Goodday,

I bought myself a Roland electronic piano with midi capabilities a year ago. At that stage I tried to use my onboard VIA AC'97 device for the midi. It was terrible, the lag and poor sound quality made me push midi aside till recently.

A friend borrowed me a SoundBlaster Live for a month and I was happily surprised with the quality of soundfonts that can be loaded and played.

I now want to buy a soundcard myself but am unsure which one to go for.

The SoundBlaster Live was nice but it seems it is a bit dated now, and the 8mb limit for soundfonts is quite a big con.

I am looking for a card that has acceptable midi capabilities and that has better support for soundfonts and samples and that sort of thing.

I also do a bit of gaming so if it still supports gaming features it would be nice.

I read in the forum that the TurtleBeach Santa Cruz might match my ticket?

I almost forgot I don't have a lot of money for this and am looking at a price range between $50 - $100. (Preferrably at the low end of this estimate).

I kindly request if anybody could recommend a few cards for me that I could look at that fits my requirements.

Thank you

Pegasus

Onboard, SB LIve, TBSC have MIDI?
If you're only using MIDI, M-Audio has MIDI-only cards, but the cards with MIDI and sound too are out of your range. I know the SB Extigy has MIDI ports, and since you're into games too, that might be a reasonable bet.

Kx project might be what you are looking for:
http://kxproject.lugosoft.com

I would also recommend these drivers for the SB Live. There's no 8 mb limit with these, it's really amazing what you can achieve with such a cheap soundcard!

Ed