I can't get my head around this....

B

bluesmouse

New member
I'm sorry everyone, I know I've asked something similar before but please indulge me....
I will be using my computer and Behringer mixer to record rock songs (don't need lots of inputs for drums as I'll be using drum samples) and will only be using two microphones at once. I want to buy a soundcard that will last me for good so I have a few questions regarding the Audiophile 2496 vs the Delta 44:

If I am only going to be recording two things at once, are there any other reasons why I might need four input/outputs and therefore might need the Delta 44? do they come in useful for other thing like mixing etc. and why?

I've been told here that I can just keep my Soundblaster for Midi, but is it possible to keep two soundcards in your computer at once or would I have to keep swapping them around?

Is there another soundcard I could buy that doesn't cost much more and would have four input/ouputs AND midi? Does the Delta 66 do this, for example?

Thanks,
Bluesmouse.
 
Yes, it is possible to have a Soundblaster and a Delta card running side by side without problems and without needing to constantly switch them. The only thing that you might need to do is change which motherboard PCI slots they are installed in if you have IRQ problems.

None of the Delta cards have the ability to play back sounds from MIDI input, although the higher level cards do have MIDI connections for connecting to external sound modules or keyboards, etc. I don't think there are any pro or semi-pro audio cards that can play back sounds from MIDI.

Four inputs could be handy for getting your MIDI sounds recorded as audio in your songs without repatching all the time, etc. If you have a soundblaster that plays soundfonts and has a digital output (S/PDIF) and a Delta card like the Delta 66 which has a digital input you can bounce your soundfont sounds across digitally and avoid the soundblaster's converters.

Good Luck.
 
If you have a soundblaster that plays soundfonts and has a digital output (S/PDIF) and a Delta card like the Delta 66 which has a digital input you can bounce your soundfont sounds across digitally and avoid the soundblaster's converters.
Click to expand...

I see this stated a lot, seems to be a common misconception. For machines that have both a Sound Blaster Live and another, higher-end recording card, there is no need to send the output of the Sound Blaster out of the computer in either analog or digital form in order to get its MIDI synth sounds recorded as audio tracks prior to mixdown to a stereo master.

One simply uses the Sound Blaster's recording engine to record its own MIDI sounds to audio, by routing the MIDI synth stream into the WAV recording device on the card. This does not involve any conversions or loss of quality -- the already-digitized Sound Font data just gets piped into a WAV file on disk. Once recorded, they can be routed to any output at your disposal.

Sound Fonts are all 16-bit anyway, so running them out to another card's converters cannot improve the sound in any way. A digital transfer via S/PDIF requires a cable and more hassle for essentially the same results.

The only issue is the sampling rate and bit depth of your project. If you have a 24-bit project, the SB can't record in 24-bit, so it will have to be converted, as most software requires that all audio tracks be at the same sampling rate and bit depth in a given project.

I guess one could argue that re-recording the analog output through superior converters will result in a better-sounding track than converting the bit depth and sampling rate of the SB-recorded track, but I don't buy it, I think any difference would be utterly inaudible and insignificant.
 
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