Are 2 soundcards at once possible??

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BeyondMusic

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I am thinking about buying both a soundblaster Audigy and then some kind of nice 24 bit recording card for my computer. I know I can have two sound cards installed at one time, but is it possible to actually use BOTH sound cards at the same time? For example, could I play soundfonts through sb-live and then record things through the 2nd sound card simulataneously??
What I want to do is use the 32 bit effects from the audigy, but I want to do a final recording on a 24 bit recording soundcard.

If anyone has experience with this let me know, please.

Thanks!
 

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Yes.

If you have available slots.

You can select a one soundcard for playback and one for recording, from Control Panel->Multimedia(98)/Sounds and Multimedia(ME).

I have succesfully run three soundcards on one MB, and have recorded three inputs simultaneously (cheating, i used the stereo output). However, soundcards hog a lot of resources so you might wat to reconsider. I've seen days of '35% system resources free, with just two s/cards.

What motherboard/processor/OS are you running?

Sang
 
My system is:

950Mhz Duron
256mb PC-150 SDRAM
40gig hard drive
SB-Live! (would be adding 1 more soundcard)
Geforce2 PRO 64mb
Ethernet card

Is this sufficient to run 2 cards?
Also is it possible to record 'what I hear' through the 2nd sound card, or do I have to route the output of the SB-live! through other card so I can record it?

Thanks.
 
I wouldnt advice using the two cards at the same time....Id get the cheapo SB Live for the Soundfonts, do all those soundfonts parts first, record them to wave files......then use your second card to record your audio parts...I wouldnt put too much emphasis on the 32 bit effects of the legacy....I havent even heard them but I know there are tons of free plugin effects that will probably blow them away.....try a SB Live Value and a Delta Audiophile 2496.....
 
Well, I am thinking of merely upgrading to an Audigy MP3 or gamer, one of the cheapest ones, since I like to be able to apply effect to soundfonts. Speaking of applying effects, are VST effects really that much better than built in effects? I've used them some, but I wasn't extremely impressed, perhaps because I am not running a 24bit playback/recording soundcard??

Plus, buying all those VST effects gets expensive.

Anyone who has used VST effects extensively let me know how good and practical they are. If they're really that much better, I could stick just to VST effects.
 
BeyondMusic said:
I am thinking about buying both a soundblaster Audigy and then some kind of nice 24 bit recording card for my computer. I know I can have two sound cards installed at one time, but is it possible to actually use BOTH sound cards at the same time? For example, could I play soundfonts through sb-live and then record things through the 2nd sound card simulataneously??
What I want to do is use the 32 bit effects from the audigy, but I want to do a final recording on a 24 bit recording soundcard.

If anyone has experience with this let me know, please.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

midiman cards support up to three of their cards using the same drivers and no hardware conflicts.. that would be the way to go.
 
I'm actually curioous about this card. It defenitly has it's limitations as far as external source recording bit-rate, but all of the internal processing appears to be at 24/96. This could significantly improve the sonic quality of the sound fonts, and just might be worth looking into. Sure would be nice if we could get a review from one of the early owners. There are a lot of questions surrounding the documentation of the capabilities of this card. Usually when the products white sheet is a contradictory as this one's, there's usually a good reason for it. And that reason's not usually good.

Steve

And how the heck did I wind up loosing a bunch of posts and become a newbie again??
 
Check Better Cards????

good cards now have a feature called "multiclient " this enables the user to run multiple applications on one PC. It really is the only solution that makes it simple and easy to do just about any configuration of appplications. Although some users report that they are using multiple cards in one machine if you do a serious search about this topic you will see many posts describing extreme difficulties regarding timing and a host of other weird sync issues as well as irq stuff etc etc...( I pulled mine as soon as I got my mixtreme)............a better card should give you the audio quality you want as well as the simultaneous recording ...... but then you will lose the glory of sound fonts and all the other wonderful things available from Creative Labs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...a cheap soft synth will give you sounds that are probably superior to Sound Blaster fonts...if you really must have the sound fonts then check out alchuck's posts he is a sound font true believer and has done much of the leg work to sort out how to use them in a recording environment.
PS your computer is more than ample to do most everything out there with a little practice and skill....
 
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