Hi Mac,
I have used a whole succession of EMU then Creative Cards ........ I too regret the loss of the Midi Synths of the Creative Cards but Creative are more interested in Games. I can still use my collection of soundfonts via VSampler. ......
Incidentally, one of my monitors has been damaged by whatever it was that caused the problem in the first place.
Lyn
I started with an EMU PCI card.... that thing was hateful. I had to call tech support every single time I wanted to record because their software interface (Patchmix) for the card was the most difficult thing I have ever worked with.
Creative cards and others with built in synths..... you will get so much better sounding synths if you switch to using soft synths rather than the built in GM synths... Same deal with sound fonts. They are old technology and have been, for the most part, replaced by the much better sounding sampled libraries of modern synths. I'm not knocking fonts because I started with them myself and have a bunch on my laptop, but I have not used them in 5 years or more since I started using sampled sounds.
audio monitor? yeah, you need to find that problem and resolve it..... you don't want to lose more gear to something like that.... could have been a surge..... I use surge suppressed devices WITH battery back up on all my computer gear. A brown out or a blink can wreak havoc on your studio gear just as quickly as a surge. Protect that internet line too...