do i uninstall my soundblaster after installing the presonus firepod?

  • Thread starter Thread starter djclueveli
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djclueveli

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i bought a presonus firepod today. my question is is my presonus now my sound card? and do i uninstall the sound blaster audigy after installing the presonus?
 
Uninstall before installing the presonus. you want to get rid of that soundblaster.
 
damn i already installe the presonus without uninstalling the card. do i jus still uninstall the soundblaster and will the presonus become my soundcard?
 
ok thanks alot. i'm goin to uninstall it right now. does it make a difference if i dont uninstall it and leave both the firepod and the audigy there (just being curious lol)

im uninstalling it though i was just wondering
 
it's gonna create conflicts...personally, i rather not put them running together.
 
studiomaster said:
it's gonna create conflicts...personally, i rather not put them running together.
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It might create conflicts, but probably not.

I have an onboard Realtek card that I use for listening to mp3's, cd's, and the audio portion of those free porn clips. I record with the RME Hammerfall HDSP 9652 card. Same computer. No conflicts.
 
I have an Audigy (for games and movies) and a Delta-44 (for...well duh) in the same computer. I have separate installs for music and for gaming/movies/internet. No conflicts. Originally I had them running on the same install with no conflicts. You have to switch between them anyway in windows, they won't both run at the same time.
 
The ceremonial rite of passage -

do i uninstall my soundblaster after installing the presonus firepod?
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Traditionally, you'd build a small, controlled fire (Safety First!) somewhere with a decent amount of space. Then, a ritualistic dance would follow as the parts (the installation disc, any connectors, followed up by the card itself) are cast into the flames one by one. You can have someone read a verse or two from the Mixerman Diaries between each burn (that's optional, but many find it enlightening during the ceremony).
 
Massive Master said:
Traditionally, you'd build a small, controlled fire (Safety First!) somewhere with a decent amount of space. Then, a ritualistic dance would follow as the parts (the installation disc, any connectors, followed up by the card itself) are cast into the flames one by one. You can have someone read a verse or two from the Mixerman Diaries between each burn (that's optional, but many find it enlightening during the ceremony).
Click to expand...

bwwwaaa hahhahahahahah! :D
 
Massive Master said:
Traditionally, you'd build a small, controlled fire (Safety First!) somewhere with a decent amount of space. Then, a ritualistic dance would follow as the parts (the installation disc, any connectors, followed up by the card itself) are cast into the flames one by one. You can have someone read a verse or two from the Mixerman Diaries between each burn (that's optional, but many find it enlightening during the ceremony).
Click to expand...
Whenever opening a new studio space, one should steal a brand new Soundblaster from Circuit City that has never has never been out of the box and never had any juice run through it - i.e. a virgin card - and perform the Massive Ritual to appease the Gods of Audio.

G.
 
Sure are a lot of SoundBlaster haters....

My Audigy SE records at 24bit and 48kHz, worked first time after installation, plays fine with ASIO4ALL, allows me to use professional SoundFonts, works with CakeWalk MC3, and sounds a lot better than the digital 4-track I was using before.

Studio quality - no.

Home-recording level quality with no learning curve - yes.
 
sjfoote said:
My Audigy SE records at 24bit and 48kHz, worked first time after installation, plays fine with ASIO4ALL, allows me to use professional SoundFonts, works with CakeWalk MC3, and sounds a lot better than the digital 4-track I was using before.

Studio quality - no.

Home-recording level quality with no learning curve - yes.
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Most of us are referring to the PCI or on-board cards that come standard with PCs.

If you're happy with the Audigy, that's great! Seriously. I'm not going to knock that. But for about the same price these days one could get all that *plus* ...

- Balanced XLR connectors w/inserts
- Quality microphone preamps
- Phantom power
- 1/4" switchable line level/instrument level inputs
- 16 channels of MIDI
- A S/N ratio adequate for 24bit use*
- Line level outputs w/ level control
- External USB portability
- Pro quality software

... by going with a prosumer-level interface instead of a gaming interface.

