MIDI Sound Card?

[RyanEGeiger]

I have a fairly powerful (3.16Ghz Dual Core Intel, 3GB DDR3, Windows 7) system and am looking to do MIDI production with VST (Garritan, EWQL, etc.). My main issue right now is latency with the built in Sound Card when using VST Instruments. I have an E-MU 25-Key Controller right now and am looking for a good Sound Card that can handle a pretty good load (16-32 VST instruments at a time, etc.).

Internal/External doesn't matter too much as long as it works. Obviously the lower cost the better. Any ideas?

Also working primarily with Cubase for Sequencing and Sibeilus for notation.

-R

[tacman7]

You mean like under $79 or under $1000?

Lot out there, look at what's available:
Audio Interfaces | Sweetwater.com

Read reviews, read user comments, then ask questions.

[tacman7]

Also a sound card isn't going to handle 16-32 VSTi's, it can handle all you want to send to it. It's your computer, it does the work.

16-32 VSTi's isn't a pretty good load, technically it's called a 'shitload'.

[RyanEGeiger]

Okay. Good to know... I was looking around the $2-400 mark. My main issue is MIDI latency though. So even if I have to do one or two tracks at a time, I really just want to get the input latency (time from keyboard press to sound output) as low as possible.

Any ideas?

[garww]

I agree with tackman7. It's not so much about the sound card at all. Adjust your latency with Windows gs wavetable. With VST/i it's about the computer optimization. This is heavy audio processing.

The other trick is to lock/freeze individual tracks you are not working on - all the vsti do not need to be processing actively. Read the manual.

[RyanEGeiger]

So there's no performance benefit with processing with a dedicated sound card? You're saying when working with VST's and a MIDI (USB) controller that the sound card has nothing to do with it at all?

[RyanEGeiger]

I keep reading that this card and that card have "zero latency when working with VST instruments." Should I take that all with a grain of salt since you say it has zero to do with the sound card?

::EDIT::

Just read this on the sticky guide:

"However, if you are using a midi controller, you may find that there is a slight delay between the time you strike a note and the time it plays. This is called latency and it is almost always caused by a crappy stock soundcard. Upgrading to a real deal home recording audio interface will allow you to play back instruments immediately with no noticeable delay."

So there is something to the soundcard as far as time from key press to note input on the PC... so can someone reccommend a good $200-$400 sound card for specifically MIDI VSTi application?

[garww]

No, this was not much of an issue before VSTi. Any old isa/pci soundcard could play MIDI without much delay. There is no sound in MIDI - it's just controller signals. It's when you pile up audio that shit happens.

A soundcard only does ad/da conversion for audio, and if it has MIDI ports, it just passes the MIDI. Good drivers can optimize how this interfaces with your computer. But this is not addressing your problem.

Your controller will pass MIDI to any number of MIDI players available for download and will usually give you good performance even with the MS GS Wavetable built into windows (it may not be in W7- I don't know).

You've skipped the step about learning MIDI.

[garww]

Originally Posted by RyanEGeiger

So there's no performance benefit with processing with a dedicated sound card? You're saying when working with VST's and a MIDI (USB) controller that the sound card has nothing to do with it at all?

I can do MIDI without a soundcard. keyboard MIDI to usb port, to DAW, out from USB to MIDI port on sound module(second keyboard).

It's the sound module that makes the audio. With VSTi, this is a software sound module(audio processing). That is what stresses the computer.

[P.P.T.]

Onboard soundcards generally have latency problems when you are recording midi.
You can improve it buy downlaoding and installing the free asio4all.
I used to have to record midi at 15-20ms until I got asio4all. now I can get down lower. A good soundcard will probably get me lower.

You will improve the latency even more with a good soundcard.
Some cards do seem to be able to acheive lower latency than others but the information isn't easy to find.

Even with a good soundcard you will eventually have to bounce some of those VSTi tracks down to audio if you want to comtinue recording new midi tracks or you will start to have problems.

You can run 1 track of midi and 30 tracks of audio at very low latencies while recording midi but not 31 tracks of midi triggered VSTi's.

Just wait for more replies and gather more information.