what's a good/or very good sound card?

Ole Dantoft · Post by **Ole Dantoft** » 24 Jan 2001 2:50 am

Mickey,
That depends on your need and the amount of available cash. If you're talking about a home PC to use for recording your own practice sessions in good quality, a "Sound Blaster Live" is one of the best offers at the moment IMHO. It has the usual input/output arrangement + an extra AUX-input, that can be very handy. That's what I use for my very modest "home studio", and it works great with Win98, BandInABox, Cakewalk Pro Audio, and CoolEdit96, which are the software packages I use.
If you're looking for a more professional setup, I'll have to leave that to somebody else to explain.

Ole

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 24 Jan 2001 4:00 am

SoundBlaster cards usually come up as the benchmark for home systems. I'm using an older AWE64 SoundBlaster that works well for most applications. The current models are the SoundBlaster Live series and they even have one model that has an I/O panel that will mount on the front of your PC if you have an open 5 1/4" slot (same size as a CD reader/burner).

I had considered upgrading mine to a SB Live card until a friend got a new Compaq with that card and is having some noise problems with it. I've also seen some others, on here, that have commented about noise problems with the SB Live cards. Consequently I would advise not going with the current version of the SB card since there is potential to have (low level)noise problems.

Voyetra/Turtle Beach has a sound card that is priced competively with the SoundBlaster Live. I don't have any first hand knowledge of it but one evaluation I read gave it a good review. I think Yamaha has a sound card out for under $200 also. I'd avoid the no name SB compatible cards or the cheaper sound cards as they are usually not as good or no better than many of the OEM sound modules that come with PC's.

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 24 Jan 2001 10:02 am

SOUNDBLASTER makes some Fine Kards.
associated w: the Cambridge Sound Works speaker system (4+1)
Steel sounds like a blast....

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 25 Jan 2001 2:27 pm

Have been using a Soundblaster Live Platinum card with the Live Drive (5 1/4 slot) since they first came out. Have experienced no problem with noise at any level since I got it. They have now come out with version 5.1 which even includes a remote control unit and even more connectors on the Live Drive panel. IMHO, not a better card on the market until you get into the Turtle Beach pro cards, which are generally for recording studio work. My steel teacher has two of these cards in his studio computer and they are an awesome card. Until I got Cooledit2000, I had not seen a better .wav recording/editing program than the one that came with these cards. Very user friendly and it could do so many more things with a .wav file than Goldwave or other then current retail programs. Probably 90% of the files on my web site were recorded/edited using that program before being encoded to .ra files, and all were done on a Soundblaster Live Platinum card.

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Dave Boothroyd · Post by **Dave Boothroyd** » 26 Jan 2001 12:38 am

If you are going a little further upmarket, investigate the Guillemot. It comes with a breakout box allowing four audio ins and outs, and also has SPDIF and optical digital in and out- very useful for CD or Minidisk mastering!
If it's sounds you are after, listen to the Yamaha XG1000. The sounds are actually licenced from one of the older Roland synths, and make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!
I would not knock the SB cards but you have to realise that as far as the quality of the GM wavetable sounds on the card are concerned, they represent the very bottom of the market. Even a cheap external sound module like the Yamaha XG15 will produce much better Drums, string sounds etc, and will normally have extra banks of sounds too, in addition to the boring old General Midi set.

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Cheers!

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 27 Jan 2001 8:35 pm

Hi Mickey,
Trust me when I tell you that the Smooooothest sounding A/D-D/A converters are in the the Audiowerk-8 or Audiowerk-2 cards. They also come with a "light" version of Logic Audio.
A very comprehensive Audio/Midi recording program.
IMHO "Simply the Best"
Baz

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Basil Henriques
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