47: Recommended - sound and MIDI equipment

Sibelius, like many other audio or music based programs, is demanding on your audio hardware. For best results, you should consider the performance of your audio hardware just as much as you would your processor, RAM, or hard drive.

Most computers are supplied with an on board sound chip. This is fine for many day to day tasks, like watching video, or listening to music, however, we have found that the drivers supplied are often not up to the task presented by Sibelius.

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. ASIO driver support will be detailed within the specification of the sound card.