Favorite Soundcard - Opinions Welcome.

[kidspot]

Since I started visiting the MURC Forums a few months back one sound card keeps popping up, and keeps having troubles - the SB Live! I have had my share of woes with it as well, so with that said, what is the best sound card you have used with your matrox capture card?

[Patrick]

I hear the Doc favours any of the PCI units...

[Flying dutchman]

No more experimenting with PCI soundcards for me - the newer models from Creative Labs do all sorts of sound effects in software which costs too much processor time.

A Soundblaster PCI 64 caused tons of troubles on my PC (dropped frames on video playback). I have a celeron 466/BX board so the system should really be fast enough. I got rid of the SB64 and re-inserted my good old SB 16 (ISA) which works perfectly.

[jeff b]

I'll second the motion for ISA. When I bought a new computer a few months ago, I opted for the AWE 64 ISA card from Soundblaster. The old computer is still in use with its SB-16 ISA card from Soundblaster. Absolutely no problems with either one.

PS- I never install any of the crap from Soundblaster that comes with the cards. Instead, I let Windows98 SE install its drivers for the card, and that's it.

[This message has been edited by jeff b (edited 27 January 2000).]

[RBryant]

I have had my SBLive! since the day they were released (July 98?) and have never ever had a single problem with mine. I prefer PCI because I use a lot of SoundFonts and MIDI Banks, so the ISA bus is just way too slow to be passing that stuff back and forth; could you imagine trying to do AGP texturing over the ISA bus? Also, I prefer the SBLive! because of the digital out since I have it hooked up to an AC-3 receiver.

I think the main reason that a lot of people have problems with sound cards is because, next to ethernet cards, they are the most IRQ intensive of any card. As a result, the motherboard and ALL PCI/AGP cards must be fully PCI 2.1 compliant. If this is the case, then you could put every single card on the same IRQ and there would be no problem. My case is full with 1 AGP and 6 PCI cards, and I have several things sharing IRQs... and no problems... I capture/edit/output video, play games, do MIDI stuff, play DVDs, and lots of other stuff...

[fluggo99]

I'll put in my vote for the SoundBlaster AWE64 (ISA) as one of the best soundcards of all time.

SB Live! has it beat in a few areas, but it's got a much bigger learning curve, and like many have said, a ton of problems. Besides, video editors typically wouldn't need the added benefits: 16 more channels of MIDI, a slightly better S/N ratio (AWE64 was quiet enough! then there's the output power problem on Live!...), fully customizable environment reverbs & the like (annoying as heck), digital in-and-out, more wavetable memory, etc.

Your run-of-the-mill video guy would be more concerned with keeping the system stable than any of these things. That's why the AWE64 was better.

[DrMordrid]

Verrrry PHUNNY Patrick....

I'm in the ISA/AWE64 crowd too. I went thorugh so many PCI audio cards there was a stack of 'em a foot hign on the workbench and none of them worked right. That was using 440BX, VIA and other chipped mainboards.

I also agree with Jeff B about just letting Win98SE install its own drivers and forgetting about Creatives stuff except for the control panel. Use that to turn off the reverb, spatial and all that other crap that causes bushoggitis.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by DrMordrid (edited 27 January 2000).]

[Pertti]

One more vote for the ISA camp.

The SB32AWE is so problemfree that if I didn't have the sound coming from my speakers, I would propably forget that it's there in the firstplace.

Pertti

(btw. it also provides a convenient connection for the CD-Rom:s, DVD:s and CD-RW:s )

[Brian Ellis]

Provided that you disable the DOS games enabling and make sure that there are no IRQ conflicts, SB Live! works fine with Marvel G200, using v. 2 drivers. I agree that it is hairy if you don't set the system up right.

------------------
Brian (the terrible)

[Elie]

I LOVE my AudioTrix 3D-XG it's simply awesome, The best midi, realtime effects on anything like CD wave or mic.
check it out at www.mediatrix.com


Regards,
Elie

[DrMordrid]

Nice looking ISA board there Elie.

I'm going to have to take a look at it. It has all the connections & features you could want and 48khz audio as well, which the AWE64 doesn't have. Hmmm...wonder what I'd use that for ;-)

Dr. Mordrid

[Elie]

Hehe, I can think of only one thing

The only disapointing thing is the card doesn't have spdif in or out, I don't even know if you can add one, I'll have to check with Media trix.
The only benefit to Spdif is AC3 when your playing back DVD movies.
Oh well you can't have everything I guess.

Cheers,
Elie

[smitty]

Hi guys. In my previous computer(233 mmx P1)
I used a sb64awe (ISA). I had no problems.
I now have a Diamond mx300(PCI) I like the sound and it works great, no problems.I switched only for the add on mx25 digital in/out board which I have on order.

[kidspot]

Sounds like ISA is definitely winning here - and looks like the SB64AWE is leading the pack by users on the forum -

[Elie]

The SB64AWE is leading because no one knows what the AudiuoTrix 3D-XG can do. It truly outperforms any soundblaster product by far.

If you want, order the free demo CD from the site I mentioned in my previous post and see what it's capable of

Yet another outstanding Canadian product

Cheers,
Elie


[This message has been edited by Elie (edited 28 January 2000).]