Creative Soundblaster Audigy PCMCIA

[Moon]

Kara, I know you have a Creative Soundblaster Audigy PCMCIA card. Would you recommend this one for use in a laptop or rather go to a small usb or Firewire card ?

Moon

[kara]

To be honnest, I have mixed feelings about this card.
Yes it a good interface with good sound quality and it is light on CPU resources due to a good ASIO driver.

But !
1. It is a bitch to install, expecially if you have a full upgraded XP OS. I had a lot of trouble to install it. The drivers on the CD are not the latest versions and give troubles. The latest drivers are available on the soundblaster site, but there is no mention of it in the manual and that is where the sit begins. Once you installed the old driver, delivered on the CD, the new driver won't install. The trouble is that at the moment you want to install the driver it checks if you have a soundblaster card in your system and the old driver blocks that detection mechanisme. Unstalling the old driver whit the delivered software doesn't solve the problem. I had to unstall it manualy, cleaning up the registry manualy,... as you see not for the novice...
2. In my small (VAIO) laptop it becomes very hot. Up to a point that my PC goes in security from time to time. I have this problem only on my small laptop, on the other one (HP) normal sized I don't have this problem.
3. If an application crashes, the soundblaster driver isn't released ! Only solution in this case is to reboot. Since i'm a beta tester for some developpers this is rather annoying...

So, if you can afford it, I would advise to go for a small external interface.

k

[Moon]

OK, seems not be a non-perfect product.

Does anybody has experience with a small usb-audio interface ? Anything that can be recommended?

Moon

[Wyatt]

But !
1. It is a bitch to install, expecially if you have a full upgraded XP OS. I had a lot of trouble to install it. The drivers on the CD are not the latest versions and give troubles. The latest drivers are available on the soundblaster site, but there is no mention of it in the manual and that is where the sit begins. Once you installed the old driver, delivered on the CD, the new driver won't install. The trouble is that at the moment you want to install the driver it checks if you have a soundblaster card in your system and the old driver blocks that detection mechanisme. Unstalling the old driver whit the delivered software doesn't solve the problem. I had to unstall it manualy, cleaning up the registry manualy,... as you see not for the novice...

I had those kind of problems with my EMU 1212M sound card..to reinstall the drivers you have to first remove the drivers and the patchmix monstrosity..then turn off the computer..remove the card..re-boot to clear the registry..then turn off the computer..put the card back in..then don't allow windoze to do any recognize hardware things..then install drivers..then install patchmix..then hope for the best.

I just had to do this again day before yesterday and it's a real pain in the ass.

When I bought this card they had great telephone tech support. When they decided to discontinue that is when I decided I won't be buying their products any more. I will be replacing this sound card, and you can be sure it will not be with any Creative/EMU products.

Wyatt

[Moon]

OK, I've found a cheap alternative : http://www.behringer.com/FCA202/index.cfm?lang=eng

Not expensive... might to the trick...

[Moon]

Or this one : http://www.thomann.de/be/cme_matrix_x.htm ...

[Moon]

I wonder if this is any good... http://www.thomann.de/be/maudio_jamlab.htm (mind the price which is only 30 euro !)

[kara]

Not for you Moon,
the input is a guitar input, which is a high impedance input !

k

If you want a good pcmcia interface, check for a the Echo Indigo
They have discontinued it but is available at many places and it is a good card

I wonder if this is any good... http://www.thomann.de/be/maudio_jamlab.htm (mind the price which is only 30 euro !)

[rharv]

The Behringer you selected is firewire, not USB, I think Indigo is also..could be wrong.

Do you want USB, or does it matter?
 If going firewire be advised that chipsets come into play for a lot of units, I think I recall having a TI chipset to control firewire was one of the preferable ones, but I'd research any particular model I was interested in.

[rharv]

I notice the CME has 'expansion slot for connecting USB or firewire'
May want to make sure it's not an extra cost..

[kara]

The Echo indigo is a PCMCIA card ?
No ?

k

The Behringer you selected is firewire, not USB, I think Indigo is also..could be wrong.

Do you want USB, or does it matter?
 If going firewire be advised that chipsets come into play for a lot of units, I think I recall having a TI chipset to control firewire was one of the preferable ones, but I'd research any particular model I was interested in.

[Moon]

Yes, it's PCMCIA : http://www.thomann.de/be/echo_indigo_io_pcmciakarte.htm

Still 185 euro though...

[Laguna Rising]

I was looking for a good audiocard for my laptop, no midi just audio, and after asking advice I choosed a Stealthplug from IK multimedia (99 cad. plus taxes from Tom Lee).
It is PERFECT for guitar in and it has an audio output I can connect to the speakers.

Not sure it fits your needs 

Cheers