Running 2 sound cards

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Monkey Allen

Monkey Allen

Fork and spoon operator
What is the word on the street about running 2 soundcards in one PC?

I really want a pro soundcard that will do everything...even play online games using a headphone jack...as well as record nice sound.

But I am getting a lot of feedback that the E-MU 1820 (The pro SC I am looking into) wont work on games...that it wont give me accurate directional sound in headphones)

So...I guess I could run the 1820 AND my current SBlive.

But if I house them together in my PC, will they cause interference with one another?

I would move them as far apart as possible on the PCI slots...but I also dont want one sitting too close to my nVidia 6800gt...which is a powered Gfx Card.

Do gfx cards cause interference to sound cards? Can I house 2 soundcards at once?

Or is this dangerous and unreliable?

thanks
 
Alot of cards are made to be able to install multiple cards. As far as soundblasters and such...i know that you can have more than one in a computer because I did it early on in my home recording. It did take me some time to work out some bugs from having the 3 cards installed, but it did eventually work and i had 6 CHEAP (and cheap sounding) channels.
 
Howyadoin,

I've used (2) Delta 1010's in conjunction with my onboard crappy Intel sound for years with no ill effects. Can't speak to the E-Mu stuff personally.

I don't try to do too much with the Intel gamingwise. Soundbastard drivers are famous for being unreliable system hogs, especially going back to Win98. I've used nVidia nForce mobos for my gaming machines since Win98, so again, I'm not terribly helpful, am I?

Well, guess I'll just nip off and shoot myself then...

j/k

-Mark
 
I have 4 soundcards running in my computer for various things. It isn't a problem.
 
4 soundcards? Gee, all based in the PCI slots?

What about interference? Are they pretty ok as long as the cables are not close? I am talking about the cables from the sc to the cd drive. I have noticed that if these cables are close to say, the hard drive, then I get interference.

What do those cables from the soundcard to the cd drive do anyway?

1 of them sends the direct sound from an audio disc in the drive I guess. But what about the other one? I have 2 cables into my cd drive from my sblive.

I think I would like to use the emu for recording and music production, and the sblive for gaming...unless the emu is good for headphone based game play as well
 
I have an audigy for system sounds and normal windows garbage. A M-Audio 2496 for listening to Wavelab and such. A SEKD tdif card to bring in my DA88s digitally and a Motu 24 i/o. Since the good inputs are all digital, interference is not a problem. And yes, they are on pci slots.
 
No worries. Sounds good.

Do you think the e-mu 1820 or any pro card with a stereo headphone out would be ok for games?
 
You can run two cards with little or no problems. I've got a Delta1010 and an Audigy running side by side with out issues. Be aware that you might run into problems trying to use both simultaneously though. Since the two cards cannot be sync'd together, there in lies the problem. You certainly can however switch between them.

For instance, all the windows sounds...always playback through the Audigy. In SONAR, I record and playback in the 1010...the output then goes to a mixer/monitor station for listening on my dedicated monitors. Once in awhile I'll like to play back out the surround speakers (on the Audigy) so I simply go into SONAR under audio options, change the playback timing master to SB Audigy...then go back into the Main Buss and select Audigy then listen through the PC speakers. Once you understand what the computer is doing with the cards, it's not so bad.

Once in awhile I also find use for the built in synth capabilities of the Audigy...another reason for keeping (for me anyways). Sometimes I get a little lazy and don't feel like messing with my outboard gear and set up.

Good luck.
 
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