Hi
I know a lot of you will say its a matter of preference.

But I would really like your help on this, before I start buying anymore stuff.

Do you recommend sound fonts etc, like native instruments, or hardware like Roland sound modules etc.

I would also like if at all possible, a short midi file of your preferred source.

For example, if you use and would recommend a certain sound module, could you please enclose a wee midi file made in one of the styles in biab, so I can hear the source.

Honestly would help me loads if anyone could find the time to do this.

I have the everything pack and all add-ons but it is midi that grabs me by the heart so to speak.

I think what you actually probably want is a short "audio" file of the sound source. A MIDI file will only play back with whatever sound library you have on your computer and won't represent the possible sounds from other libraries.

It really is a matter of preference BUT a lot depends on your system.

Hard synths like the Rolands, Korgs etc do not use your CPU or ram so they are very light hit on your system. The down side is if you render your song to a wav or MP3 you have to render in real time. That is if you want separate tracks for say a 5 minute song and you have 4 tracks then it will take 5 minutes per track to get your song to a wav/MP3. A big plus is that an OS upgrade will not render a hard synth useless, as sometimes happens with soft synths.

Soft synths like Kontakt, soundfonts (BTW Kontakt is not a soundfont program - it can load soundfonts but the Kontakt sounds are much better), Sampletank etc can take a lot of ram and be a hog for your CPU. On the plus side rendering is extremely fast, in seconds for many cases.

I use mostly soft synths but I do have some hard synths. Some here use both while others use either hard or soft synths.

I use a hardware synth.

I agree with Mario and John's comments.

To listen to an audio sample, you will probably get MP3 files that carry with them a loss of the fidelity you need to judge accurately.

Are you aware that PG Music devoted a page on this site to this very idea, years ago? It would be a useful place to start. It is called Dare to Compare. Find it here: http://www.pgmusic.com/dare-to-compare.htm

Thanks

Yea I do indeed need a wee audio snippet to let me hear the quality, I am looking at the Roland Integra a lot of money for me , but I could stretch to it.

Any one got one of these and maybe could do a wee audio for me.

I know you can Google it, but I would rather have a wee blues style from biab to hear.