Best Sound Card for Video Editing

[sundog2k]

The Hercules Game Theater Pro has the exact same chipset as the Santa Cruz, but has a nice BOB for it for those that like it. I am VERY happy with mine.

Mike

[nunchalnaomi]

Hi,

I would warn anyone of creative soundblaster 2 audigy and w2k. Nothing but problems. I'm either going to getr a santa cruz or go to xp. Creative says no new drivers for w2k and even though the xp drivers should work, all I get is scratchy sound. I did want the inputs for voice overs and my minidisc has digital outs which I had hoped to use, but no such luck. The card is driving me crasy. Nunchal

[gt40]

nunchalnaomi,

I am using the sb audigy under win2k with absolutely no problems. (also using RTX.10)

[Fred H]

Santa Cruz worked 100% for me in Win98, Win200Pro/SP2 and now in XP (look at my system conf below).
The difference between W98 and W2K/XP is that in W98 there is an “audiometer” in W2K/XP there is not, and it is not an error (confirmed by Turtle Beach).

Fed H

[Nowhere]

nunchalnaomi, try this (if you don't care about EAX/gaming stuff that is...)

btw, kx Project makes pretty good cards out of creative's emu10k1 & 2 (apparently their hardware is ok, but software...grrr). Even on Live you can get better sound quality (thanks to using the better, "rear" DAC), low resource consumption and ASIO (much better then creatives one on Audigy, ~7 or 8 ms).

[mutrax]

3 line-ins 2 line-outs ?

Hi, call me lazy but I don't like to plug/unplug cables every time I capture or transfer to/from my VCR. I've been looking for a sound card that provides 3 line-ins and 2 line-outs jacks. I don't care if it has or not Dolby 4.1, 5.1 or x.y !! So far, the closest I get to this dream card is the Turtle Beach mentioned earlier... is there any other card like the one I want in the market ?
If not, is there any device (like an audio mixer) specifically designed for PCs... and that costs less than US$100 ?
Thanks folks !

[Enak]

Having purchased and used my Pure Digital SonicXplosion for quite a while now I am quite pleased with it!

However, in games, the drivers are buggy and results in a hard lock of the system after playing for 1/2 an hour or so if hardware acceleration is enabled. Something I am really not happy with.

As a result of this I would not recommend this card to anyone else.

[Enak]

Oh, and I found this in the FAQ on their website:
"Using Dual CPU (SMP) systems

Dual CPU, Symmetric Multiprocessor Systems, are generally for servers and business applications, and not for gaming systems. The SonicXplosion DVD will install and work in this environment, but you may run into audio or performance problems under heavy CPU loads (gaming, audio recording, etc…). A dual CPU system may not allocate resources correctly for a sound card when tasks are divided between the 2 CPUs under heavy graphical and audio loads such as gaming. Please keep in mind that the SonicXplosion DVD is a consumer level audio card not a server product."

http://www.puredigital.com/Support/kb.asp?FAQ=76&Product=VL-60644#FAQs

Which would explain the lockups.

[Enak]

As a result I have decided to look for a new card...

Any suggestions? The new creative stuff looks good, but I am still not keen to go the creative route... are they any better?

[Brambus]

I use SB Audigy 2 (only drivers installed, not media center) without any problem.
Really great quality.
My combo:
Intel 875 Bonanza + P4 3Ghz + 1 GB DDR 400
Matrox Parhelia 128 + RT.X100
2 X Barracuda SATA 120 (Intel ICH5 raid)
2 X Barracuda PATA 80 (Windows raid)
Boot disk Maxtor 80 Gb
Pioneer A03 DVD writer
SB Audigy 2

Brambus

[Enak]

That's what I was looking at... the new Audigy 2 ZS looks pretty nice.

Anyone else had good/ bad experience with the Audigy range?

Thanks

[Elie]

Ok, if you are using the RT.X100 with Premiere Pro, or just PPro on it's own, I TOTALLY recommend an ASIO compatible soundcard other than the soundblaster!!

ASIO support in Premiere Pro is huge, and the benifits are that you can reduce latency which also illiminates the chances of audio/video sync problems.

And it you decide on a ASIO soundcard, I suggest you make sure that the card you buy supports Direct X otherwise it may not work with the RT.X100 if that is the direction you are going.

I personally use the Turtle Beach sound card which is an excellent choice, but I would jump the ASIO bandwagen any time.

Regards,
Elie

[Enak]

Why not the Soundblaster? From what I've read the ASIO drivers for the Audigy 2 series are suppose to be very good!

AFAIK the Santa Cruz is pretty much the same card as the Pure Digital SonicXplosion DVD... Unfortunately, this means it's likely to have the same problem with SMP.

[Enak]

Found this information on the Turtle Beach website:

Dual CPU, Symmetric Multiprocessor Systems, are generally for servers and business applications, and not for gaming systems. The Santa Cruz will installand work in this environment, but you may run into audio or performance problems under heavy CPU loads (gaming, audio recording, etc…).

A dual CPU system may not allocate resources correctly for a sound card when tasks are divided between the 2 CPUs under heavy graphical and audio loads such as gaming. Please keep in mind that the Santa Cruz is a consumer level audio card not a server product.

NOTE: This is NOT to be confused with Hyper-Threading. The Santa Cruz will work fine with a single Hyper-Threading CPU.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/kb_ftp/5852007.asp

Which make's me think that the problem I have may not be related to hyperthreading.

I'll see if the problem goes away if I disable hyperthreading and report back..

[guylauten]

The Santa Cruz is great if you want to stay at consumer level. I have an MAudio Delta Audiophile 2496 that sounds incredible and provides analog in/out and SPDIF in/out. SPDIF is the way to go if you need pro sound.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/delta.php