soundcard with two independent outputs any recommendations

[colin66]

Cause I run out of room to have two seperate cards

 

Heard these exsist but yet to find any

[Mr_Happy]

yes - but u need a USB port

[colin66]

yep got a few of those

[Blink]

What are you looking at doing, how much are you looking at spending? You should look in places like Sound on Sound, and Future Music and stuff. I am looking at getting a card with up to 8 (mono) outputs, and 2 (mono) inputs, but they will be on 5 1/4in jacks But you could be looking at something like the Maya 7.1, which I think has 8 outputs for surround mixing for about £70.

[Signum]

whats the latency like with USB soundcards? and another question, does anyone know if you can use USB 2.0 things with old USB ports? though if this is true I would imagine it runs slower?

 

cheers!

[Mr_Happy]

whats the latency like with USB soundcards? and another question, does anyone know if you can use USB 2.0 things with old USB ports? though if this is true I would imagine it runs slower?

 

cheers!

 

USB2 is completely diff 2 USB (from what i remember when i was a geek)

 

the signal 2 noice ratio is usually better on usb sound cards however the sound quality isnt as great from what i remember as usb runs slower than the PCI bus. not too sure about the latency tho - i would imagin that would be close to the PCI if not marginly slower

[Signum]

ah cheers, more digging to be done then!

 

i'll go buy computer music

[Blink]

the signal 2 noice ratio is usually better on usb sound cards however the sound quality isnt as great

 

Not sure where you are getting that from Mr_Happy, unless you are refering to noise picked up from other components within the PC. Your best bet for latency. S/N Ratio, and high sampling rates (Upto 192Khz now, which gives you more headroom for "hot" mixes, and better S/N ratios) is to buy a card with an external breakout box, which then connects to the PC through a dedicated PCI card. This will give you high quality A/D and D/A converts, in a purpose built housing, so all noise interference is eliminated. But it all depends on how much you are looking at spending.

 

 

*Blink thinks he knows what he is talking about, but if anyone can out me straight, it would be most appreciated)

[Signum]

let the battle begin!

 

I think what Mr Happy means is that the USB ports often go close to the Serial Bus and interchange where a lot of interference can be picked up, altering the bias on the USB cables signal and resulting in random yet detectable audible phasing, this is know to sound engineers as USB spoundoolage

[Blink]

Lol, I have spent the last 2 months researching into all this, so I am hoping I have my facts straight, else I could end up blowing all my cash on a lump of sand!!!

[James]

Now I've been out of this game for too many months now but last time I looked the SoundBlaster Live Platinum had 2 decidated outputs and at a decent price. I am too looking for a new card - something a bit more pro like the Yamaha SW1000XG though - but again i think this is a fairly old card now ? or perhaps the DSP Factory - DS2416 ? To be frank i'm still working out which best fits my needs.

[Signum]

let us know how it goes, I need a new one at some point soon, my soudnblaster live platinum is a filthy latent bitch, good at the time, but with the likes of terratec I think it's tim to jump ship

[Signum]

James, as you probably know, just get a copy of computer music or even future music (but not sound on sound unless you like a boring read) and update yourself!

 

I think the yamaha is no longer worth the effort with the range of soft synths today, and my platinum has been useful, but there are a few good looking rivals out there now - by the looks of things on the sig-dar

[James]

cheers Sig - methinks its time to re-subscribe to a few mags!

[Blink]

just get a copy of computer music or even future music (but not sound on sound unless you like a boring read) and update yourself!

 

*shudder* Computer Music and Future Music are fine if you know nothing, and just want to piss about a bit with music as a hobby, but whenever I have bought them, thinkng they had an interesting article, I have always found there wasn't really anything I hadn't been able to figure out for myself anyway.

 

I think that the soundblaster range are locked to 44.1Khz, and although they say they support higher, if you are recording using their a/d converters, it does it at 44.1, and then interpolates up, I am not sure if these is true of the Audigy, but I think the general consensus is that they are underspec'ed for pro-audio at their price.

 

Try looking on sound on sound's website, and search the forums, they are quite good. Sound On Sound

 

(As an aside, I posted a question on SOS forum last month, it was replied to by one of the writers for them, and was published in this months SOS!! I'm famous!!)