24/96 sound card for 69.00 us

darrin_h2000

darrin_h2000

Banned
Now thay I have your attention, I saw a package for the sound blaster Audigy with 24 bit a/d and d/a convertors and 96 khz sampling rate.

Anyone bit on this hook yet. the specs sound ok and Ive allways wanted a 24/96 card I could use and listen to cds on (all the other cards lacked a cd input). the Value version has the same card as the others but without the software that takes up alot of resourses.

Interested in opinons before I spend my dough.
 
Read the specs CAREFULLY.

The (Fr)audigy is NOT a 24/96 card. It will ONLY record at 16bit/48kHz and will only PLAYBACK 24-bit files.

Get a real 24-bit soundcard instead.
 
The Sound Blaster Audigy is a very good card for the money. It does not use a full 24-bit recording process, but it's still going to be better than many other sound cards (along with top of the line MIDI). I've already made a number of essay-like posts on this subject (I hate it when people slag the Audigy for no particular reason), so...

For an impartial review, you may want to check this out:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/video/01q3/010927/index.html

On the other hand, the 16 and 24-bit recording modes are there and they work. But in fact, the card converts from analog to digital in 24-bit, after where is a 16-bit downmix which is finally restored in 24-bit by the software for the outputfile. So, it is not complete 24-bit recording process but the quality is improved compared to standard 16-bit by the use of the better converter.
Click to expand...

Depending on what you're using, it would probably be a big step up from what you have now. But if you want true 24-bit, and don't need powerful MIDI, it might be better to bite the bullet and get something else.
 
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That doesn't make any sense. Why would it record at 24 and then truncate or dither down to 16, and then pad back up to 24?

If the Audigy uses a 24bit A/D, then they probably couldn't get the noise down low enough to utilize the extra bits. Hence maybe it has 18bits of good fidelity, and everything lower is crap. This would ensure a decent 16bit sound, but since it pads, any recorded 24bit files will sound no better than 16bit files. Regardless, it implies either poor design or a poor converter network or both.

At $69 it might be a value, but that's half way up to an Audiophile, which isn't far from a MIA, which isn't far from a Delta44, etc etc.

Darrin, you don't need CD or AUX inputs on a soundcard to listen to CD's through it. Assuming you're talking about the CD player in your computer, simply use a player like MP7+ which will do digital audio extraction. This process is even better than using a typical aux input, because the ONLY converters that will be used will be the ones on your soundcard.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I agree with Slackmaster 2k - if your thing is just digital audio and no internal MIDI, just spend the extra $$ on the Audiophile 2496. To tell you the truth, I would use my XP-30 or Korg X5D in GM mode anyday over the internal SoundFont Synth on a SB. You can buy very capable GM tone modules from Yamaha, Roland or Edirol that will sound much better than a SB Live or Audigy. Not to mention that something like the Audiophile could handle more powerfull soft synths without the need of the wavetable synth on the SB cards.
 
Um...

The Audigy can address up to a gigabyte of RAM for samples. Although different synths have different uses, I would hardly call this weak. You may have a keyboard with a nice default soundset, but can you manipulate that soundset? Can you use completely different sounds? If so, how much available memory do you have?

The Audigy could be the best buy on the market right now, pound for pound, for someone who uses a combination of MIDI and digital audio. Most people who don't think you can do a lot with a Sound Blaster have never tried. I should know. I was forced to get the most out of my Sound Blaster 64 Gold - you don't want to know what that card cost when it was first released. And until I tell people what I have, you'd be surprised what they say. I now have an Audigy on the way in exchange for music lessons, and I'm very excited (I don't like taking money for lessons).

For digital audio, yeah, you can do a lot better. IF the rest of your signal chain is up to snuff. But then again, some of the best home recordings I've heard have been done with less.
 
I can vouch the the onboard effects on a SB card don't even come close to the effects I get with my Roland XP-30 or Korg X5D - they are just as important as the acutal wave samples built into the synth. How about the quality of the digital filters, envelope generators, etc? It know the modulation routings are not even close to being as complex as the ones on my XP-30. My Roland has superior sounds that are fully editable and there are 20 wave expansion cards available for the XP/JV/VX line of synths.

I have spent time with SoundFonts since I owned a SB AWE 32 6 years ago - you are talking about 2 different levels of sound quality and no matter what you do, a $200 SoundBlaster will NOT sound like a $500-1000 synth.

Thats why I say, just save up your money for the real thing instead of going with MIDI on a SoundBlaster. If Creative wanted to enter the pro market, you wouldn't be buying these cards at CompUSA or BestBuy - its just not the right product for the market.
 
Uh, the SB32 used SoundFont version 1, as far as I know. Currently, the format is past version 2. It also had half a meg of onboard memory. Half a meg!

But whatever. Apples to oranges.
 
That doesn't make any sense. Why would it record at 24 and then truncate or dither down to 16, and then pad back up to 24?
Click to expand...

Damn! I've been waiting for an opportunity to use the word "truncate"! :D

You also answered a question I've had on my mind. Most of the real recording cards I'm seeing don't have the CD connecter. I'm on my upstairs computer without Media Player. Will MP play CD's?
 
Uh, thats when I STARTED using SoundFonts. I have had a couple Creative cards since then (AWE 64, Ensoniq PCI, SB Live). I was merely pointing out my experiece with the products so it is not apples to oranges and IS relevant to the topic.
 
I've got a Core2 in my desk I'm not using..that will record at 24-bit. If you hurry you can even download the latest drivers for it!

feliz

lavoz
 
I have Just read an artical in Computer recording Magazine where the audigy was compared to the audiophile,Mia, Terratec.

the audigy got 9 out of ten as did the audiophile

Mia scored an eight.

the terratec scored a 6.

Ive only read good reviws on it so far, It may be worth the 69.00 for the Value version.
 
lavoz, I've got a Core2 also - I get the joke. :D

On the Audigy: @ that price, why the hell not? I mean, the Live! did a pretty good job for me for awhile.
 
and how much was that magazine reviewer paid to test drive this gear this is the problem i find alot, too many reviews out there once you take the stuff home thats when the complaints start

I feel its much better to understand the technical background of any product you are looking at then judge

if you dont know and hey many of us are in that boat ask someone with the knowledge just by pass the sales idiot and you will learn alot more that way
 
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