I understand that. It is just a matter of time before you lose those sound cards. Everything inside a computer is eventually going to be an orphan.

It's the main reason why I don't depend on them. I bought a "Turtle Beach" sound card way back when, I think it was on my Win3.1 computer that went obsolete.

Now I use external hardware synths exclusively. The mid 1980s Yamaha TX81z, Korg DDD5, and Roland MT32 as well as my Akai S900 sampler all work fine on my newest computer, along with every MIDI synth I've bought since.

I like buying new synths, but I don't like losing my old ones.

I also save all my creations in standard file formats like .MID or .WAV.

Before the Standard MIDI File format, was created, I had about 300 songs in a proprietary Yamaha keyboard format. When the keyboard died, Yamaha had changed their file format, and I lost 300 songs.

I understand my way isn't the best for everyone, but I'm very glad I chose it.

They were hard lessons learned for me.

That's why I don't understand the rush to get software synths and upgraded sound cards. They will all eventually be orphaned. Then you will have to do a lot of work just to catch up.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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