My new sound card (2496)... has no synth?

I just installed my new Audiophile 2496, but when I go to OPTIONS - MIDI DEVICES I only see

DELTA AP MIDI (which apparently just sends the data out to my keyboard)
Microsoft MIDI mapper (which apparently is not a real midi target at all (what is this for???))

Does anyone know if there are options for having this card actually interpret MIDI and create sounds?
Or will I have to use a soft synth in order to get sounds with this card?

Thanks much! I'll just use the soft synths...

Samplers though? I don't know anything about those. Can you give me a name of a sampler that works with MC that I could do some research on?

I have a soundblaster card and like some of the soundfonts. Can I add a better soundcard (eg emu 0404 pci) and keep the soundblaster without causing problems ?

sike,
Benney is correct. The Soundblaster and the E-MU will take turns knocking each other out of the picture. I tried in vain to find a configuration, using hardware profiles, etc to make them work.
For what it's worth, The Edirol VSC has the same General MIDI sound set that is embedded in your Soundblaster. Plus a few extras. In general they are as good or better.
What you would gain with the E-MU0404 far outweighs the loss of the built-in soundfonts.

The improvement of 24bit over 16bit won't necessarily be noticable to a beginner, but I always encourage everyone to use 24bit even from the start. The difference is resolution of the converted waveform. Sometimes this is difficult to explain in laymen's terms, but I'll use the catch phrase of the industry, "headroom." If you record in 16bit then you have less "headroom" than if you record in 24bit because each (vertical) bit of the wave is LARGER for the 16bit resolution, therefore the highest bit recorded for a given slice (a single sample) will stop at a different level than the 24bit recording's slice will. This may be very confusing to a non-technical person, but basically you get better noise floor and more headroom with 24bit, therefore you get better recordings.

The EMU0404 is leaps and bounds better than a Soundblaster or especially an onboard sound card. I have never used one myself, but judging from the questions folks have had here on the forums, I suspect that the soft mixer which you have to use with it to get the card to interact with MC is a little difficult to navigate, but once you get it set up you usually don't have to mess with it again. And there are fine folks here like Bob (RobertB) who know a lot about the 0404 and the patchmix program who are more than willing to spend time helping folks get their 0404 working with MC.

Thus an 0404 is near the top of my list for recommendations of a starter sound card!

Again thanks for the info. Looks like it would be a good buy.

Ditto.
The mixer will work fine with MC3, and I have seen some great deals on this card recently.
If you are recording mics or electric guitar, you will need some kind of preamp. I use a small Yamaha mixer with built in pre's. Check out your options at the music store. You have some workable choices for less that $100.
If you get stumped on something, ask away.

I used the 0404 for a year before upgrading to the 1820...more simultaneous inputs, better for a studio set up. I also use soundfonts, but I found the viena to be too cumbersome, so I use the sf2, very plain, straightforward. There are a lot of free soundfonts available, some are relatively large files, but worth the space on your machine. I have an extra drive installed to divide the work space, one for programs, the other for music data. The ling in my signature has examples of things I have done, all with either the 0404 or its big brother. And all of the keyboard sounds, rodes piano, hammond b3 organ, classical piano, etc., are free soundfonts. In some cases the drums are soundfonts, also, but some are from edirol. Don't think I can hear the difference at mp3 quality, but definately can tell at cd quality(16 bit 44,100hz)
As far as the 24 to 16 bit comparison, beagle explained that quite well, but I think I can add that the higher bit rate helps when processing some vst effects, as well. You are giving the machine smaller peices of info to process, so it can produce more precise reverbs, echoes, and other effects.
At least that is my understanding on the subject...more head room, cleaner effect processing.
Later
Albert

Good deal. It looks like you have the external hardware covered. Go for it!