I haven't used any Cakewalk products in years, and Home Studio is an entry level product that will have many limitations.

But all MIDI sequencers will use the General MIDI standard, as will most all sound cards that are included with the purchase of a computer. So the synth in the soundcard will respond to the MIDI messages of Home Studio. (That includes the drums.)

More professional sound cards may not include synths, in which case the card could not respond to the MIDI messages.

You are likely to be less than thrilled with the sound of the synth in an included sound card. But it is a place to start.

You are not 'programming' anything when you use a sequencer.

Bill

Bill,
I haven't gotten my soundcard yet so I'm kind of unable to test this stuff myself yet. Cakewalk has the Edirol VSC, which, I understand is a software synth and has simulated sounds built into it(not the sound card). From your reply, I believe that you're saying that the synth sounds come from the soundcard.
What is the basic use of a software synth(is it supposed to be played by an external keyboard or are notes plotted on a music staff on a computer monitor and then played by the software)? Same question for the drums.........the cakewalk software has a drum program in which particular drums are mapped out to play where you want them to play in your song. Is the idea that the software just plays the drum sounds back through the soundcard after they are plotted on the graph?
Andrew

Andrew,

"... use of a software synth(is it supposed to be played by an external keyboard or are notes plotted on a music staff on a computer monitor and then played by the software)? "

all of the above are possible, and many people use the 'piano roll' display for MIDI editing, too. I used to use my MIDI enabled guitar to play the notes into the sequencer, then edit them, and asign them to play back in whatever instrument I wanted to hear.

"Same question for the drums.........the cakewalk software has a drum program in which particular drums are mapped out to play where you want them to play in your song. Is the idea that the software just plays the drum sounds back through the soundcard after they are plotted on the graph?"

Yes.

From what you have said, Home Studio has a software synth built in. If so, then you would not need the synth of the sound card. Likely, you can use both if you want to do so. But that would be a question for a Home Studio user.

Bill