Soundblaster Audigy Platinum?

  • Thread starter Thread starter conradwoo
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Lane, Slackmaster has given u a good arguement with the best intentions. And his last post shows he is a genuine guy. Paying $ 200 is a lot when for a few dollars more u could get a much better audio card. I went through EXACTLY the same thing you are going through about six months ago. And I chose the s/blaster. And I have no regrets. I'm soon to upgrade my card. So I could have saved my money and gone to an M-audio card back then. But I wouldn't have had the adventure with soundfonts (these are sounds that you can download from zillions of sites and use your computer or a midi keyboard to "play" them.). And I now have the confidence to know what I want and what I am looking for. For me, it was money worth spending and when I get my new card, I can keep my investment with the s/b for use with soundfonts.

If soundfonts are something you are not interested with, then consider changing your card.

Just a couple of other things. You say you were disapointed to find that there was only one 1/4" jack input in your new card. Congratulations, You have learnt the first lesson of buying, do your research thoroughly BEFORE spending your money;) . And if you want to do multi-track recording, yes, you will either need some suitable software or a mixing console......or a multi-input sound card.

And with that, I'll now also bow out and leave you to your deliberations.
 
Gosh darn I keep saying that I'm going to stay out of this thread but... :)

The SB Live! Value is $30-40 and has soundfont support. It has, to my knowledge, 32MB onboard but can use system memory for larger fonts. (Correct me if I'm wrong here) I'm going to be picking one up soon enough. Right now I'm using a Delta44 and an Ensoniq AudioPCI, and I'm going to replace the Ensoniq with a Live.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slack,

> the trickery used by Creative in their 24/96 claim <

Yes, I know they claimed it's a 24/96 card when in fact it really isn't. But you know what? I don't care at all about 24 or (especially) 96. I do care about marketing deception, but if I boycotted every vendor who stretched the truth I wouldn't own any gear! :)

> He didn't spend $60 on his audigy, he spent TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS. <

Right, I do understand. But in the perspective of getting a $1000+ hardware sampler, it's still a good deal. Also, the extra money gets you the convenience of the external box with a separate headphone output and extra MIDI Ins and Outs, plus you get the newer Vienna. But I do agree that the smart shopper buys the $50 Audigy, buys a $4 headphone splitter cable at Radio Shack, and begs a friend for a copy of the newer version of Vienna.

> "Hiss" is the least of your concerns when shopping for a soundcard that's going to be used for recording. <

I do a lot of classical music sequencing, and the hiss on my previous SB Live was bad enough that I often had to use Sonic Foundry's noise reduction on tracks after rendering them to audio. The Audigy is much quieter!

> I would be less concerned with hiss and more concerned with overall sound quality for anything aimed at the recording market being produced today. <

In fact, the sound quality of the Audigy is surprisingly high. I suggest you test it for yourself by recording from a good sounding CD into the Audigy's Line In and also into a Delta or whatever. Then have a friend play both tracks switching back and forth while you don't watch. I bet you'll be surprised.

> But even if they are the same quality, which they won't be, why not buy the card with balanced connectors and true 24/96 support? <

For the sampler!

--Ethan
 
Slackmaster2K said:
The SB Live! Value is $30-40 and has soundfont support. It has, to my knowledge, 32MB onboard but can use system memory for larger fonts. (Correct me if I'm wrong here) I'm going to be picking one up soon enough. Right now I'm using a Delta44 and an Ensoniq AudioPCI, and I'm going to replace the Ensoniq with a Live.
Click to expand...

Actually, SB Live! supports a collective soundfont total of 32MB. All of which uses system memory. There are ways to get around it with third party caching programs, but not without the cost of system resources.

The Audigy on the other hand supports up to 1GB

I do agree with Slack, $200 is too much money for a Audigy. Most of that money goes to the much of the software, the box and advertising. The breakout box, as you are finding is 'almost' useless.

A $50 audigy is a better buy. You get none of the useless garbage. Just the card (and drivers).

Paired up with any of the recommended 24/96 cards such us the Delta series makes more sense to me.
 
Audigy Test soon to begin

Well, I have been considering getting an Audiophile 24/96 card for some time, to install in my "second" PC that I like to do "mastering" on. But in an entirely unrelated development, I have just bought a Audigy OEM "Value " card for my living room PC, used almost entirely for MP3 playback and gaming. I will be replacing a SoundBlaster Live (which I need for yet another Gaming PC) and because I am swapping between both Windows 98 and XP (long story) I will get to install it under each system. Cost me $65 bucks, not $50, but close enough.

One thing I will be trying with it though, I think I'm going to install Cakewalk Pro 9 under Windows 98. I will then see if I can play back 24 bit / 44.1 Cakewalk projects recorded on another machine. If this works it will be nice, because my living room system is tied into the best sounding mega-stereo in the house and it would be nice to preview projects here BEFORE mixing down. Once I try it I'll post the results here, or in another thread.

Oh and by the way, just to remove any misconception, both the Sound Blaster Live AND the Audigy of all flavors have 1/8" jacks on the card. The "Platinum" versions of both cards have a expansion box which fits in a 5 1/4" bay which adds 1/4" jacks and RCA digital I/O.

And if anyone can think of a good comparison test to run on the Live card (before I remove it) and then on the Audigy, post it here and I'll be happy to try it. I'll probably be doing the card swap the night of Monday Feb 11th.
 
Ethan Winer said:
Slack, ...
And not to be a Creative defender, which I'm not, but you can't point the finger at them for "BS marketing." Most vendors are full of it, and in my experience the more expensive the product the worse the BS gets.
Click to expand...
Ethan Winer said:
Yes, I know they claimed it's a 24/96 card when in fact it really isn't. But you know what? I don't care at all about 24 or (especially) 96. I do care about marketing deception, but if I boycotted every vendor who stretched the truth I wouldn't own any gear!
Click to expand...

BS marketing is BS marketing, Full stop.

So if Slack or anyone else points out a specific instance of marketing deception (to let people know what they are really getting), why would you attempt to dilute it with well most everybody else does it-type generalisations in the first place? Strange.

Regards,
rathpy
 
Hmmmm..... well, I was asking about sound cards - advice on what to keep, what to buy, how to use it, etc.... too bad we have to wander off to other stuff.....
 
Lane said:
Hmmmm..... well, I was asking about sound cards - advice on what to keep, what to buy, how to use it, etc.... too bad we have to wander off to other stuff.....
Click to expand...
Yeah well, that's what happens on public forums, and people say things. I didn't realise you had turned this into your own thread. There's still heaps of advice for you here, should you ever wish to take it, that is.

Regards,
rathpy
 
$200 is $150 too much for a Soundblaster. How many ways do we have to say it? You can get the same soundfont capability and $1,000 sampler in the $50 version. So what exactly are you paying the extra $150 for?

Think about it.
 
rathpy,

> BS marketing is BS marketing, Full stop. <

Agreed. No apologies, and no excuses. Now let's have a look at Monster and other brands of overpriced cable, BBE's Sonic Maximizer, and every audio product that's promoted as being "phase-coherent." :)

--Ethan
 
tdukex said:
$200 is $150 too much for a Soundblaster. How many ways do we have to say it? You can get the same soundfont capability and $1,000 sampler in the $50 version. So what exactly are you paying the extra $150 for?
Click to expand...

I would say that sums it up in nutshell..

I would find far better uses with 150 bucks. Think of all the booze you coulda gotten with that kinda money!

Audigy... $200 = BAD, $50 = Not so bad... :)
 
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