DAK BSR Mediamaster
Daniel Thureen
The wonderful world of DAK (Dakonians Unite) is advertising a multimedia PC
sound board (BSR MediaMaster). Its hard to separate the hard data from all
the advertizing glitz, but they apparently claim it has:
16 bit A/D w/41.1 KHz sampling
16 bit D/A
128 voice MIDI sound module (Roland GS compatible)
16 bit processor w/384K RAM
Multimedia Software
CD Music Launcher
Text-to-Speech software
Mentor MIDI sequencing and music notation program
Band-in-a-Box
All this for $199.90.
Has anyone had any experience with this card or seen any reviews of it?
Questions:
1) Is this too good to be true? DAK can sometimes make the most horrible
trash look gold-plated. Is it a piece of junk or a good deal?
2) What is the quality of the sound module? Did they use someone else's or
build their own. Is it polyphonic? (how many?). Multi-timbrel? (how many?)
How does it compare against some of the low end rack mounted or keyboard
synths.
3) How about the audio quality (noise, etc.)
4) How does it compare against some other boards.
(Gravis Ultra, ProAudio Spectrum 16, SoundblasterPro, Ad Lib, etc.)
5) Is it compatible with any of the above? Any third party software support?
6) How about the Mentor sequencer/notation program?
Thanks for any advice.
Dan Thureen