SB Live question

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Kellie's Dad

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Is there a difference between SoundBlaster Live and SoundBlaster Live Value? I don't remember which one is cheaper but there's a $20 difference in price. I know, I know, I know, however I'm only going to use it for audio temporarily then I will aquire an Echo Mia and use the SB for Midi.
 
It's precisely the same card. The only difference between the SBLive Value and other flavors of it is the software package that comes with it. Now, the SbLive 5.1 is something else again, but I don't really know much about that.
 
Kellie's Dad,

Whoopy is absolutely right. If you have no need for bundled software, a breakout box, or 5.1 compatibility, the Live Value is the way to go.

In fact, if you have a little more to spend, you might even consider the Audigy Value.
 
Eurythmic said:
Kellie's Dad,

Whoopy is absolutely right. If you have no need for bundled software, a breakout box, or 5.1 compatibility, the Live Value is the way to go.

In fact, if you have a little more to spend, you might even consider the Audigy Value.
Click to expand...

I personally think the Audigy is a useless card as far as mucians go. If you read the specs carefully, the card has 24bit audio PLAYBACK ONLY. Recording is still 16bit. It may have a faster DSP processor for the EAX audio stuff, but that is really of no use to me. I would just stick with the SB Live if I did not want 24bit audio recording.

At this point in time, rather than an Audigy, I would just buy the Audiophile 2496.
 
brzilian,

You can get great sounds with a 16 bit sound card. But actually, I was talking about MIDI only. The Audigy is much more powerful for MIDI applications, and can address more RAM for soundfonts. As Kellie's Dad said, he plans to get a different card for digital audio.
 
Eurythmic, can you tell me more about the Audigy? After reading the following article--and a couple of others--two years ago, I purchased a Live Value, and have been very happy with it. I've really only used it for Soundfonts--haven't used the DSP or Sampler. However, just knowing that the EMU chips are there if I want them is cool.

How is the Audigy better--other than the increased soundfont capability? I heard they replaced the EMU synth chip? Is that right? What else is different? How is it better?

If this thing really is better for MIDI, I might upgrade.

http://prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/E5F90F70241EFF6D862566B20024C532
 
You might want to check out this review, as I'll be referencing it a bit...

http://www.tomshardware.com/video/01q3/010927/index.html

I don't currently own an Audigy, but Tom's ran some pretty extensive tests.

Here's a quick spec comparison - I'm looking at the pages for the Audigy Platinum and Live! Platinum, at the Creative website.

The Live uses the EMU10K1 chip for MIDI, and the Audigy uses the EMU10K2. Difference? Beats me. :)

Now, according to the website, the Live can address up to 32MB of system RAM, while the Audigy can address up to 1GB. People have said that they can use bigger soundfonts on the Live, though. But, I think it's possible that they're simply compressing those soundfonts with SFArk.

The Audigy has a 32-bit effects engine for MIDI.

Both can record at a maximim of 16bit/48KHz, but the Audigy can play back at 24/96 - presumably for DVD audio discs? Although you can't record at 24 bits, the 24 bit DAC is going to make any recording sound better than it would have with an older card. I think that the card would make a perfectly fine inexpensive recording solution. IMO, most people don't have the other equipment necessary to take full advantage of a "prosumer" 24 bit sound card, anyway.

The Audigy supports the newest version of the soundfont format, which supports "sound variation in real time." Utopia, probably the best soundfont maker, is in the process of redesigning their flagship soundfont to take full advantage of the Audigy.

The Live has a SNR of >96dB, while the Audigy's rating is 100dB.

It also has a firewire connector.

It's $62.

More details, from the Tom's Hardware review:

bande.jpg


Here's what the frequency response curve looks like, from 20Hz to 20kHz. As you can see, it dips some above 16kHz.

bruit.jpg


This is the card's noise floor, about -96dB.

I'd be curious as to how these specs compare to other cards - I really don't know. I'm sure they compare very favorably to other Creative cards, of course.

"the 16 and 24-bit recording modes are there and they work. But in fact, the card converts from analog to digital in 24-bit, after where is a 16-bit downmix which is finally restored in 24-bit by the software for the outputfile. So, it is not complete 24-bit recording process but the quality is improved compared to standard 16-bit by the use of the better converter. "
 
Thanks for the info, Eurythmic, I'll check out the link.
 
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