Hi Mark,

You touch on something that is rather interesting. In the Audigy managers, in Control Panel\Sound, only SB Audigy 2 Zs Synth A (ECCO) and Synth B (ECCO) are given as choices for midi output devices and SB Audigy 2 Zs IO (ECCO) as the midi input device.

On the other hand Composer setup lists these, PLUS Microsoft GS Wavetable Sw Synth, SB Audigy 2 Zs Sw Synth (ECCO), and SB Live! Midi UART as an additonal IO External port.

But whichever device I set as default in either Windows Sound, Soundfont Bank Manager, or Composer, the buzz and lockup of the computer occur, whatever I use to play the file. (The choices, as I said, are limited to the A and B Synth for output in Windows and Audigy's SFBM.)

I've also had some odd things happen. After using Vienna Soundfont Editor for a half hour, with it working flawlessly, I got an access violation and it crashed (but not the computer) and the shortcut to it was grayed out and I could not start it from START\All Programs, until the next restart. Then WMP shut down all plug-ins because one was causing problems. The only new one is Nero's Fast CD Buring plugin.

I haven't tried setting Composer's default as the MS Wavetable or the Audigy Sw Synth. I'll do that now. If the crash occurs, perhpas I'll try the complete removal and see what a fresh installation from the CD with the card and the updates will do, or not do.

all best,
mgj