Yamaha PLG150-AN

The main limitation with this card is its confinement to Yamaha hardware; it only plugs into the company's SW1000XG sound card and runs with proprietary software. It's also worth noting that some of the older SW1000XG cards may have to be upgraded. Yamaha offers this for free if you send your card back. Being only one part multitimbral - the ability to play more than one sound at a time - may seem like a limitation compared to other recent synthesizers, but, in effect, multitimbrality is mostly irrelevant here. In fact, the classic synthesizers being emulated such as the Prophet 5 and Roland TB-303 were also only one part multitimbral.

If you want the best analog modelling available on the PC, you can't do much better than this. You may have to buy a SW1000XG to run it, but it would be well worth it as this is a fantastic card in its own right. Out of all the computer components I've used, the PLG150-AN is certainly one I've had the most fun with. It's a lot more flexible than current software equivalents with the added bonus of no CPU overheads. Whichever analog sound you're looking for, the chances are the PLG150-AN will do it, and it's far cheaper than forking out for an antique original Prophet 5.

Author: Ben Hardwidge