[Bob] Many people listen to MIDI files on the $0.99 cent synthesizer chip on their sound card. No wonder they dislike the MIDI sounds as the Synth they use to play the sounds is cheesy sounding (What do you expect for a chip that costs less than a dollar?)

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Bob,

What "synth chip" are you talking about?

Other than "blasts from the past", I can't think of any common "synth chip" around these days...

Some Soundblaster cards have a Creative Hardware synthesizer built-in, but that uses a software synth for its sounds, and can play any SoundFont, including fabulous sounding ones. So its not a 99 cent synth chip, since it has no sounds. And not many people that I know are using SoundBlaster for their MIDI sounds, as they have switched to software synths.

Then there were Adlib and FM chips, but they haven't been around since the 90's
You can read about those for historical value here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiptune


The typical PC that we all use doesn't have any kind of "synth chip" with sounds on it. The MIDI sounds that most people use these days (aside from external MIDI modules) are software synthesizers, which aren't 'chips'. They are sophisticated software. Furthermore, they are VST or DX Instruments, so they play in perfect synch with your files, and the sounds can be rendered to audio easily.

These days, the reality is, you can buy an el-cheapo PC from walmart, install a fabulous software synth, and get state of the art MIDI sounds with almost no latency (<5ms) if you use an ASIO driver.

This latency with software synths (using ASIO) can actually be much ** lower ** than with external MIDI modules, because a MIDI cable takes about 1ms to transmit each note, so that if there are 25 notes (10 note offs, and 15 note ons) at the beginning of a bar, the last note is delivered up to 25ms late, which is noticeably heard as a 'jerk' in the playback. (then there's the hardware synth's latency to add to this). This "slow MIDI cable transmission of notes" doesn't happen on software synths, because the information is not limited by slow MIDI transmission.

For example, if you are using Band-in-a-Box, and use the Coyote Wavetable synth (or the Roland VSC, or the Coyote Forte), you aren't using any kind of "synth chip" on your sound card. Most people don't even have sound cards, let alone synth chips on them.

So, please let us know, since most of your posts refer to this "99 cent synth chip" that is present in a typical PC, what are you talking about????

Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.