Category: MIDI
Music & MIDI Hardware
Sound Solutions: A Computer Music & Audio Hardware Primer
Making the Right Hardware Choices
For a musician just getting into adding a computer to the studio or home recording setup, there are many questions: Mac or PC? Which sound card? In this article and through various links to other resources on this site,...
Creative Labs AWE64 Gold - Great Compatibility and 3D Audio
Product: Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold
From: Creative Labs (http://www.soundblaster.com)
Price: about $250 (full version; "value" edition is available for about $100)
Drivers for: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, Linux (partial support), etc.
Pros: Easy installation;...
Move over, MIDI
Today's hottest sounds are coming from digitized audio files stored in MP3 format (MPEG-layer 3, a format designed by and named after the Moving Pictures Experts Group). MP3 files are widely available -- much to the chagrin of record companies, I might add -- on the web, and streaming technologies such as the ShoutCast service (www...
Terratec EWS64XL: A Very Versatile PC Audio Card
Product: Terratec Audiosystem EWS64XL
From: Terratec www.terratec.net
Version tested: 3.0 (for Win9x/Me/NT/2000)
Price: about US$580 (street)
Pros: An astonishing number of features packed into this hardware and software combo. ASIO 2.0 support. Fairly good sound, flexible and easily upgradeable...
Product: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live!
From: Creative Labs www.soundblaster.com
Price: about C$250; a C$69 (or less) "Value Edition" is also available with a reduced feature set. Versions supporting 5.1 audio are also available.
For: Windows 95, 98, Millennium Edition, NT4.0* (See Note 1), Windows 2000, Windows XP. A Mac-specific...
Product: Monster Sound MX300
From: Diamond Multimedia (www.diamondmm.com)
Price: about C$160
Pros: PCI card with great 3D audio, good software bundle and a lower price than its predecessor.
Cons: Digital I/O requires extra-cost "MX25" add-on. Requires two IRQs (One if the DOS compatibility option is disabled). Shipping driver is...
No matter how great your sound card is, it's only going to sound as good as your speakers. Think about investing in a set of high fidelity speakers, preferably with a separate subwoofer.
Listen here!Altec Lansing ACS48
As we wrote in our previous feature on Speakers for Multimedia, many users find that a simple AUX IN connection to their home...
If you have more than a passing interest in multimedia, MIDI, or audio on your computer, you’ll probably want to improve upon the audio (in)fidelity produced by the tiny speaker in your computer.
The first item to consider, of course, is the audio hardware itself. Aside from some models preconfigured as "multimedia PCs," most IBM-...
Play audio files or listen to Internet Radio without a computer
MP3 on the Go
The phenomenal success of the MPEG Layer-3 digital audio format has led to a wide array of MP3 players and related product announcements from companies keen to capitalize on MP3 mania. Consumer electronics stores are filled with DVD players, home stereos and car audio...
Music Maker Professional: 14 CDs of Cool Content
Product: Music Maker Professional
From: Magix Entertainment
tel. (310) 656-0644
www.magix.com
Price: US$599.95 (demo available)
Pros: 14 CD ROMs of royalty-free video and sound samples; a 15th disc contains a powerful 64-track arranger. Exports to several popular streaming media formats. Converts...
Product: Revolve 100m
From: Dimension Arc Software
499-425 Carrall Street,
Vancouver,BC,Canada V6B 6E3
Phone: 604-664-0403
Price: US$99. Distributed in North American by ThinkWare.
For: Win95/98 (can also be used on the Mac with the MIDI Output driver of Insignia's SoftWindows 5.0).
Pros: Groove-oriented MIDI performance sequencer, in the "...
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 3.0 Professional versus IBM ViaVoice98 Executive Edition
Natural speech recognition is certainly one of the most alluring promises of modern computing. Perhaps we've all watched a few too many Star Trek episodes to have a realistic expectation, but the latest generation of speech recognition programs is finally beginning...
How Fast?
Q: My question relates to using a PC for MIDI applications. Some time ago I looked into a decent soundcard, with the idea of using some appropriate sequencing software. Computer stores all seemed to sell SoundBlaster, so I went to several music stores. The card that impressed me the most in listening comparisons was a model which...
Competitors promise higher quality and smaller files, but MP3 still holds the public's fancy
Fast Times in Digital Musicland
The first week of May 1999 saw an incredible amount of action in the digital music world -- and set the pace for what has become one of the computing world's (not to mention the legal profession's!) hottest areas. On May 3rd...
The MOD Squad
So-called MOD players have existed for many years, having first appeared back in the early days of the Amiga and Atari ST (in fact, Darren Schebek, working for the author of this article in the mid-eighties, wrote the first known sample player for the Atari ST). The MOD files these players used played snippets of digital audio in...