Any card with a MIDI interface will probably work. The machine I am retiring which I used for this task utilized;
> AWE64 Gold
> CMI8738
> SCC-1 (Previously, long removed and I don't recommend it as it tended to lag when driving larger synths quite hard)
> Yamaha SW1000XG
I have also used other cards in different systems, notably the Envy24 which studio cards were usually based on (Buy a cheap one, the $800 versions are no better) an Audigy 2 and even a VIA on-board controller. Latency might vary a bit so look out for that if you want to drive more than one synth in real time. If you're just running one synth, one interface or are multi-tracking the latency doesn't matter as much except when you are recording the keyboard in because you will have to shift the piano roll.
Generally, unless you have crappy luck and find a rare example of awfulness, anything the OS can run will work and do so well enough that it doesn't really matter who made it.
realnc wrote:Formulator wrote:I am curious to know what anyone's choice of MIDI hardware on a Socket 7 Windows 95 machine for serious music production would be
Nothing. I would not do serious music production on a Windows 95, socket 7 system. I'd be using something like a Core i7 with Windows 7 or 8 instead.
That is practically impossible if you actually want to do real MIDI and not primitive VST cacophonies. Also, USB is pretty useless for this kind of thing and older software using real MIDI doesn't run well on later operating systems.
Edit: As an example, it would be almost impossible to exercise this level of control over the synthesizer using a modern platform; https://soundcloud.com/high_treason/driving-at-night most software can't even fire SysEx down the line on demand anymore, something this track made heavy use of. There were also parts which required direct editing of the event list, a feature absent or anemic in most newer, bloated software solutions. The track was produced solely with Windows 98, the recordings were pieced together on a newer box for convenience sake, but the same process would have worked on the 98 box.