I hope someone out there can offer assistance. I am a classical composer in
need of a new sound card. Several years ago I started using a SoundBlaster
Pro CT4830 with AWE32, and it has been by far the best sound card I've ever
used in terms of rendering orchestral instruments almost lifelike in sound
quality. Despite the older generation of the card, I recently put an
identical card in a new computer (but w/o the AWE software, since the discs
appear now to be defective and wouldn't load), but the sound is not the
same. I have tried other, more advanced cards, but nothing I've found has
ever given the quality that the old CT4830 offered. Even a newer Audigy 2
made the orchestral instruments sound very tinny and mechanical, definitely
more electronic than lifelike. I guess what I'm asking is for
recommendations for a card that will provide near lifelike sound for
orchestral instruments when playing back music through Sibelius software.
Although I presume sound cards are designed nowadays more for gamers, I'm
sure there are other classical composers who are using cards younger than
the one I'm relying on, and I would like to know what I might get to replace
the CT4830 without sacrificing the wonderful sound quality of that
particular model. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
John Craton
www.craton.net