I'm using some software called power tabs which plays back MIDI on my PC. It
sounds like crap, what peice of hardware do I need to get better midi
sounds, a sound module?

"mark" wrote in message
...
I'm using some software called power tabs which plays back MIDI on my PC.
It
sounds like crap, what peice of hardware do I need to get better midi
sounds, a sound module?

A module is certainly one way to go, however you can get good sounds out of
the right sound card too.

What kind of card are you playing the midi through? In the case of most
consumer cards, the sounds are contained on a chip on the card itself. I use
a Soundblaster Audigy, which like it's cousin the SB Live, utilizes
"Soundfonts", a proprietary midi patch protocol and uses system ram to store
the sounds, though there is a lesser general midi set stored on the card
itself. With the Audigy, the size of the Soundfont files is essentially
limited only by your system ram. File size is one of the factors that have a
bearing on the overall quality of the midi patch. Anything the system
doesn't need to run can be filled with Soundfonts.

The thing is, the sounds that come bundled with the Live and Audigy are
so-so, some are better than others, but don't even begin to show what the
card is capable of. The best sounds are going to be ones that you buy which
have been professionally tweaked or that you learn to make yourself either
through high quality samples that you've made or bought. Even professionally
recorded, storebought samples will need some tweaking, typically to brighten
them to stand out in a mix. Anything you can record can be turned into a
midi patch. You can record a guitar riff and store it as a Soundfont to be
plugged in to your track at will. Once you learn how it works, you can even
go into a Soundfont someone else made and tweak it.

There are other midi soundcards out there that do essentially the same
thing. Some say they sound better than the Soundblaster cards. I've never
tried them so I can't say if they do or not.

Or, if you want to go nuts, there's something like a Gigastudio, which
stores midi sounds on a dedicated hard drive.

Btw, if none of this makes sense to you, now would be a good time to study
up on the ins and outs of midi.

As an example of what soundcard based midi can sound like, here's an early
experiment of mine. Some were Soundfonts I had, some I made either from my
own recorded samples or from a sample library.

Aaaand here's the link that I neglected to put in...

http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/...e/fanfare.html

mark wrote:

I'm using some software called power tabs which plays back MIDI on my PC.
It sounds like crap, what peice of hardware do I need to get better midi
sounds, a sound module?

When I faced this issue, I got myself some Roland modules. Here's why:

Basically, I was happily using an SB Live until I was offered a cheap
Roland M-VS1, which I bought on account of its superb mellotron patches.
Next to that, the SBLive even with soundfonts appeared thin and
unimpressive, so I purchased a JV1010, which was at the time the lowest
end Roland box capable of taking an expansion card.
I later installed the orchestral card, and since then I have never used the
internal MIDI capabilities on any of my soundcards.

There were some MP3 demos of the expansion cards floating around.
The JV1010 has 'Session' built in, and the M-VS1 is basically 'Vintage Keys'
in a standalone box.
The demos are what influenced my decision, and this should influence yours
too, whether you go with a Roland, a Korg or anything else. Pick a
synthesizer or brand and find some demos of it to see if it will give the
sounds you want before buying.

(Bal Sagoth use the Roland XP50/XP80.. they use the orchestral card
extensively. Since I was listening to them at the time, that's what
gave me the idea of checking out Roland equipment.)

Hope this is useful.

--
JP Morris - aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon) -=UDIC=-
Fun things to do with the Ultima games http://www.it-he.org
Reign of the Just - An Ultima clone http://rotj.it-he.org
d+++ e+ N+ T++ Om U1234!56!7'!S'!8!9!KAW u++ uC+++ uF+++ uG---- uLB----
uA--- nC+ nR---- nH+++ nP++ nI nPT nS nT wM- wC- y a(YEAR - 1976)

If you go the soundfont route you might also look at using a software
based soundfont player, like VSampler (see maz-sound.com). Then you
don't need MIDI or soundfont support in the sound card.

--Peter

mark wrote:
I'm using some software called power tabs which plays back MIDI on my PC. It
sounds like crap, what peice of hardware do I need to get better midi
sounds, a sound module?

"J. P. Morris" wrote in message
...
mark wrote:

I'm using some software called power tabs which plays back MIDI on my
PC.
It sounds like crap, what peice of hardware do I need to get better midi
sounds, a sound module?

When I faced this issue, I got myself some Roland modules. Here's why:

Basically, I was happily using an SB Live until I was offered a cheap
Roland M-VS1, which I bought on account of its superb mellotron patches.
Next to that, the SBLive even with soundfonts appeared thin and
unimpressive,

Not to knock the Roland in any way, I'm sure it's a fine piece of gear, but
I wonder if you've ever heard *good* Soundfonts. Are you basing this
strictly on the cheesy 2, 4 & 8 meg Soundfont banks that came with the card?
Have you ever heard Soundfonts built from a high quality sample library or
good homemade samples? The Audigy would obviously provide a better showcase
for them since the Live is limited to 32 megs. With the Audigy, if you've
got a couple of gigs of RAM you could for example build a nice stereo grand
piano with natural decay instead of looping, sampled on every half-step with
multiple velocity layers.

Doc wrote:

Not to knock the Roland in any way, I'm sure it's a fine piece of gear,
but I wonder if you've ever heard *good* Soundfonts. Are you basing this
strictly on the cheesy 2, 4 & 8 meg Soundfont banks that came with the
card?

Not entirely, no. I built up a substantial collection of
special-purpose soundfonts, and I haven't used those since, either.

Have you ever heard Soundfonts built from a high quality sample
library or good homemade samples? The Audigy would obviously provide a
better showcase for them since the Live is limited to 32 megs. With the
Audigy, if you've got a couple of gigs of RAM you could for example build
a nice stereo grand piano with natural decay instead of looping, sampled
on every half-step with multiple velocity layers.

Looking at it now, what really made a difference is Roland's onboard
effects engines. The reverb knocked spots off the Live's reverberation
engine. Also, going to an outboard solution gives you the ability to
do an auxilliary send-receive, which wasn't possible before.

What was most important (to me.. your opinions and requirements may vary)
was that doing everything through outboard hardware also insulates you
from the OS. With soundfonts I was pretty much stuck with SB Live on
Windows, since at the time, Linux didn't have good enough soundfont
support to do anything at all.

Anyway, this is what _I_ did, and why.. not a forcible recommendation

--
JP Morris - aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon) -=UDIC=-
Fun things to do with the Ultima games http://www.it-he.org
Reign of the Just - An Ultima clone http://rotj.it-he.org
d+++ e+ N+ T++ Om U1234!56!7'!S'!8!9!KAW u++ uC+++ uF+++ uG---- uLB----
uA--- nC+ nR---- nH+++ nP++ nI nPT nS nT wM- wC- y a(YEAR - 1976)