Inbetween gaming and recording

[The-Warlord]

Hi there. (I've asked this lots of times i know : /)
I used to have a Creative audigy 2 platinum pro Ex. I loved it - games sounded great, and the brakout box made recording easy. I could also record "what U hear" - my speaker output easily, which meant converting midi files to mp3/wav was no prob. However, I got more serious with my music and so I bought a M-audio audiophile 192 sound card and a behringer eurorack UB802 mixer. The recording on this card is great and I have lots of control with the mixer. However, in games, my sound often stutters. I can't record my speak output, which make exporting guitarpro backing tracks as wav files impossible.
I'd like to get a card that is inbetween the two. I want the strength in games, and the waht u hear recording, but also decent audio recording. I realise that it will be less than the audio-phile, which is fine, as long as i can make rough demos at home. Ideally Id like something with a breakout box, but with a PCI card, so it can replace my old soundcard. Id also like to be able to connect it to the mixer if possible, simply becasue this gives me more control over the sound. I don't know much about this stuff and was wonderinf if any of you folk could reccomend a card that you think would suit my needs? Thanks very much!

 

[soft]

hmm... is it not possible to have 2 cards on the same system?

Creative audigy 2 platinum pro Ex + M-audio audiophile 192

 

[trianglebiscuit]

why dont you get an external interface for recording? like m-audio mobilepre, and keep the creative soundcard for gaming?

 

[The-Warlord]

hmm... is it not possible to have 2 cards on the same system?

Creative audigy 2 platinum pro Ex + M-audio audiophile 192

But wouldent i have to restart every time i switch? disabling one etc?

 

[Indigo_blues]

u could just set ur windows default soundcard to the audigy for games but set ur recording software audio drivers to the m-audio? I've read many people can live with 2 soundcards in their system without any problem.

 

[azhiwen]

Do beware of conflict of IRQ settings. I asked this question in another music forum before and that's what they told me. However, if you know how to resolve them(eg. manually assigning each a number) then you're good to go.

 

[Cheez]

If you're "serious" into recording as you said, you should never use the PC for both gaming and recording - at least not in the same OS.

The solution is very simple:

1. Dual boot your machine (one OS for your games and whatever else, the other OS ONLY FOR RECORDING - DO NOT EVEN USE INTERNET EXPLORER). Sorry, I'm shouting because I've said this at least about 10-20 times in this forum!! Not your fault...

2. In your general everyday use OS (which will have Office, games, other applications installed), disable your Audiophile 192.

3. In your DEDICATED AUDIO OS, disable your Creative soundcard.

Now, note that while you installed the Audiophile 192 over Creative, there may be changes within the drivers that's being over-written during the installation process of your second soundcard. So the best way is to do a clean format/install of everything. That means:

1. Clean format
2. Partition your HD into whatever you want to - just make sure the 2 OS partitions are there.
3. Install Windows into both OS (NOTE: you cannot install the same windows in 2 separate boot partitions - one has to be Home and the other Pro).
4. In the general use OS - install all the drivers you need. DO NOT INSTALL DRIVERS for AUDIOPHILE. The system folder should show Audiophile 192 as uninstalled and unknown. Just disable it and Windows shouldn't prompt you to install drivers for Audiophile again .
5. In the audio OS, ONLY install the Audiophile drivers. Creative drivers should come up as unknown - disable it.

This will give you a clean installation. Double check to make sure there's no IRQ conflicts. Optimize your audio OS and you're set.

 

[soft]

The-Warlord, best way to test would be to borrow a SoundBlaster card and plug it into your system. Nowadays very plug-and-play. Just have to assign which card you want to input/output in your recording software.

azhiwen, still got IRQ problem? hmmm... which forum you reading from?

 

[azhiwen]

I got it from Audiopioneers.net.

http://www.audiopioneers.net/forum/board.php?

Don't know if you're able to access it cos you have to be approved by their mods before you can log in. But I asked a similar question about 1 year ago because I just bought my Audiophile and was wondering if I could keep both cards in my system. And someone from there mentioned that its possible but there might be IRQ conflicts that I might face.

 

[Cheez]

IRQ conflicts are actually not difficult to resolve. But from the sound of the-warlord's situation, it doesn't appear to be an IRQ conflict problem. If there's an IRQ conflict, one device will usually not work at all. He seems to be able to hear sounds from both soundcards.