Yamaha SW60XG

The SW60XG supports a variety of hardware effects that can be applied to its MIDI sounds to boost realism even further. These include 11 types of reverb and 11 types of chorus, plus distortion, rotary, echo, flanger and delay effects that make a further 42 settings. These DSP effects can even be applied to any digital audio routed through the card, from the CD, line or microphone inputs.

Three software packages are included. Perhaps the most useful is the full version of Cakewalk Express, and there's also Yamaha's own XG Editor. Although the SW60XG is compatible with the General MIDI, it also supports the XG standard, which is a superset of GM which expands on its 128 voices (instrument sounds) and adds a number of audio effects that can be controlled with this utility. Finally, Effects Gear II controls the DSP effects you apply to digital audio routed through the card.

At a cost of £127, the SW60XG isn't cheap. In fact, it could cost much more than the sound card it's used to upgrade. However, when you consider the sound quality, this really isn't bad value for money. Compared with cards such as the Turtle Beach TBS-2000, which only has 2Mb of wavetable ROM, the Yamaha has plenty to distinguish it.

For the gamer it may be rather too expensive, but for anyone serious about their MIDI the SW60XG offers the best set of samples around.

Author: Mike Bedford