SB Live! 7.1 vs. SB Audigy

[Generator]

Hi everyone. As I was saying in another thread, I just changed my soundcard from a SB Live! 5.1 to a SB Audigy. I know the latter is supposed to be a better soundcard, but there's one tiny detail that's really bugging me: Line-In and Mic-In share the same slot. I'm no expert in this kind of thing, but with my good old SB Live! I connected my mic to the separate Mic-In slot and had very good results, since there was a fairly low level of noise and therefore applying noise reduction and compressing the vocals could be done without much trouble. I used the more "noisy" Line-In slot to record guitar, bass and the such. Now, with this mixed Line-In/Mic-In slot, everything I record with my mic has very high levels of noise, and applying noise reduction won't help because the sound quality decreases dramatically.

I'm thinking of changing my Audigy to a SB Live! 7.1 now, since the latter has separate Mic-In and Line-In slots. Do you think this is a good idea? Or am I doing something wrong with my current Audigy soundcard and I'm too stupid to notice it?

Thanks in advance. I hope this wasn't too confusing...

 

[scrubs]

Why not buy a non-audigy card? Those cards are generally crap for recording, anyway and, imo, you're wasting your money continuing to buy them. The M-Audio cards are about the same price and much better. ymmv.

 

[altitude909]

I know the latter is supposed to be a better soundcard

Who told you that? Your comparing shit at different temperatures. Any creative soundcard is wholly unsuitable for any sort of recording use since the converters they use have a fixed rate (16bit 48 kHz). Any conversions are done on the fly which wreaks chaos for most audio programs which expect a low latency, hardware converters. If you can, ditch the SB and look at something from M-Audio or Emu (which is owned by creative btw). Chances are, that you will find something that is cheaper then the audigy and works a 1000 times better for recording

 

[sjfoote]

The Audigy SE card can record at 24 bit up to 96kHz and has a signal-to-noise ratio of 100dB - not bad for $30. Mine works just fine.....

 

[superspit]

The Audigy SE card can record at 24 bit up to 96kHz and has a signal-to-noise ratio of 100dB - not bad for $30. Mine works just fine.....

yes, indeed.....I used my 3 SoundBlaster's (24bit versions) for several years via Cool Edit Pro....and they worked remarkably well. Those old recordings still sound sweet.
I'm using Delta's now (M-Audio), and that was a step up, a little in actual sound quality, but more by way of being practical and easier to use/assign channels....oh, and the system (PC) did actually work a lot more efficiently too.

Just my 2 bits worth!!
Regards,
Superspit.....and merry christmas.

 

[dgatwood]

Who told you that? Your comparing shit at different temperatures.

Ah, but you forget: at the temperatures outside this time of year (at least in the northern hemisphere), you indeed can polish a turd....

 

[altitude909]

Oddly enough, here in MI its been in the 50's all month, but I digress.

Here is an excerpt from the SOS article explaining why you should steer clear of audigy and live cards up to Audigy 2 Platinum:

However, starting with the launch of the Soundblaster Live! in 1998, Creative moved over to an internal Emu 10K1 'engine' with a fixed 48kHz sample rate, and the Emu 10K2 chip in the first Audigy was also fixed at this rate internally. Even the digital inputs are asynchronous, using real-time sample-rate conversion, which means that you can't make bit-for-bit accurate digital copies (see my July 1999 PC Musician article for more details). Anyone using Steinberg's VST System Link won't get their computers locked to sample accuracy either.

This fundamental design decision has tripped up many musicians who don't understand its implications. If you use the MME-WDM drivers you can record and play back files at any sample rate you choose, but they will always be sample-rate-converted to 48kHz on the way in, and then be sample-rate-converted as they emerge before being saved on your hard drive — not the best recipe for high audio quality. The safest thing is to stick with 48kHz for your projects, and then use a high-quality sample-rate converter once after final mixdown to 44.1kHz so you can burn an audio CD.

If you use the low-latency ASIO drivers you get no choice — your sample rate is fixed with the Audigy 2 at either 48kHz or 96kHz — and attempting to play files at other sample rates will either give an error message or playback at the wrong pitch. Multitrack demo songs will also emerge out of sync, and any sample libraries you buy will suffer the same fate — this is particularly annoying with drum loops and grooves, whose tempos will be up the creek as well. The solution is to sample-rate-convert them to 48kHz. Thankfully, soft synths can work at any sample rate, so they will be unaffected.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Apr03/articles/creativeaudigy2.asp

 

[Generator]

As you can see, I have a lot to learn about this. I've been taking a look at the M-audio website, and I'm thinking about getting a FastTrack USB. Is it compatible with my SB Audigy? Meaning, can I still use the Audigy solely for playback, and the FastTrack as the recording device? Or is it better to just get rid of my Audigy and get a PCI card, such as the Audiophile 2496? I know it's great for recording, but I have no clue as to whether it matches the Audigy's sound quality.

 

[danny.guitar]

I would dump the Audigy and get the 2496.

but I have no clue as to whether it matches the Audigy's sound quality.

Depends what you mean by sound quality. Audigy comes with some bells and whistles that can make surround-sound sound really good. They're great for games/home entertainment.

The 2496 also supports 5.1 dolby surround but I just got it and I'm not completely sure how to hook it up.

But when it comes to recording/monitoring purposes the 2496 is better.