Echo Mia and Sound Blaster Live!

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samich17

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i am getting an Echo Mia soundcard...i've seen many times on here where people keep their SoundBlaster Live in with the Echo Mia...why would you want to do that when the Echo Mia is better than the SoundBlaster Live? should i keep mine in too? what are the benefits? thanks a lot
 
the Mia isnt midi capable...if you wanna use Midi, youll need the SB.......
 
i've never used midi, don't plan on it, but i still want to be able to play cd's, which i guess the Mia can't so...what do you think?
 
im pretty sure youll still be able to play CD's with the Mia, but dont quote me on that...hold on to the SB until you find out for sure....
 
is it going to be a pian in the ass for me to configure my system to use both soundcards? i am using Windows Me, if that helps..
 
Just add the thing in with your other card and get on with it. You should keep the other card, if only so you don't have to reinstall and configure all the apps that are set to use the card now. More software (games??) is compatible with the SB anyway. I use ME and didn't have any problems adding my Aark card along with my SB Live card.
 
I would consider keeping the SB for the reasons mentioned above.

But just to clarify, you can play the CD's through the MIA, or just about any soundcard, using Digial Audio Extraction (supported by players like Windows Media Player). With digital extraction, basically the system reads the data from the CD and sends it to your soundcard. The biggest benefit is that you're going to hear CD's through the converters on your soundcard, not the converters in your CDROM drive.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Been running a Mia and SBLive for several months now. Zero problems. Easy installation.

Make sure you have the SBLive installed and working properly first (I've heard that the Creative software can be nasty about grabbing IRQs and causing trouble.) I already had my SBLive running and just popped in the Mia; no conflicts.

I ran the line-out of the SBLive to a channel in my mixer which goes to the Mia input (you gotta get the sound back in there.) My CD-audio, MIDI and soundfont stuff plays through the SBLive and all audio out goes from the Mia to the monitors. Be sure to go through the preferences of all your audio apps and target MIDI to go to the SBLive and all audio to go to the Mia.

Great system; works for me.
 
Digitally coupling SB Live with Echo Mia

I've been reading a lot about people coupling their SB Live and Mia soundcards. I have the SB Live with the piggyback digital I/O card with SPDIF I/O RCA outputs. It seems logical that you could digitally couple the cards, so soundfonts can be processed by mia D/A converters only producing better sound quality. However, a concern I have with this is that I've heard the SB Live proprietary mixer does not work with both cards installed, and use of the default windows mixer is recommended. I don't believe the SPDIF I/O's are controlled through this mixer. Has anyone tried this or have any advice on how to do this?

I had one additional idea that I'm not sure has any merit. I'm going to be using an MXL 990 with an AudioBuddy preamp, and since I'm the only musician I record, I won't be needing a mixer. I'd like to monitor my recordings with headphones, but don't want to buy a headphone preamp. I was hoping routing the digital out from mia to digital in from sb live will allow me to monitor sounds through the sb live output. To hear 24/96 through mia, I thought I might try sending the audio out from mia through the audiobuddy to act as a preamp for my headphones. I was also curious if I could use 1 input on the audiobuddy for a mic and the other for headphones while recording without introducing feedback loops. I'm interested if anyone has tried this or has any insight if this will work? thanks
 
See my comments to this same question you posted in the Cakewalk roeum...
 
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