Dual soundcard software

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Here's my setup:
Main soundcard - desktop speakers
Secondary soundcard - TV surround speakers

What I'd like to do is find some software which will let me send different streams to the different cards.

ie. DVD/divX programs play on the TV soundcard, and not on the desktop speakers (or on them as well). Games/etc. don't play on the TV speakers.

I know I can go into the sound settings and choose the WAVE OUT settings to send to either card, but that seems a little more annoying than I want to be doing all the time.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

^bump^

 

[NEVERwinter]

i dont think it can be done... except if the software has the option to set Sound Device Output.
But usually only sound-editor and music software has those option.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Where there's a will...

 

[joinT]

a lil OT to start: Congrats on being in the 100K UD points club to NaughtyusMaximus.

I really don't think you can install 2 different sound cards into one computer. Do you play your DivX, etc. from burned CDr's?
That's the only way I could see it working.

Actually, I still don't see it working. Controlling which Audio streams to play from which card would be next to impossible.
The only thing I can think of is get a REALLY long CD audio cable & run it from your computer's DVD drive to another cheap POS computer's sound card & play the TV speakers from that computer.

This is why I have seperate Workstation/Gaming rig, Jukebox/Gaming rig & DVD-TVR/Gaming rig.

 

[syf3r]

JoinT:
You absolutely *can* install multiple audio cards in a single computer. I've got a Soundblaster card for all around listening when I don't care about quality, and I've got a STAudio 7.1 decoder (w/ built-in line-level amp so I can plug my turntable directly into my computer) when sound quality is important. I know a couple people who have up to 4 cards in a machine, although they are 4 identical cards. As long as you stay with well-known mobo chipsets and latest drivers you should be fine...

As far as directing output to a specific card, the only way I can think of is to select the audio output device as was mentioned earlier. That way you can direct specific apps to output to specific cards, but I don't know if all audio/media apps support this type of thing.. I know that most higher end editing apps (sound forge, reason, logic, cubase) are able to do this sort of thing because it's expected that you will probably have multiple cards in the machine...

/syf3r

 

[joinT]

Well, professional quality soundcards are a whole different matter.

But how does 2 "normal" (ie. regular PC consumer) sound cards know which audio to accept/output? How does an application know which sound card to use.
Whenever I tried to install a sound card & forgot to disable the onboard sound - I'd get all kinds of crackling/static/no noise sometimes.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

I don't have any problems with having two soundcards running at the same time - so it definetly is possible to have more than one consumer grade card in a system. I'm just hopefull that someone out there designed a program for me, and just hasn't given it to me yet.

 

[syf3r]

Yeah, we're not only talking about pro cards here... It's very possible to install multiple low-end cards (ie soundblaster, turtle beach, etc) into a single machine. If I'm not mistaken they get identified numerically based on their pci slot.

As an aside, I wouldn't consider the STAudio 7.1 decoder a professional card. It's definitely consumer level... Costs just over $200 and blows any soundblaster product right out of the water. Full 24/96 playback AND recording, unlike any soundblaster.

Anyway, back to the original point, it's certainly possible to do multiple audio cards of any market-bracket.

/syf3r