The combination of the EnsoniqSoundscape Driver with any of the supported sound cards is currently the only solution available for NEXTSTEP or OPENSTEP providing support for both Audio and MIDI features on one Intel-compatible bus adaptor board. The EnsoniqSoundscape Driver is compatible with the currently shipping MusicKit Mididriver, enabling Intel machines running NEXTSTEP or OPENSTEP to allocate a single ISA or EISA slot to the combined functions of Audio and MIDI.
In a recent survey of MusicKit MIDI users and developers, ENSONIQ Soundscape Elite owners were the only ones happy with the performance of their sound card. Other cards compared include the MediaVision ProAudio Basic 16 and the built-in sound hardware for the Canon Object Station. See the MusicKit Mailing List archives for details.
Also, according to the archives of the NeXTmusic mailing list:
Sources at NeXT say the most reliable sound card for NEXTSTEP-Intel is the Microsoft card. Microsoft [...] have stopped production, [...]The ENSONIQ Soundscape hardware is based on the same quality CODEC chip as the Microsoft Windows Sound System, and is therefore the only shipping option that is available to NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP users which meets or exceeds the same quality and reliability standards. Considering that the Microsoft product did not include MIDI support and has since been discontinued, the ENSONIQ Soundscape should be the multimedia sound card of choice for NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP now that a Driver is available.