Any MIDI gurus around here?

[sdsumike619]

I have some questions about purchasing a sound card with MIDI capability, to replace an old (very old) ISA Sound Blaster 16 with attached Roland SCD-10 daughterboard..

[netmask56]

If you need to use soundfonts then the EMU range of products http://www.emu.com/ or Creative http://www.soundblaster.com/ soundcards is the way to go.

[sdsumike619]

Thank you, that's what I discovered too. It appears GM is far more outdated than I thought!

[JohnnyMalaria]

Have a ferret around on Cakewalk's forums.

[Ai Haibara]

Do they even make sound cards with proper MIDI interfaces (well, okay, MIDI <> gameport), anymore? (At least consumer-level... I'd assume the pro options would probably have true MIDI ports.) I usually keep hearing about MIDI through USB, even though it's not supposedly fast/good enough or drops MIDI events, I don't remember.

[sdsumike619]

As far as I can see, people who are doing MIDI sequencing these days use Soundfont technology. These soundfonts are loaded into system RAM for use in the song. Professional soundfonts are supposed to be eons better than the old general MIDI sounds so with all the mp3 players available now, you can just record your MIDI sequences to an mp3 and have your whole library with you in an iPod or similar. Pretty much every sound blaster card has soundfont technology built in these days.

(I wasn't asking about an actual physical MIDI interface, i.e., the ability to plug a MIDI instrument into the computer)

[Ai Haibara]

Well, I was wondering, because I've always been meaning to use the MIDI connections for my keyboards, but have been too lazy to track down the gameport<>MIDI cables.

[dLee]

I have some questions about purchasing a sound card with MIDI capability, to replace an old (very old) ISA Sound Blaster 16 with attached Roland SCD-10 daughterboard..

It might help if you actually posted some questions.

I didn't have a lot of time to research it, but I found the SCD-10 listed as an electronic drum kit or a drum sound module. Exactly what do you have and what do you want to do??

If you put a new (current) sound card in an old computer that has ISA slots, you'll probably end up with a big headache. Search Newegg for sound cards with a game port if you need to use it with your SCD-10.

I used SoundFonts briefly, but abandoned them in favor of the sounds in my synth (Motif 6), digital piano, Garritan Personal Orchestra and Garritan Jazz and Big Band. SoundFonts are somewhat better than GM sounds, although GM has come a long way. I trigger my hardware and software based samples (sounds) via MIDI and use my synth as a MIDI controller.

Professional sample libraries blow away GM and SoundFonts (at least the last time I looked) and are reasonably priced.

MIDI is alive and well and now that Yamaha has finally issued a decent version of their USB/MIDI driver, it's all I use. Regular MIDI still works, but you can have twice as many MIDI channels with USB/MIDI.

[sdsumike619]

Oh no, I didn't mean that I wanted to put another card in the old ISA slot. The only reason that computer is around is because they still use the SCD-10. What is the difference between a soundfont and "professional sample libraries" ?

[dLee]

Oh no, I didn't mean that I wanted to put another card in the old ISA slot. The only reason that computer is around is because they still use the SCD-10. What is the difference between a soundfont and "professional sample libraries" ?

Higher quality, more articulations and expense.

Please answer the question in my previous post.

[sdsumike619]

I thought I answered the question. I have an old computer that uses the ISA SB16 with attached SCD-10 daughterboard. I want to get rid of that computer and buy a new sound card for the other more modern computer.

[dLee]

Can you post a link that has a picture and some specs of the SCD-10 daughterboard?

How does it connect to the ISA SB16? Does it sit in an ISA slot - and - have a ribbon connector to the ISA SB16?

Is the SCD-10 a drum sound module? or something else?

[sdsumike619]

This is an SCB-7 which is similar. It connects directly to the SB16 sound card via pins, basically just sits on top of it. This is really old technology, 1999 if I remember right... Yes, it's a sound module
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/files/scb7.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Sound_Canvas

[dLee]

The SCD-10 is General Midi (GM) sound module that works with your old ISA SB16 card. It added 16 voices and 6 drumkits in 16bit 44.1 kHz resolution to the old Soundblaster card, which I'm assuming had no GM capability by itself.

It's a goner because the SB16 is dead. The sound quality would be extremely low compared to modern synth modules anyway.

High quality sounds (hardware and / or software) for use in your sequencer are abundant.

Tell us what you want to do, how you want to do it and your budget. I can give you some suggestions for a replacement.

[sdsumike619]

Well, what was nice (at the time) about the SB16 and roland sound canvas daughterboard combo was that you had the sound module built into the card. What I'm asking is what people use today (other than hooking a physical synth) to the computer?

From what I have found, Soundfonts are what are used today and MIDI players such as the Roland SD-35 are obsolete in favor of just using an MP3 player.

[dLee]

Just an opinion, but my experience with SoundFonts was not good and I wouldn't waste any time on them. Back in the 90's, they were a good upgrade to GM but today there are too many reasonably priced and better sounding alternatives.

As to what people are doing today - I would break it into two categories: hardware and software.

There are many hardware sound modules, that are triggered by MIDI data. Theses are usually external and connected via USB(2) or MIDI connectors.

There are also many sample libraries which reside on your HDD and are triggered by MIDI data via a software player.

You can't just transcode MIDI sequences into MP3 or any other audio format. MIDI is data, not audio. You need to render each individual MIDI performance (one track at a time) thru a hardware module or software library via a sequencer - while recording it. After mixing the audio tracks, you can transcode (convert) and add it to your MP3 player.

[johns0]

X-fi fatality has a game port plus plays midi's using fonts,i bought this card cause i like listening to midi's in the best quality way,i also use the 8mb sound font but you can use almost any custom sound font.Easy way to record midi to wav is thru what u hear,not need for and fancy midi to wav program.

[sdsumike619]

There's so many of these soundfonts available from what I've seen. Do you just keep searching until you find instrument sounds that you like? Right, I understand that the MIDI files have to be played in realtime (through a sound module, or soundfont) in order to have them as WAV.

[johns0]

You search and try the sound fonts.Just play the midi as usual with the what u hear setting and record with your sound editor.Midi's are automatically using the sound font with any sound playing software.

[netmask56]

This is what I use http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=1&CatName=Sound+Blaster...=X-Fi+Platinum comes with a reasonable on board wavetable but I use soundfonts most of the time. I often make my own soundfonts of unusual instruments like didgeredoos and bull roarers (traditional Australian indigenous instruments). Basically this unit is the descendant of the Audigy cards. My keyboard is plugged into it as well. I use SONAR 8 as my midi sequencer and Samplitude etc... Check out the Creative cards as there are many variations or if you need to connect professional balanced output devices then the EMU range is probably the top choice