More than 1 sound card?

[hypeMarked]

I know that some cards are just great for movie and music but suck on gaming and vice versa. Is it possible to hook up more than one sound card? I asked because I have had conflicts problem with enabling the on-board sound and my pci sound card. Thanks.

 

[corkyg]

When you use a PCI sound card you are supposed to disable the on-board. No need to create a conflict.

Maybe some computers have an A/B switch for sound - but so far, I haven't seen one.

 

[PurdueRy]

Yes, however, I haven't tried onboard w/ a PCI card. Right now I am running two PCI sound cards together.

 

[hypeMarked]

How do you set one to default and the other to particular application? Or how do you use them effectively PurdueRy?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: hypeMarked
How do you set one to default and the other to particular application? Or how do you use them effectively PurdueRy?

Most applications that use a sound card will let you pick the output. For instance in winamp you can pick the directsound output plugin and from there pick the specific card used.

In sound and audio properties pick your default audio playback card and do not check the "Only use default" option.

Personally, I use one for recording and one for audio playback. Your needs may differ.

 

[hypeMarked]

Thank, but what happens if I use Vista, which doesn't support DirectSound

 

[Modelworks]

Yes it is possible to use multiple sound cards.
Its basically in the drivers.
There are cards from companies like maudio that let you put 4 cards in one system.

If EAX isn't important to you then look for cards based on the cmedia 8788 chipset.
I've been recommending auzentech to people.
Asus has a card based on that chipset as well.


If you want a card that does great at home theater and gaming (sounds great, just no eax)
search for the auzentech xplosion on ebay. Sells for about 60.00 and does dolby digital live .

 

[Ghouler]

[ot]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
If you want a card that does great at home theater and gaming (sounds great, just no eax)
search for the auzentech xplosion on ebay. Sells for about 60.00 and does dolby digital live .

I'd say search for Audigy2 ZS or X-Fi Xtreme Music. Both can be have for about the same or less and do EAX in hardware.

As for Dolby Live:

1) It matters less then the seller will tell - it does not matter for movies because they are in dolby already so no need to re-encode them.
2) For games - encoding introduces latency i.e. delay: this was problem with nForce2 board that had audio encodig
3) You can have it for free with any sound card, it is just a gimmick really, not worth the money IMO.

[/ot]

I saw a motherboard (MSI P35 Diamond) that had onboard audio for skype, ventrillo etc and also PCI Express version of X-Fi. So it seems to be possible to have onboard and PCI express sound at least.

EDIT: see it for yourself here

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Ghouler
[ot]


As for Dolby Live:

1) It matters less then the seller will tell - it does not matter for movies because they are in dolby already so no need to re-encode them.
2) For games - encoding introduces latency i.e. delay: this was problem with nForce2 board that had audio encodig
3) You can have it for free with any sound card, it is just a gimmick really, not worth the money IMO.

[/ot]

Encoding does not introduce latency. Thats the whole point of doing the encoding in hardware.
Well, I guess if 21us is considered latency maybe.

You cannot have it free with any sound card.
Do you even know what it is ?
Taking streams generated on your pc and encoding them in hardware to a 5.1 or 7.1 Dolby Digital stream and outputting that via coaxial or optical is not something you can do for free on any sound card.

If it was just a "gimmick" why do you think creative has been working for over a year to try to get the xifi chipset to do it ?

And an even better reason to go with auzentech.
All the drivers work great in vista without the creative BS.

 

[Ghouler]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Encoding does not introduce latency. Thats the whole point of doing the encoding in hardware. Well, I guess if 21us is considered latency maybe.

Actually it does introduce latency. Encoding does take time to happen and thus introduces latency. Whether it is audible or not - depends on system overall performance and settings.
I used nForce2 board and encoding introduced audible latency. Possibly with later implementations that problem was reduced. Still, read e.g. this Auzentech X-plosion review:

"So how can one explain the added CPU usage in the encoding format tests? I am not sure how to explain it other than there may be an instructional latency increase due to the encoding causing pauses between executed commands."

http://www.rage3d.com/print.ph...ound/auzentechxplosion

Originally posted by: Modelworks
You cannot have it free with any sound card.

google: RedocneXk - this is for sound blaster soundcards

or you can use AC3 filter that has AC3 encoding option

http://allyoucanupload.webshot.../v/2000422145437175323

I did not know creative were working on this. Did you read about it somewhere or is this a guess?
Encoding seems quite a straight forward thing to do - there are many cards that do that, but still to me this is a gimmick that MIGHT MATTER ONLY if:

1. you want to have gaming multi channel audio with effects encoded to digital stream
AND
2. you are using HIGH quality receiver that indeed means higher quality sound from the sound quality you can get off the analog outputs of the sound card.

For any other scenarios such as watching movies or using "digital" multimedia speakers there is no point in encoding audio.

Please note: DDL is COMPRESSED, LOSSY format . DTS Connect is supposed to be better then DDL but it is COMPRESSED and LOSSY, too.

There is no point compressing audio into lossy multichannel format such as ac3 just to pass it on to an average DAC built into Logitech, Klipsch or Creative speakers that will then turn digital into analog again.

The only reasonable argument for DDL/DTS is less cable clutter. But the fact the format is LOSSY, COMPRESSED and introduces LATENCY means I prefer to put up with cable clutter. Maybe it is just me, I am sure you will be happy with your choice.

IF industry decided to embrace AES_ABU standard and use it for HT systems that would be quite a different story. But SPDIF is not meant for 6 or 8 channels of audio (incl. LFE) It was adapted for this purpose because it is cheap to implement. Never confuse good price with good quality.

Good luck and take it easy..

 

[Modelworks]

There is a point to converting to DTS or DD.
I currently feed the card to a harman kardon receiver that is 7.1 and its very very clear and well worth the effort.

As for latency, with my setup the latency is 21us.
I tested it with a hp logic analyzer with dsp functions.
I'm a former EE and sound is one thing I take seriously.

I don't know where they got cpu usage numbers , but I ran a test yesterday of encoding in real time.
Cpu usage on a dual core 3ghz cpu was 1-2%.
I seriously doubt that only a software approach can top that and do it at a 21us delay.


Creative has been working on it for the past two years.
I didn't read it, but got it straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.
I have a friend in the dsp field that was on the team for the xi-fi.
They are having issues adapting the xifi processing to DD , mainly because the way the interrupts in the chipset are handled.
Its a gaming card that is trying to tack on DD as an afterthought, versus the cmedia chipsets where it was planned from the start.