequencer for it. Any ideas?

[Zuofu]

Oh yeah, how is that SW1000XG? I've been debating between getting that and just keeping my VL softsynth. The biggest reason why I'd want one is for the VL PLG addon. The Yamaha softsynth has decent VL, but since it only works in Windows 9x, I basically have to keep a dedicated PC (Pentium 3 machine) to act as a tone generator and then mix the input in on my working machine (it's 2004 - nobody should do work on a Windows 9x computer). It would be nice to be able to get rid of that machine and just have the synth in a card on my main computer, but the SW1000XG is pretty expensive for a card thats a few years old (no 24/96 recording, for example). Are the DSP effects any good? Alot of cards claim "DSP" but the SB Live, for example has the most hideous reverb since the SNES. Do you think it would be worth picking one up today for like $350 or whatever they go for on Ebay?

[kloos]

About 4 years ago I got a laptop from work and it had a cheap £30 Yamaha sound card in it. The quility of the output was a bit hissy but midi sounds were very good. When I purchased my own PC I got the SY1000XG and the quality of the sounds blow me away. I pump it through a Carlsbro Colt 100W keyboard amp for backing tracks and it sounds like the real thing.

If you can afford it and are after quality midi reproduction then there's no alternative in my book. If however you want DirectX for games and so forth then you will need a second sounds card installed for that becuase the SY does not support it.

[Dr_sax]

get yourself an apple mac. Since I got the newest software called garageband I´m jamming with my computer all day long. It´s very easy to use, sounds great and comes free with all new macs. But you´ll need a new computer :wink:


PS: please no platform war. I just love my mac :lol: