PCI sound cards for mac w/ Synthesizer chips, Sampling RAM, Wavetable synthesis?

[supernova777]

So i've been playing with my AWE32 card for my windows 3.11 box
im loving the fact that i can load samples into my card, sound fonts..
and play them musically, using the card exactly how one would use a hardware sampler..

im trying to find info on any mac compatible pci cards that have this ability!!
lets try to find some equipment that supports hardware sampling on mac!

these type of cards were more the frame of mind of 1996/1997 sound card hardware

immediatey coming to mind is the Korg Oasys...
but what other cards are there? The SampleCell II?
another thought is the Yamaha SW1000XG which i believe is mac compatible??


korg oasys pci | http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr00/articles/korgoasys.htm


samplecell II | http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/nov95/samplecell2.html
http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/specifications-for-samplecell-ii-pci/



yamaha sw1000xg | http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec98/articles/yamsw1000.632.htm+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk
good luck finding one of these tho

and what about GM midi Synthesis?
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=1206.0
Snakecoils tried to ask this question.. and no interest..
u guys would rather talk about mdd heatsinks

we saw that the sblive! could be used on mac (http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=1776)
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may99/articles/soundblaster.htm

SYNTH/SAMPLING
• Hardware Synth/Sampler: 64-voice polyphony, 32 channel multitimbral, using up to 32Mb of PC system RAM.
• Software PCI Wavetable synthesis: up to 512 voices (subject to PC spec), 16 MIDI channels.
• 3D Audio: Supports 2-speaker, 4-speaker, and headphones.
• Hardware Acceleration: DirectSound, DirectSound3D (up to 32 audio streams).

did anyone who tested the sblive! test this abiliity? using 32mb of sampling ram for sound fonts etc?
i didnt want to start a thread focused just on the SBLIVE! of course.. im just curious what other cards
have actual physical ram for sampling. etc that are pci and possibly both mac + pc compatible.
a hard question to answer?

honestly im not expecting anyone to answer with info.. but maybe someone wants to discuss this??

[Metrophage]

I was going to say OASYS PCI, but I guess that's a bit obvious.

Since PCI though mostly I find cards tend to specialize in conversion since the host computers are powerful enough to handle the synthesis. If I was going to geek out with wavetable/FM cards I'd go ISA or early PCI. Like Turtle Beach, Ensoniq, etc. Some of these even have OpenStep drivers.

Stuff I'm looking out for: I've got some SoundTools/ProTools converters for compact Macs. There are supposedly interfaces for the SE and/or SE30 I'd need to use them, but I can't find/afford any such thing. I've got some code for running in an Audiomedia *1* card only which might be fun to play with. Got my hands full now anyway, so I can't complain.

[MacTron]

we saw that the sblive! could be used on mac (http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=1776)
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may99/articles/soundblaster.htm

SYNTH/SAMPLING
• Hardware Synth/Sampler: 64-voice polyphony, 32 channel multitimbral, using up to 32Mb of PC system RAM.
• Software PCI Wavetable synthesis: up to 512 voices (subject to PC spec), 16 MIDI channels.
• 3D Audio: Supports 2-speaker, 4-speaker, and headphones.
• Hardware Acceleration: DirectSound, DirectSound3D (up to 32 audio streams).

did anyone who tested the sblive! test this abiliity? using 32mb of sampling ram for sound fonts etc?

I've tested this in mac Os 9. The Sound Blaster Live built in Synth -despite his name- it is just a soundfont sampler player, and perform really well without taking CPU power. Another good thing is that it's sound output can be redirected to an audio input internally, so the sound is always in the digital domain. The worst things are: the card uses the Mac main memory, and this limit a lot its usability (a good piano can easily take 1 Gb of RAM!) and there isn't VST integration, so if you are working with different complex setups, you are forced to complex reload of sound fonts. Another drawback is the fact that the sound effects are just a few rever setups, and are applied only at the master end output, so are useless.

So, In my opinion this is useful feature only if you have a 500 Mhz or lower PCI Mac, and only need a very limited number of instruments, or a basic GM sound set.

[MacTron]

There is another option: the SH-101 for Powercore:



Up to eight instances without using the main CPU, and with perfect VST integration. The drawback is that this is a very basic non-polyphonic synth  ...