That's too bad about the Audigy2 not
having GSIF drivers.
Is there any other good soundcard that
is Soundfont .sf2 and DLS 2.0 compatible, that has GSIF drivers.
If not, Frank, how are the
new versions of Kontakt and others
compared to the GigaStudio you are using?
If they are better or just as good,
do they also use GSIF drivers or some
other drivers?
Thanks.

Frank, thanks for your reply.
Is a soundcard more effecient(less CPU taxing,less MIDI delay,etc.) than using
a software soundfont player?

Friends,

Thank you for your advice. I am glad to have such a wealth of expertise in this forum. Without your feedback I could have easily made a bad decision.

Having checked again the specs of the Audigy 2, I found the bit buried in the blabber that for recording it supports 24 bit 48 Khz only. I suppose this could be enough for my ears (and for my needs), but given the other shortcomings (lack of GSIF drivers) it offers me little over the audio already on the motherboard of my computer. I believe I will go with Maudio Audiophile 2496, given its proven performance in recording and sound generation (and the bundled Gigasampler LE and other goodies).

I have a couple more questions though:
- Are there software applications which play back soundfonts using the Audiophile? Do you recommend any programs for playing GS midi?
- Frank, and others who use multiple sound cards: how do you deal with the outputs?
Can you route the audio outs of both SoundBlaster and the Audiophile/another audio I/F card through a single pair of output jacks? Or do you run multiple cables and mix them outside of the PC?
- A number of higher-end cards offer more than 2 inputs and outputs. I can see the usefulnes for multiple inputs (for digital mixing and multi-track recording). For what do you use more than two outputs?
- Are you able to use LiveStyler with the Gigasampler or another software-based sound engine?

Thanks again,
Alex

Alex
Have you considered the 828 by Motu...theres no card to install. Check it out.... Lou
http://motu.com