Hello folks, I've just joined the forum. I'm planning to purchase Sibelius 6 within a few weeks so I can fulfil my childhood dream of being able to write orchestral and brass band scores in the comfort of my own home and hear the results played back with realism. I'm a musician and software developer in real life, but I'm completely out of touch with MIDI and what devices I could use to synthesise realistic instrumental ensemble sounds.
A friend of mine has a Roland Sound Canvas that is almost 20 years old and produces beautiful instrumental sounds. He offered to give it to me but it runs in the obsolete COM port and it's so old that it must be now replaced by a modern equivalent with vastly improved power and features.
So that's my question: What device(s) should I consider purchasing so I can get realistic polyphonic synthesised playback? It will be used on a Windows 7 64-bit machine. I don't need any features beyond realistic playback.
Sorry to be a bit vague with the question, but I've been running web searches for days on this subject, and I'm simply confused by the mess of results. I'm hoping someone can cut through all of the confusion and help me focus on what I need.
Cheers, Greg
Choosing a MIDI device for playback
The world is now virtual, and if you think the Roland is good, you're in for a treat. Edirol made (maybe still make) a virtual Sound Canvas, for example.
Sib 6 comes with Essentials as part of it, a set of very useful and fairly wide ranging voices. Then there are oodles of third party insruments. Some, like the various Garritan libraries, integrate with Sib from the word go. Others need a soundset (a list file linking sound names in the score with sound ID's in the library). Some have soundsets already made. Miroslav Philharmonik and Classik are two examples.
You will need a decent computer and, most importantly, an ASIO capable audio card to get the best from these.
This, and everything else, has been done to death both here and on the official Sibelius forum, so have a search. Leave the idea of external devices behind and go virtual!
Sib 6 comes with Essentials as part of it, a set of very useful and fairly wide ranging voices. Then there are oodles of third party insruments. Some, like the various Garritan libraries, integrate with Sib from the word go. Others need a soundset (a list file linking sound names in the score with sound ID's in the library). Some have soundsets already made. Miroslav Philharmonik and Classik are two examples.
You will need a decent computer and, most importantly, an ASIO capable audio card to get the best from these.
This, and everything else, has been done to death both here and on the official Sibelius forum, so have a search. Leave the idea of external devices behind and go virtual!
Hi Andy, very interesting, times have changed ... this changes the game. So you reckon I don't need any kind of external device (like the old Roland sound card) at all. I read that Sibelius 6 comes out of the box with "Sound Essentials", but at first I wasn't exactly sure what this did for me or if I still needed special hardware. In Sibelius help article 47 they say that my on-board sound card may be satisfactory, but with the Sib6 demo it sounds dreadful (which I suppose is casued by the demo not coming with Sound Essentials). They also recommend M-Audio Fast Track and Fast TRack Pro USB devices, which look a bit more like what I was thinking of in my original post. However, these look like they're only an advantage for live recording, which I'm not doing.
So in summary, are you saying that a traditional PCI sound card with ASIO compatible drivers is all I need for great playback?
I ran some searches on ASIO compatible sound cards but once again the mess of results are hard to decipher and help me pick a specific brand or model. I'll keep searching, but any further advice on this matter would be most welcome.
Cheers, Greg
So in summary, are you saying that a traditional PCI sound card with ASIO compatible drivers is all I need for great playback?
I ran some searches on ASIO compatible sound cards but once again the mess of results are hard to decipher and help me pick a specific brand or model. I'll keep searching, but any further advice on this matter would be most welcome.
Cheers, Greg
Firstly, you could try using ASIO4ALL. If you install this, it will try to fool the software into thinking that whatever soundchip/card you have is ASIO capable. Often works, sometimes doesn't. A little googling will find it.
A proper ASIO card will do things properly, and give you rock solid performance and low latency, as well as upping the sound quality! The venerable M-Audio Audiophile 2496 has been around for years and is now very affordable. Does the job for me, and sits nicely alongside another ASIO capable card that has more bells and whistles as well.
Good ASIO card, decent set of speakers / headphones - that's all you need.
A proper ASIO card will do things properly, and give you rock solid performance and low latency, as well as upping the sound quality! The venerable M-Audio Audiophile 2496 has been around for years and is now very affordable. Does the job for me, and sits nicely alongside another ASIO capable card that has more bells and whistles as well.
Good ASIO card, decent set of speakers / headphones - that's all you need.
