John Hughes wrote:
Has anybody had any experience with the Virtual Sound Canvas?
My problem is that I have just received a new computer from Dell and was
surprised to see that there was no way I could transfer any of my
existing sound cards into it. The slots did not match a midi sound card.
I thought something external like the Roland Sound Canvas might solve my
problem, but when I tried their web page all they had was the Virtual
Sound Canvas. A software application.
If anyone has had any experience with this application, I would dearly
like to know if it works as well as a real midi sound card.
Mant thanks in advance.
The Virtual Sound Canvas ships free with Band-in-a-Box, and it comes in
two different versions.
There is the stand-alone version, which has some latency issues, and
there is a DXi version, which won't work without a DXi host. finale is
not a DXi host, so you need to find one (I believe there are some free
ones but I can't name any) and run it and a virtual midi interface such
as midi-yoke. You would select one of the midi-yoke midi-out ports in
Finale and then select the same number midi-yoke midi-in port in the DXi
host program and the midi data from Finale playbace will run through the
DXi host program.
I have seen this module, the Ketron SD2 at
http://www.ketronus.com/product_detail.php?id=53 and listened to the
demos at http://www.ketronus.com/demos.php and it sounds pretty good.
You will also need to buy a USB/midi interface, but M-Audio sells the
MidiSport Uno model for around $45 which should work.
Of course, once you get a midi interface, you can use any module, and
since external modules tend to need electrical power, there are many
more things to choose from, such as the Kurzweil PC2r (with orchestral
ROM installed - I don't think it's available without that option so you
should be all set) which will sound a whole lot better.
But there are many find soft synths which might run just find on your
new computer, and there are soundcards which should fit. Garritan,
makers of GPO, is fine, although buying all the samples necessary for
any situation can be expensive.
You might do well to contact Dell and discuss the soundcard issue with them.
My advice is not to waste your money on the Virtual Sound Canvas --
there are many more options than you've mentioned, and lots better
things to choose from.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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