Conference napalm::commusic_v1

2568.0. "" by SRUICE::WINNETT (Oui 3 Ski - I'd rather be skiing) Mon Feb 04 1991 11:41

After playing the piano for fifteen years and building synthesisers for about
seven, I lost interest (and free time) to devote to music. Now I want to get
back in again. When I last played we hired a Polymoog and Fender Rhodes (poor
students) and they were ok for what we needed (Saturday night pub gigs) - from
the equipment brands you can guess that this was about ten years ago ! I have
still got loads of analogue VCO's,VCA's and VCF's etc hidden away in the attic,
but the world has progressed since then - so I thought about getting a decent
quality MIDI keyboard (velocity sensitive) and plugging it into "something". Now
since I want lots of flexibility to program and store customized sounds, and I
already have a 286 based PC, I was looking at the Soundblaster Card and the
Roland LAPC card to plug into the PC. BUT, has anyone out there actually got one
of these cards to play music (rather than games software music) on ?? The midi 
keyboard will allow me to use a rack mounted Roland piano module (can't
remember the number) which sounds almost realistic, but I would like the extra
flexibility of strings/brass/synth sounds as a starter. The equipment is only
for home use so I don't mind having to use a PC as a base unit if the generated
sound quality is good. I also have an old piano keyboard which has been extended
with switches underneath the keys to keep the 'feel' of the piano which I might
turn into a midi interface one day...

So, any thoughts from the panel on the actual sound quality of the PC cards (do
they have the same s/n; same chipset etc) ? or should I go for some amazing
rack mounted gizmo which has all the features I want at only �200 ??

PS the Soundblaster card is about �100 in the UK

Nigel