While you may be quite happy with the Audigy, and that's fine, it's not something most of us could recommend to someone more interested in recording than they are surround sound video gaming (which is what most of the cost behind the Audigy SE is for.) Especially since they are at the same basic price point.

* The Audigy SE has a S/N ratio of 100dB; geared for 16bit only. At 24bit operation, it's last 8 bits are virtually all noise.

G.
 
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Glen,

I know there are a ton of high-quality PCI cards for home recording, and the starting point for pro-sumer type cards seem to be right about $100. For me though (and I'm sure other casual hobbyists) it was a balancing act to match soundcard performance, software requirements, and existing PC capabilities with my own needs and expectations.

I started with a Tascam 4-track cassette, then moved to a Zoom 4-track digital. When I wound up with a Dell Dimension 3000 all to myself, I wanted to dabble in the DAW world, just to see if I could do PC recording. I selected CakeWalk Music Creator 3, since it is a watered-down version of Sonar 4 and offers MIDI capability, and started experimenting with the on-board SoundMax chip. Once I got a handle on the software, I decided to find a soundcard that would match up well with MC3. Turns out that the Audigy SE card is a good match for the MC3 software, so for $30 I took a chance. To my delight, the Audigy installed great, worked right away and is much better than the SoundMax. The recordings sound much better than the Tascam and Zoom - and I have a total of $70 invested in software and soundcard.

To me, this is what makes hobby-level home recording within the reach of so many people. That's why I defend the often bashed SoundBlaster and low cost software route....
 
sjfoote said:
To me, this is what makes hobby-level home recording within the reach of so many people. That's why I defend the often bashed SoundBlaster and low cost software route....
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foote,

You make some good points, which I cannot disagree with. And I also apologize for the fact that I apparenly got the price of the Audigy SE wrong. I was thinking of the external Audigy which, the last time I looked (and maybe it's come down since then) was in the $125 - $150 price range.

That said, though, I have to remain fast on the facts that the instant one needs to move to live recording (and not just MIDI), that the lack of XLR inputs and phantom power is going to be a severe restriction, as will the lack quality of micophone pres on such a sound card. Folks just simply will not be able to hook up even a cheap LDC microphone to such a card, and any dynamic mics plugged into it are going to be throttled by a very noisy mic pre. Add to that the fact that, even though the card can handle 24-bit word length, the 100dB S/N ratio of the analog section renders those extra bits fairly useless, and one has to admit that the limit of the usefulness of such a card will be reached quite quickly.

For $30 you got a great deal, and again I'm very happy it's working out allright for you and your situation. And sure, it's perfectly acceptable for others in your situation that plan on going no further as well. I'm not going to dispute that.

But for the vast majority of even entry-level home recorders, it just won't carry even the basic load, because they need more than just limited MIDI I/O capacity and need to quietly multitrack live recordings. Cards of that style just are not designed to handle that kind of job.

G.
 
You shouldn't have to uninstall the soundblaster to use the pod.
 
sjfoote said:
Sure are a lot of SoundBlaster haters....

My Audigy SE records at 24bit and 48kHz, worked first time after installation, plays fine with ASIO4ALL, allows me to use professional SoundFonts, works with CakeWalk MC3, and sounds a lot better than the digital 4-track I was using before.

Studio quality - no.

Home-recording level quality with no learning curve - yes.
Click to expand...

Soundlbaster has/had a bad rap for using 16-bit converters and then re-converting that to 24-bit with it's drivers. (something more technical I'm sure) - I had an Audidy 2 for notebooks and it bit hard rocks. I hated it for recording, but I did like it for playback since it was pretty well inside the computer and it did playback in 24-bit/had a low noise floor. I could mix on can just about anywhere, which I enjoyed (airports, bus terminals etc) - though I never made a good mix that way hehe
 
I would leave the SB installed. Have it selected for the Windows sounds and junk so windows isn't bugging your recording card everytime it thinks it needs to beep. Plus, some recording soundcards (RME comes to mind) don't handle sound for gaming and stuff very well.
 
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