Sound Card Factors
I have found that more than anything else the sound card driver plays the most important part in determining how well your system works. For example, for a long time I was using Taiwanese Yamaha Sound Card which cost me about US$40.00. Although the sound quality was nothing spectacular the drivers were. I usually run up something like Rebirth to give a driver a good work out and see how far I can go with the driver before it starts to crack up. I haven't used anything since that comes close to the performance of the drivers for this card. Other cards I have used are SoundBlasters, AVM Apex and a TerraTec Maestro 32/96. My current card is the Apex.
Now this poses a bit of a problem because you will have to rely on others who have already bought a card to tell you how well the drivers perform, it's not like a peice of software that you can test first and decide it's no good. For this reason I think I have spent more money on sound cards than anything else. I started with a Roland RAP 10 for which Roland for reasons only known unto themselves NEVER released a Windows 95 driver. There policy was use the 3.1 driver, it works fine, well Mr Roland, please get real, I will NEVER buy a Roland product again after this. I paid nearly $600 when came out which was a lot of money and it just sits on a shelf gathering dust. End of complaint session.
Do NOT buy any card that the manufacturer DOES NOT having shipping DirectX Drivers. Any card that has Direct X drivers will usually be well supported and will work better with VST by using the Direct X options in VST.
Heres what I can tell you about some cards I have used.
SoundBlasters
Nearly always have quality drivers with frequent updates, sound quality usually leaves a bit to be desired, but hey, they're cheap. I tried about 3 different models with VST and had no real major problems. One other point is that most SoundBlasters do full duplex in software, in other words it is emulated, most of them are not really full duplex in hardware devices. Spend a bit more and get a PCI card.
AVM Apex
Been using this card for a while and had no real problems, the synth is mediocre though. Can be a little noisy with various bus noises making there way into the audio out. My main problem with this card is despite the web site hype and Plug and Play etc these can be REALLY difficult to install. It uses 3 IRQ's and 2 DMA's. So if you already have a PCI video card using an IRQ and say a USB port using another you are pretty much stuffed if you want to put any other cards. If you are thinking of this card as a first time purchase my advice would be to reconsider and go for a PCI card (see below). The drivers are good and perform well. Tested under 95 and 98.
Terratec Maestro 32/96
Much the same as the Apex, needs 3 IRQ's etc etc, resonable sound quality, good drivers.
Gadget Labs Wave/4
See here for more details. An ISA card with 4 in's and 4 outs, a lot of info on their web site, sounds like it should be a screamer, I have ordered one but it hasn't arrived yet, will update this page when it does, it only USES ONE IRQ !
Got this card today 21 October, will update this page shortly with a report on how it works.
Well, I got to tell you this is the quietest card I have ever NOT heard. It works really well under VST and Windows 98, highly recomended.
Phill 21/Dec/98