Matrox SoundCard

[Dogbert]

We always talk about the features we'd like to have in our next Gxxx card.

If matrox would decide to go and make a sound card, would you buy it ?

What features would you like to see in it ?

Chipset ?

I/O ?

Any special feature ?

[P5ycho]

good drivers.

[Adam_F]

To be able to make its mind up wether it wants to be a Gamers Soundcard or a Professional Musicians Soundcard.

[piaxVirus]

This but for half the price.

[Ribbit]

We've already had a great line of soundcards from a Canadian company - the Gravis Ultrasound line (yes, from the joystick/gamepad people). Near-pro quality at consumer prices. They did wavetable synthesis (and later 48KHz output) when Creative et. al. were saying nobody needed or wanted it. The MAX in particular was known for its clean input. I'd say they were the Matrox of soundcards. Unfortunately they couldn't make enough money on them and the cards didn't get enough software support (they weren't SB-compatible), and Gravis ended up being bought by Kensington and went back to making joysticks. Shame...

[Ant]

Tis a shame, I still got my 2 UltraSounds.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Matrox sound card: Claims it supports A3D, but it's really just a EAX wrapper.

[frankymail]

The only thing I'd like a Matrox soundcard to be: a Sound Blaster not because it's that great (drivers please creative? WTF; 235 MB???) but because it'S so widely supported and most software is tested with a few creative cards (except stuff by VIA )

[Indiana]

Originally posted by frankymail
The only thing I'd like a Matrox soundcard to be: a Sound Blaster not because it's that great (drivers please creative? WTF; 235 MB???) but because it'S so widely supported and most software is tested with a few creative cards (except stuff by VIA )

Yeah, ...and Win2k. Oh what you say? you mean it was Creative who forgot to test their damn hard-/software on Win2k?!? And ACPI?!?!

Yeah, just f*ck those standards, as long as you're not the one setting them: the Creative and Microsoftian way of doing things.

[RedRed]

it would have to support 3 sets of speakers!

RedRed

[Adam_F]

it would have to support 3 sets of speakers!

Yeah, but only two of those sets of speakers properly.

It will claim to be a professional musicians card, and yet only usefully support the third set of speakers in games.

[frankymail]

You need 7.1 sound if you're a musician??? Man, most theaters don't even use 7.1 sound yet. Most high-end speakers targetted at "musicians" only have 2 speakers and a sub... The only apps that make use of my 5.1 system are games and dvd players... (though it's nice to have "kinda-surround" music)...

Besides, if i remember correctly, the maximum number of channels on a CD is 2, isn't it? Most recording studios mix things down to 2 channels anyway. Also, most audio codecs only support 2 channels... (AC3 is the only one that comes to my mind that supports more than 2 channels).

Unless I encounter a MAJOR roadblock, that Sound Blaster is staying in my system.

If, however, I do encounter some pretty big (and by that I mean 9/11-like, relatively speaking) problems, there are always some very good alternatives: Via, Sensora, nVIDIA (though this one requires a new mobo…). I don’t really think that there is a big market for professional-caliber sound cards these days; the Platinum line of creative is the one with the lowest sales, by far, and look what happened to Gravis’ line of sound cards… Even Aureal had problem staying afloat, even if their products were very good, pretty cheap and had great compatibility. Cirrus Logic and C-Media are doing fine thanks to their cheap OEM products. Everyone know that money is in the OEM market, and that is particularly true in that case of sound cards….

[Ssin]

I used to remember GUS' time. The output, the midi restitution and the input on those cards were awesome. Even my Audigy can't make me feel the way I felt when I listened to chords or grand piano on my GUS. At some time it was also the only card widely supported by demo makers. Now arrival of windows 9x systems killed it off. If Matrox wanted to push something in Sound Business they would have to do with the taïwanese ppl. They are the guys really holding the market. They do sell billions of chips to asus, gigabyte, aopen, etc...