multiple sound cards?

[Tapehead]

Warning, it can be done but it's a serious pain. I ran two cards for awhile several years ago--an SB for my kids' games etc. and a Roland Rap 10 for my hobby. It took a lot of fiddling to get it right, including experimentation with port, irq and DMA settings. If you know about that stuff, it can be done. If not, be prepared for a lot of weirdness on your screen.

 

[mcmd]

I am using my soundcard for recording and midi playback. Because of the sound quality (poor) of the FM synth, I installed the Yamaha softsynth S-XYG50 to upgrade my midi sounds. Midi now sounds very good, but I can't playback both audio and midi when the midi device is the softsynth. I understand that the softsynth grabs my audio drivers so,... would a second soundcard solve this problem?
General question: With two soundcards installed, can I choose one for midi playback and the other for audio and if so, where does the mixing occur?

P.S. my computer has an integrated soundcard (Crystal CS4235) and I am considering installing a DMAN PCI. I am running Cakewalk Guitar Studio 2 (nice product).

Thanks,

 

[Cakey]

It sounds like a second Soundcard would solve your problem (to me). It's true, a few years ago it could get very tricky, but with modern pnp, it should be OK - I run 2 pci pnp cards _and_ an ISA non-pnp, and the all work together. Of course, running in sync is another matter. And whatever you do, don't ever get two card of the same vzariety unless they are specifically designed to work together.

I think that having one soundcard with a multi-client driver might also solve the problem, but you are uinlikely to find such for a built-in jobby.

If you have two SCards then you should be able to tell the software in the softsynth which one to use, and like wise in cakewalk. If it's anything like pro-audio, each track should have an output option. You can mix the relative levels of the two using the windows level mixer thingy (if necessary).

Good luck!

matt

 

[Gary Hendershot]

You can install up to F-O-U-R LynxONE soundcards in a system.

"Speaking of other computer cards, if more analog or digital I/O channels are required, up to four LynxONE's can be connected to provide a phase-locked multi-track system!"

Details: http://www.lynxstudio.com/brochure.html

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
Two 24-bit Analog Inputs
Two 24-bit Analog Outputs
+4 dBu or -10 dBV Balanced or Unbalanced
24-bit/96 kHz AES/EBU or S/PDIF I/O
Two Low-Latency MIDI Ports
Low-jitter PLL Sample Clock
Extensive Synchronization Capabilities
Multiple Card Operation
Independent 4-channel Operation
Windows 95/98 Driver
Windows NT Drivers for Intel and DEC
Windows 2000 Compatible
Mixer Application
Completely Software Controllable
Six-foot Balanced Audio Cable Set
Two-foot MIDI/Clock Cable Set
Half-size PCI Card
</UL>


Independent audio review of LynxONE: http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/LynxONE/