Card with hardware synth

[infodigger]

Hello to everyone!

I am glad to be here, I see there is a great community!

I have been using a very old card (Awe 32) with my midi keyboard (Roland A-37) and now it's time to switch to something better. I have purchased an Edirol em-2ux usb midi interface and tried to play some piano with it. The problem is that both my laptop and computer do not have hardware synths as almost all old sound cards used to have. This means a lot of latency and I really tried everything (software synth like Crystal + Chainer + ASIO4ALL). So I have concluded that I need to buy a new sound card.

I would appreciate if you could post me some suggestions. Ideally I would like to buy an external sound card for use with my laptop, but if that is not possible a PCI one would work fine as well. I have seen those audigy cards that support hardware synth but I am sure that there are better solutions.

Warmest regards.
John

[kope]

I think you are talking about UM-2EX USB MIDI Interface. Buy any decent USB Audio card – personally i will go for Edirol to avoid compatibility problems (if any). Ask for card which have latency =< 5ms on 44.1KHz sampling rate.

[infodigger]

Hi Kope,

Yeap the model is UM-2EX, I wrote it wrong in my first message:)

I also have an Extigy card but it doesn't seem to have a hardware synth.

I consider to buy this usb audio card: http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=610&subcategory=611&product=15186

I just don't know how to find if it has a hardware synth for midi out...

Thank you for all the help!
John

[Reegs]

The GM Midi synth you hear when you play back a midi file in quicktime or windows media player is part of Windows XP -- built-in.

The 0202 doesn't do Creative's thing per se (though E-Mu is technically Creative) but does come with the ProteusVX, which IMHO will be a nice standalone synth that you can start up and use just like a hardware synth. I think you'll be fine with that unit. PM if you've any questions.

Reegs

[infodigger]

Thanks Reegs! I will be ordering this today!