It would make your sound set-up and playing more enjoyable if you got the m-audio delta 1010 soundcard. Especially if later you want to record vocles or other instruments.

Thanks Carrie, I wouldn't really need all those inputs - I just have the digital piano feeding in. So am curious as to what advantages this card would give me over my audigy 2 in terms of sound quality... anyone advise?

Sorry, can't really comment on the specs. You might enjoy reading this review of the Delta:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan00/articles/midiman1010.htm

I think of Hypercanvas and SGM 180 as good backing sounds Mr C. Like the ones I would use for playback of a midifile. Would I use them as lead voices ? No .... but I have quite a few different options.

Remember though, that when you try these things, if you're not adding effects, none of them are going to sound top notch, not even with high quality samples. It's easy enough to do. If I turn all of the effects off any voice in my workstation ( Motif ES ), what's left is not very impressive.

I agree though that a sampler like Gigastudio will yield much better results. No question about that, because you can use better quality samples. I use Kontakt as my sampler, although I don't have the anywhere near the quality of sample collections that some other members have. I really love working with analog sounds, so I tend to gravitate toward the specialty modules, and that is how I built up my system. I use two computers, one is a laptop P4 2.8 Ghz 1.5 Gigs of memory. The second is a PC 2.4 Athlon and 1.28 gigs memory. Your setup should be more than adequate, but if you are going to dedicate it as a music computer, you will want to get rid of as much of the proprietary Dell and non essential Windows junk as you can.

My favs include Imposocar, Pro 53 and Arturia's Minimoog and CS80v as analog modelers, Absynth and Korg Wavestation ( Legacy collection ) as digital synths, Dasample's Electroacoustic and Musiclabs Realguitar for acoustic guitars, Plugsound's guitar collection for electrics, DR008 or BFD for drums, Edirol orchestral for traditional orchestral sounds, B4 for Organs, and Eve and Super Quartet for pianos.

Someone suggested using the pc forum here at Synthzone. Good thought, probably where this topic should be, but usually that's a very quiet forum, so sometimes better to be here although we are off topic again..lol. You might want to check out the KVR-Audio site. It is dedicated to computer music and there is a wealth of info available there, as well as working demos and excellent freeware modules and effects.

As far as the souncards, what it comes down to is sound quality. After I look past the digital ratings 24 bit / 96 or better KHZ sampling, the next most important spec to me is noise floor. I have an older SBlive card, and noise floor was it's main shortcoming, along with it being locked at a non standard 48 khz. I also have an M Audio audiophile and USB Quattro, and the noise floor is much lower. The Delta 1010 uses the same chip, but I'm not sure that it includes a midi interface, so if you were to use one you might want to keep the Audigy for that and as a soundfont player. I run 2 add on cards in my PC with no conflicts at all.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 08-23-2005).]

Thanks AJ, going back to gigastudio - is Kontakt better than gigastudio, or is it just different?

Giga sounds like a great choice for you MR C, I think, probably even vs any top notch hardware workstation. I think there are some differences between the two softsamplers. I tried Gigsastudio on another studio's computer. I didn't have enough experience so I'm not sure, but I walked away with the feeling that Giga is a little more like your hardware workstation in that the patches are there already ( not that you can't add more ), where Kontakt is maybe a little more DIY, you mix and match the samples as you see fit.

I could be totally wrong about that btw, and maybe it's all in the way the interface looks itself. Giga looks like a hardware board onscreen I guess. I will say that the Giga patches I played were superb, beyond anything I personally have here sample wise. I think if I were going to use a sample based system, and looks and interface count, I'm guessing I'd probably pick Giga over Kontakt.. it just looks more intuitive and complete to me.

Sampling itself just isn't my thing per se, and maybe I've kinda gone backwards, but I prefer a quasi modular approach where I plug things in as I need them. Kinda suits me though since analog sound and analog modeling is more my passion these days. I can fill in the other sounds I need nicely with the other modules I have and my Motif ES.

For you, Giga could be just the thing, and even though it isn't cheap when you start adding quality sample libraries, it still can be a less expensive solution overall vs adding individual modules or buying a hardware board. A great all in one that also seems to have the ability to allow the user to add and tweak to his / her hearts content, and far superior to any "locked in" module like Hypercanvas.

AJ




[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 08-23-2005).]