Bond) writes:
> >As an aside at this point, the DB50XG is IMHO _far_ superior to the
> >AWE32 (My DB50 sits on my AWE32).
> Compare oboe, clarinet, violin and french horn. The DB50XG sounds not
> much different to an AWE with a 2meg sound font. I think the massed strings
> sound worse. When playing a duo for oboe and basson both devices sound
> horrible at times.
Perhaps on their own, but I've recently been playing Warcraft II and have
you compared the AWE32 sound with the External MIDI option (ie the DB50XG)?
The drums are _far_ superior and have a better depth to the sounds. Also,
the AWE32's strings aren't particularly well looped in places and these
are really noticeable in some pieces. The only problem I have with the
DB50 is that its sounds aren't that hot unless you apply some fx to them,
especially for solo type stuff, and I hate messing around putting all
those numbers into Cubase's List box... On that note, some versions of
Cubase don't seem at all good at sending all the MIDI data at all. I've
got a _really_ good Voodoo Chile MIDI that simply plays like shit through
Cubase 1.0, is fine with Orchestrator Plus, Cubase Score and Cubase 3.0
but refuses to play with 1.0. The 3.0 version's a demo btw.
I think the main problem is what people expect from their sound/daughter
cards. The AWE32 (or AWE64 which, from what I can tell, simply improves
on the noisy parts of the 32) is alright for game playing but at over
100 quid (UK) it's pretty expensive. The DB50 is about the same price
and offers far better sounds than the 32, but only if you're prepared
to work with it. You _have_ to learn to play with XGEdit and mess around
with all the SYSEX bollocks if you want great sounds. Compare the really
good XG files with any of the best AWE32 stuff. It's no comparison.
Compared to, say, the current crop of sound modules, alright, they're
not much cop, but for the price they are superb. A DB50 will set you
back about 100quid. It's getting difficult to even find AWE32's any
more, and the AWE64 is over 100 quid (UK pounds), add to that about
30quid for a memory upgrade and is it really worth it, especially
since the upgrades are now propriety ones. If Yamaha were to make the
DB50 as a standalone card with sample capacity on it it'd be a killer.
At least then we wouldn't have huge hiss, pathetic downgrade of sample
quality when put on the board and an unfair price because Yamaha know
what they're doing. The DB50 truly brings power without the price.
You get FX processors, a huge sound set and XG support. It beats the
AWE32 IMO.
Quote:> >I've got some great 909 bass drums that are well wicked when played
> >using, eg Goldwave or Cooledit, but after I shunt them onto the
> >AWE32 the sound goes to shit. The bass disapears and I'm left with
> >this crappy drum sound. Utterly pathetic really.
> It's relatively rare for drums to be significant in the music I like, but
> some timp notes do sound better on the DB50XG.
> Sam
The point of me saying that was because the AWE32 simply can't handle
bass samples put on it properly. The deep bass sounds I'd love to use
sound like *farts once on the AWE32. This simply shouldn't happen
really, but that's the price for choosing a game soundcard.
l8r,
g