Multiple soundcards questions and Audigy

I don't know anything about the Audigy, unfortunately. What I can tell you is that if there is really a problem with this, it's something that was introduced by Creative Labs fairly recently. I had no problems running an SB Live alongside a Gina 24/96. I had Windows and games using the SB Live (and *only* the SB Live), while my music software all used the Gina. It worked very well.

If Creative Labs is saying you can't install the Audigy with another soundcard, it may well be true, and a sign that they've got compatibility problems with the Audigy. If they are suggesting that NO two soundcards can be installed simultaneously, that's clearly nonsense ... but unfortunately exactly the type of nonsense I might expect from Creative Labs tech support.

Hopefully someone else has more direct experience with the Audigy and can address the remainder of your query.

ORIGINAL: Yasoo
... they responded by telling me that it's theoretically possible to use 2 soundcards simultaneously if the drivers don't conflict, software doesn't conflict, and they aren't both PCI cards (I had to ignore that one, your Gina is a PCI interface, right? It says PCI on Echo's website).

Yep, the Gina is indeed PCI, just like the SB Live.

I looked at the quick start for my SoundBlaster Live, since you said it worked fine with another soundcard, and step one says the same thing as the Audigy: "remove any and all soundcards and drivers before installing the SoundBlaster"

Interesting - I didn't know that. I guess I wouldn't have noticed it at the time, since when I purchased and installed the SB Live I didn't yet have the Gina card (or any 2nd soundcard). Which is just as well, because if I had, I would probably have been beset with the same concern about it as you!

Maybe the only caveat would be to try to make sure the two soundcards don't wind up using the same IRQ (or other resources). At least I think this would be good advice for a Win9x system like what I was running at the time. I'm fairly new to WinXP, like on the order of two weeks :), but I'm under the impression that IRQ assignments are more automated under the newer OS, so perhaps this isn't as much of a concern anymore.

ORIGINAL: neilius

Hmm all this stuff about not being able to run two sound cards together seems to be nonsense. Creative just want to cover their backs.

Yep, I agree 100%. I recently went through the same thing with a MidiSport 8x8/s MIDI interface. The USB cable wasn't long enough to reach my computer, so I needed to try hooking it up via a powered USB hub instead. Well, the manual for the MidiSport said that you MUST install with it connected directly, i.e., not via a hub. They also said that once the drivers were installed you could try using a hub, but they wouldn't guarantee it would work.

Well, disconnecting it and pulling it out of my rack just to do the driver installation would have been an arduous job, so I decided to just try installing with it connected to the hub ... and it worked just fine. So now I'm betting that the "don't install over a hub" warning in the manual is mainly to benefit their tech support people later (e.g., if users call up and say that their Midisport doesn't work on a hub, they can point to this and say "see, it's the hub's fault because it worked fine without a hub when you installed it").

Well, it works (so far anyway, you know how that goes). The video game works on the SoundBlaster and Reason ran on my Mia Midi.

There is only one thing that's just a little odd. When WinXP started and installed the generic drivers the sound seemed a little louder than after the drivers were installed. I know about all the volume sliders and I maxed them all, but it's a few dBs quieter.

ORIGINAL: Yasoo

Hey DSandberg -

Do you notice a difference in volume between the Gina and the SB Live? What about sound quality? My initial impression of the Audigy LS is that it's volume is attenuated a lot compared to my Mia Midi and Lexicon Omega and it also doesn't sound as good.

I can't really say - the Gina is routed into main channels of my mixer, while the SB Live was routed in through an Aux sub (control room only). So the input attenuation of the two is too different for a meaningful comparison. And I don't use the SB Live anymore, so I couldn't even test it now.

However, in general I wouldn't expect two soundcards by two different manufacturers to have equal levels of output, any more than I would expect equal output levels from two different brands of synthesizers. Personally I would say not to worry too much about the difference.

When you say "it also doesn't sound as good", it is certainly possible ... however I'd try matching the output volumes of the two before trying to make a qualitative comparison. (It's well known that, given the same exact audio signal played at two different levels, most people will describe the louder one as "sounding better".)

Also, some of the Creative Labs cruft, er, drivers may EQ or otherwise process the signal in order to make it sound "better", whereas your prosumer audio gear is almost certainly trying to put out a flat, untainted signal (as one would want for recording and mixing purposes). Sometimes I think that the raves people give the Audigy's sound quality in comparison to something like onboard Realtek sound are more because of artificial signal processing (boosting the bass, etc.) rather than actually improved reproduction of the original audio.