47: Recommended - sound and MIDI equipment

Most people are satisfied to use their computer's on-board sound chip for playing back music from Sibelius. This works well for Step-Time and Alphabetic input of notes. However, if you plan to record music using a MIDI Keyboard your sound chip will probably have too high a latency for this to work well, resulting in a 'delay' between the key press and the note being heard.

As a general rule, we recommend that it is best to avoid using 'on-board' sound hardware, and instead opt for a dedicated sound card for your machine. Any sound card with good ASIO drivers is suitable, but performance is normally better if you have a sound card is aimed towards audio recording, rather than gaming/home entertainment.

The easiest cards to use and install are external USB cards, as these do not require you to open up your machine, and are also suitable for use with laptops.

The M-Audio Fast Track USB is a good basic card that provides good performance with Sibelius. It does not have built-in MIDI inputs, but works well with all USB MIDI controller keyboards. If you are using a keyboard that uses standard MIDI cables, you will need to purchase a separate MIDI to USB cable such as the M-Audio Uno

Alternatively, if you prefer to have your Audio and MIDI interface in one unit, the Fast Track Pro has built-in MIDI capability and therefore a separate MIDI to USB cable is not required with this device.

If you prefer to have an internal sound card in your desktop machine, any Audiophile or Delta series sound card is recommended. Alternatively any card aimed towards the Audio Recording market with good ASIO drivers would also be suitable.