dual sound cards

[skapegoat]

is there any way to use 2 soundcards together to make a 2 channel stereo for a four speaker surround sound system

any help would be appreciated
thanks

 

[sohcrates]

just a suggestion, but for the price of 2 respectable sound cards, you could buy an sblive! value with 4 outs and be hooked up w/out any hassle.

 

[Erasmus-X]

I agree with sohcrates. You're better off picking up a nice 4-channel sound card like the Live! or even one of the new Philips cards. Setting up two sound cards is for 4-channel sound a) not worth the hassle with IRQs and b) not very feasible (there would have to be some way for the drivers to sync the two cards together and distinguish between the two line-outs).

Just pick yourself up a $40 Sound Blaster Live! and be happy.

 

[Yoshi]

Yep, what were you thinking??

 

[skapegoat]

i just upgraded my computer and blew the budget on a 1GHz athlon. i have an msi motherboard with on board sound and i still have the sound card from my old computer. if i could i would like to use theses two devices together.
I must also point out i live in Canada and computer prices are inflated about 125% after the exchange (sblive=$100 us).

 

[Cyph3r]

You could most probably pick up 2 sound cards and even get them configured without interference, but your problem is going to be that you are going to be unable to use both of them at the same time.

In Windows, though the drivers are loaded, only one of the soundcards will be deemed the sound device and there isn't an easy way of defining which one of the soundcards this is going to be.

If you wish to use four speakers, your best bet is to buy a soundcard that has dual output's..Regards

 

[kw3i]

hehehe im pretty sure thats impossible

 

[Pers]

i had two sound cards installed...BUT i had to use them one at a time because of the driver issue... And good luck with the IRQS =Þ

 

[airfoil]

You'll be wasting a precious IRQ by using 2 cards at the same time and like its been said above, you can only use ONE of them at a time.

IMO, use the better of the 2 solutions you've got, until you can get yourself a SB live.

 

[elSmoko]

skapegoat, you can pick up an sblive from ncix.com for 65 bucks... they're canadian..
just add it to your cart, click pricematch, and use atic.ca's price of 70 bucks and there you go. I'd say buy from atic.ca but I hear they have crap service once they've got your money from you.

 

[TuOni]

yeah 2 is 2 much just get a value sb live

 

[Priit]

It's pretty easy to get 2 sndcards working in one machine (I have SB PCI128 and GUX MAX in my 2nd machine), but using them both at the same time... If you just want two outputs, there's should still be sndcards featuring powered and line out.

 

[Cyph3r]

Priit, ahh a GUS man.. I've got a SB Live! and GUS Classic(they didn't call it this when they released it). This is the ORIGINAL GUS...I keep it on, so that I can go into DOS and play Demos..from like 8 years ago..what do you use your GUS MAX for??

 

[Priit]

Cyph3r: I have SBLive in my main box, too. I'd love to use GUS with my Duron-box, but ASUS A7V mobo has no ISA slots I use GUS for DOS-gaming, listening MIDI's and MOD's, playing old demos (some are real cool). My younger brother uses Fasttracker for tracking music with GUS, too.