Re: Creative X-Fi Platinum

  • Thread starter Thread starter elevenwing
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elevenwing

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Re: Creative X-Fi Platinum

Good day to all.

I've read most of the postings on the new X-fi card, and I was just wondering if anyone around here has actually used the thing for any recording whatsoever. So far all I've seen are hasty conclusions based on past experience with Creative products. :)

And no, I don't work for them (and haven't owned anything they've made since the old AWE64 got phased out). I'd just like to know if this new product in particular is really an improvement over the Audigy. Some answers actually based on experience would help. Thanks. :)
 
elevenwing said:
Good day to all.

I've read most of the postings on the new X-fi card, and I was just wondering if anyone around here has actually used the thing for any recording whatsoever. So far all I've seen are hasty conclusions based on past experience with Creative products. :)

And no, I don't work for them (and haven't owned anything they've made since the old AWE64 got phased out). I'd just like to know if this new product in particular is really an improvement over the Audigy. Some answers actually based on experience would help. Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

Let's see....

1. The marketing paperwork suggests that it still uses sample rate conversion in software and the audio hardware still runs at a single sample rate just like the old SB cards. Junk.

2. The bottom version just uses 1/8" stereo mini jacks. Junk.

3. Creative wrote the drivers. Junk.

4. They still think recording engineers want their audio card to do DSP behind the engineer's backs. Junk.

Bottom line is that without even going farther than the front page marketing material, it is obvious that they still need to be smacked upside the head with a very large cluebat.
 
I don't understand why people waste time even thinking about Creative for recording when you can get a great quality card like the audiophile for under $100 new, & half that on ebay... :confused:
 
Bulls Hit said:
I don't understand why people waste time even thinking about Creative for recording when you can get a great quality card like the audiophile for under $100 new, & half that on ebay... :confused:
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AMEN to that, I've always had a hard time understanding that as well.
 
Slick boxes, slick advertising..... and people dream of an easy pop-it-in and forget it solution.

Too bad they get sucker'ed in.
 
Their drivers suck, seriouly, really bad. Theyare tempramental as hell. And using ASIO4ALL doesn't really improve matters so the card aint too great either.

I guess they are pretty good for beginners. But not at that price, unless your main motivation is for games and movies.

I know because I have an audigy. I bought it games and movies, not music tho. You will find yourself getting very frustrated using it for music. Its doable, but you can get better for cheaper. I run an M-Audio card as well now. One card for games and movies. One for music. You can get a much better card for audio production for less than half the price.
 
Not meaning to be disrespectful, but...

That kind of fails to answer my question. Everything you're saying is based (at the very latest) on your experiences with the Audigy line. I was asking for people who--for whatever reason--already own or have used the new card to share their experiences with it, is all.

I'm not out to defend Creative. Just looking to read true stories instead of conjectures based on marketing. It may be educational.

Thanks.
 
elevenwing said:
That kind of fails to answer my question. Everything you're saying is based (at the very latest) on your experiences with the Audigy line. I was asking for people who--for whatever reason--already own or have used the new card to share their experiences with it, is all.

I'm not out to defend Creative. Just looking to read true stories instead of conjectures based on marketing. It may be educational.
Click to expand...

It's not conjectures. It is very obvious to someone who understands the electronics involved. DSP effects on the output and sample rate conversion are gaming features. If you're buying a card primarily for recording, you should spend the extra money on recording-oriented features instead of gamer features that you'll have to disable when recording anyway.

Creative fixed a lot of flaws that made Audigy and prior cards so lousy for recording. I'll give them that. Reports on their latency are much improved. The problem is that you're talking about $160+ for the cheapest model (Platinum) that is acceptable for recording (no 1/8" jacks), and you still have a cheap gamer card without any pres.

For $15-30 more, M-Audio has a USB version with two mic/instrument pres with phantom power, MIDI I/O, channel inserts, and BALANCED outputs. That's a device that was -designed- for recording, and it doesn't lock you into a legacy PCI bus that probably won't be supported on your next computer anyway.

I'm not saying you couldn't get an acceptable recording with the X-Fi card, but you will have to add additional hardware (pres), and you'll still be at the mercy of a card built for gamers... and you will have spent more for it than for hardware designed for recording to begin with.
 
Use whatever the hell you want then.

elevenwing said:
That kind of fails to answer my question. Everything you're saying is based (at the very latest) on your experiences with the Audigy line. I was asking for people who--for whatever reason--already own or have used the new card to share their experiences with it, is all.

I'm not out to defend Creative. Just looking to read true stories instead of conjectures based on marketing. It may be educational.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, dgatwood. Just curious...were you talking about the Audiophile USB or one of the Deltas?

To be honest, I started this out of a morbid curiosity to read whatever stories (maybe along the lines of "I bought THIS?!") people had to write, but I guess it took on a life of its own.
 
elevenwing said:
Thanks, dgatwood. Just curious...were you talking about the Audiophile USB or one of the Deltas?

To be honest, I started this out of a morbid curiosity to read whatever stories (maybe along the lines of "I bought THIS?!") people had to write, but I guess it took on a life of its own.
Click to expand...

I was actually looking at their Fast Track Pro USB. Looks pretty good for the price.
 
Yamaha SW1000 all the way baby... :)

Built-in editable hardware synth and hardware fx. They don't build those any more...

The day that card dies, so will part of me...


Oh yeah, advice: Get something like an audiophile or something, like the guys said...
 
Already had a 2496 on the way before I started this, actually. I really needed the low latency and MIDI I/O, although the use of RCA instead of 1/4" jacks kind of worried me at first. Should be nothing a mixer and a few adaptors won't fix, though.

Crossing my fingers and hoping there won't be any compatibility issues. It costs almost $174 brand new over here (the price of shipping, I suppose).
 
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