I have seen the posts making reference to the Sound Blaster cards being less than optimal for home studio applications...but no one has commented on this since the Audigy 2 came out. Question: has anyone tried it? I have the Audigy Platinum card now...using it with the Pro Tracks (free with a Digitech RPx400)...and it seems to work well enough. However, the SB Audigy 2 promises 24 bit recording... your thoughts?

don't waste your money on it.. it sells for around $170-220 from what I can remember.. I'm telling you, for a extra $50-100, you can get a real audio recording setup that will give you much more flexibility.. and I'm particularly speaking of the M-Audio Omni Delta 66 (breakout box with a crap load of inputs, phantom power, XLR inputs, etc etc) and the Delta 66 card.. The SB Audigy 2 doesn't have near as many outs/ins, nor does it have phantom power for mics.. And I used the original Audigy w/live drive, it was ok, but your going to be limited in what you can do with the Audigy 2, you wont have the same flexibility as what the M-Audio or any other pro card offers.

Anyhow, don't waste your money on a off the shelf Best Buy gadget that is not a true audio recording card.. go for the something that won't restrict you and have you hitting bottlenecks everywhere you turn (both in hardware/software captibility and sound quality)..

Trust me, I thought I could get away with just using the SB Audigy, but when I switched to the M-Audio, it opened up a whole new world.

Also, you need to be aware, the SB is not going to have the same latency performance as higher end cards. It's just a gaming/music playing card.

Ya know, it's funny. I was asking similar questions about 6 or 7 years ago. I had just made the decision to invest in a DAW and I knew virtually nothing about the technology. I remember walking into my local Guitar Center for the purpose of shopping for sound cards and software. I asked the salesman behind the counter why I needed to spend hundreds of dollars on a soundcard when I could buy a Soundblaster for $100. He just laughed at me. In fact, one of the customers standing next to me started laughing too. I'm pretty sure my face turned red (what did I know?). The customer was kind enough to set me straight on a few of the facts of life of HD recording. I learned a lot over the next few weeks/months/years. You will too.

I kinda wonder why Soundblaster never really got into the higher end pro-sumer stuff. So many people seem to equate SB with computer audio. Seems like they're missing out on a section of the market. Oh well. Who am I to question their business model?

Anyway DJ's response is 100% correct. Do not buy SB if you are serious about this. Have fun on the learning curve :-)

I will concur. I have seen so many posts with problems relating to the Soundblaste low budget cards that I put a kill filter in my news reader regarding any mention of that line.

Driver problems upon driver problems. They cater to the lowest common denominator which usually rises up to bite you at some point.

ORIGINAL: Duxweb
I have the Audigy Platinum card now...using it with the Pro Tracks (free with a Digitech RPx400)...and it seems to work well enough.

If your ear can't discern any difference, then you may not get much from getting a better card. With my old SB card, I could turn off all the inputs, click record in SoundForge (or other app), and I'd get about -50dB of self-noise. By comparison, my M-Audio Delta 66 didn't produce enough noise to show up on the scale.

ORIGINAL: Duxweb
However, the SB Audigy 2 promises 24 bit recording... your thoughts?

I don't know about this card specifically, but I know they've promised (or advertised) things before that they didn't deliver. The Audigy had 96mhz written on the box, but you can't really record 96mhz. They ticked off a lot of folks with that.

24 bit yes some times ! I also have a SB and it goes from 24 bit to 16 bit on its own it seems . I tried new driver etc. and never have been happy with the card . So when I have the money I will upgrade th a Yamaha or something like that .
Don't use a sound blaster unless you can't hear a differance in your music.

Please read this and then decide on the Audigy. The Audigy 2 Platinum EX is not all that bad and after reading this review, discovering the ADCs and DACs it uses and their S/N ratios etc and after reading through the extensive test results conducted with RightMark Audio Analyser, your opinions may change. Although it isn't as good as those prosumer sound cards it comes closer than you might think. The guys at Digit Life are a very reliable source too.

Creative Audigy2 Platinum eX Sound Card Review

Regards,

Neil.

Apparently you didn't read all the way through the review:



Conclusion
The Audigy2 Platinum eX an a perfect choice for a gamer, but wouldn't suite an audiophile or a professional musician. We'd recommend to have a separate card for such purposes and leave the Audigy2 for game applications.

I did, that's why I said it 'comes close'.

Regards,

Neil.

Thanks for the input.... helps alot. SB cards are all I have used so far...but hey, I'm an old drummer/guitar player just getting back into the swing of things after finally getting a life beyond the hopes of finding associates who were serious enough to get beyond the Spinal Tap phase of ego/outsider interplay.

....hmmm......M-Audio Omni Delta 66 ......hmmm........
thanks, guys!