sound output

A sound module's main qualities are:

   - does it have enough GOOD sounds?
     go through the sounds and see if you'll want to USE them in a song.
     sometimes there a bunch of wonderful sounds, but you just won't use em.
     is there a GOOD metronome sound in the drum sounds that you can stand
     hearing OVER and OVER again ??

   - are these sounds dynamic?
     They should change (in a musically useful way) when you change the
     modulation wheel, expression pedal, keyboard pressure, etc, etc.
     When you play the keys hard, the sound should RING.
     When you play softly, the sound should be muted (filtered).

   - how many notes can it do max?  (polyphony)
     Usually, not a big worry.  Unless you're doing classical music and really
     care about the hold pedal keeping more than 32 notes going at once.
     Remember that stereo requires a polyphony of 2 - left sound n right one.
     Layering sounds is taking 2 sounds and playing em at the same time.
     Sounds good :)  Eats polyphony :(

   - can it load in new samples for me to create new sounds with?
     Used to be you had to buy a "sampler".
     An expensive synth with a cheap jack for an expensive microphone.
     To get new sounds into your synth.
     Now adaze, we usually leave THAT to professional audio gurus.
     And simply take their beautiful .WAV files and pop em in.
     Some sound modules can only play the samples that come from the factory
     in ROM (read only memory).  called ROMplers by some.

   - is it easy to tweak the sounds the way YOU want them to react?
     Maybe you hate to use the expression pedal.
     You want to use the modulation wheel instead.
     Maybe you think the sound needs to be filtered (toned down or muted) a bit.
     Maybe you need a crazy whacko freaky sound !!
     Sometimes that takes diving into the sound module's "sound architecture".
     Read the manual.  Is there one?  It's IMPORTANT !!
     Check the manufacturer's website and google.
     Or maybe you don't care about tweaking sounds.
     You're a player, not a creatin' composer.
     Trust me, you will WANT to dive into sound synthesis some day :)

   - can it listen to all 16 midi channels?  more than one port?
     As mentioned, a sound module usually has 16 midi channels.
     (16 sounds max at any given instant,
      but channels can change their sound whenEVER they want.)
     Extra ports mean 32 or 48 channels !!
     well, channel 10 is reserved for drums - more on that later.
     Imagine a band with 45 distinct instruments!  plus 3 full drum rigs!
     It could sound terrible, but imagine the sheer power :)

   - zero latency?
     running a poorly written software sound module
     on an ooold pc can put an undesirable delay between
     your keypress start time and your note sounding starting time.
     That lag is called latency - it's bad.
     Make sure your hardware and software are fast enough so there's none of it
     or a value thats so small it's imperceptible.
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