Star,

You can use one soundcard for both accompaniment and melody. Unless you already have a non-XG soundcard that you absolutely want to keep. You could try to get a second hand Yamaha SW60XG (you need an ISA slot!). I have one in my PC together with a Sounblaster. They don't interfere because the SW60XG is not a complete soundcard, just a synthesizer card.

If you listen to the individual sounds of such an XG device they don't sound that fantastic. But all together in an accompaniment they do sound great because the many styles that are available on the net where made for this synth.

What I specially like about the XG soundcards is that they respond to a lot of controllers like resonance (71) and cut off frequency (74). Avarage soundcards including the Soundblasters don't do that. There are a lot of XG MIDI files available that use those controllers to create real spectacular wah-wah effects and synth sweeps. I have made some styles from XG MIDI's in a quick and dirty way that were highly appreciated by users of PSR2000's and PSR9000's. Most existing styles don't use much of those effects, I don't know why. Maybe I'll switch from selling arranger software to selling XG styles!

Jos