Hey everyone
I used to be very active on this forum, years ago. It's nice to see it going strong
Basically, I've got a pretty basic set up for both composing and recording and I've decided to splash out a bit on some new equipment. I'm actually perfectly happy with my composing and recording software (Sibelius and Cool Edit Pro respectively), but for hardware I've really no idea where to start.
My main priorities are:
1. To have half-decent synthesized sounds (at the moment I use software-loaded sound fonts - they're a step up from General MIDI, but I know there's way, way better out there)
2. To be able to record with a jack lead (an XLR input would be a bonus)
Would an external sound card be able to help with both of these? What sort of things do I need to consider?
I guess I could stretch up to say £100 for this. If you have any suggestions I'd be really grateful!
Oh and also... if you read this and think I really don't have a clue and need a basic education in this stuff, feel free to say so (politely!) and point me in the direction of a learning resource :)
Thank you!