Can two PCI soundcards get sound from each other internally?

[kildebo]

I'm considering getting a e-mu 0404 for home recording but since I'm also using MIDI quite a lot, I thought of getting a Soundblaster Audigy ES as well, for the synth – they are quite cheap nowadays. (I used to have a Soundblaster Live, so I’m familiar with messing around with Soundfonts etc.)

But how does a computer handle two soundcards (apart from IRQ and driver problems…)? Can I use both at the same time, within one program (e.g. Cubase - it comes with the 0404)? Can I for example record from both sound cards at the same time? Or will I have to make the 0404 the main card and then send the synth sounds from the Audigy to the 0404 via an external cable? (and use one precious input)

As the sound from the cd-drive apparently goes into the soundcard without any cable directly between them, I imagined that all digital sound streams within the computer could be shared among all soundcards – is it something like that or is it all wrong?

Instead of the Soundblaster card I guess I could try out a soft synth solution. Is it reasonably easy to get started with that? And is it possible without spending a lot (preferably nothing)? Are there a decent number of free sounds for soft synths? (I’m mainly looking for vintage and orchestral sounds.)

Thanks for your help – and sorry if this is was a bunch of stupid newbie questions.

 

[TimOBrien]

You'll have to use an external cable to connect the cards... the stream cannot go internal in the PC.

Consider using a soundfont VSTi instead...

I used to use an SBLive with my 24-bit card and tossed it in my new PC; I'm using Bismark's BS-16 but you could use rgcaudio.com "sfz" (free) or one of the bigger sampler programs that also reads soundfonts (Kontact, Halion, SampleTank, VSampler, Gigastudio, etc.) Much more capability there than a 16bit/48k Creative card....

 

[AlChuck]

Can I use both at the same time, within one program (e.g. Cubase - it comes with the 0404)? Can I for example record from both sound cards at the same time?

Not reliably. Each card has its own on-board clock reference. If they each have S/PDIF I/O you might have a chance to lock them both to one or the other's clock; otherwise, they will be drift out of synch with each other.

You can, however, use the MIDI synth on the Live card while recording and playing back on the other.

Rather than tie up a pair of line inputs on my Delta 66, I use a small Behringer mixer to route the output from my SB Live and the Delta to my speakers so I can hear both cards.