The line-in on my current sound card is a bit poop (it's one of the original SB Lives), and I think my new GT-8 can do digital out, so i'm looking to get a new soundcard that has lots of nice features, but is good value for money. Obviously I want something that's good for listening to music not just recording. Support for 5:1 or more would be good (I currently have 4:1).

It'd also be nice if it could play San Andreas without the audio cutting out like with my SB Live (and apparantly other Creative cards).

Are you looking at just recording your guitar with the digital out, or do you think you might eventually need to be able to record other line-level devices and maybe even use microphones?

If you're just recording the guitar via SPDIF, all you need is any plain sound card with digital inputs. If you want analog inputs, it's another story.

Also, are you looking at a PCI or possibly a USB or FireWire solution? The only sound cards I know of that are good for both gaming and recording are Creative's Audigy cards, and I use the word "good" loosely. It is generally accepted that it is best to use separate sound interfaces for multimedia and recording.

I heard nothing that soundblaster makes goes over 44.8(or close to)khz

it's 48KHz in fact even though certain models can go higher they can only properly do 48KHz or it's multiples... like 96 and 192

everything else would get resampled (using a crappy resampler)

anyway... the answer the question of the thread...

the best way is a multicard (or a card and a USB or firewire device) solution... one for gaming and surround and one for recording and perhaps music listening

however if you only want one card and can do without digital input M-Audio Revolution 5.1 is a good card

But it's going to be junk for recording.

And the problem with the Audigys was only with the first generation. There are no sampling rate problems with the Audigy 2's.

funny i hear it's actually decent for recording

and yes there are still sampling rate problems EVEN WITH THE AUDIGY 4

I never had any problems recording at 96khz on my Audigy 2 ZS.

For an all around gaming/casual recording card, I'd go with the Emu (Creative's "pro" line) 0404. I think Emon has one, I've heard good stuff about them.

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?product=2220&category=754&maincategory=754&nav=spec

except i head plenty of people complaining about gaming issues with that one (though it's great for a multi card setup)

and i wonder why you have no problem at 96KHz... IT'S A MULTIPLE OF 48KHz

though i suggest a spectral analysis to see if it seems to have a cutoff about halfway through the spectrum... just out of curiosity

I dare you to try and find a professional audio interface that records at sample rates other than multiples of 44.1 and 48 khz. :p

My Motu 828mkII records either 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96khz. Nothing else.

yes but it actually can do multiples of 44.1

anyway the sampling rate issues i was talking about anyway were more about concerns with playback... most music played on a computer is going to be from a CD source so you'd want a card that can properly handle 44.1 without resampling

44.1khz/24bit is ideal for recording, IMO.

Close, Shintock, I have an E-MU 1212m. Both the 0404 and 1212m are fantastic cards for recording and playback. No E-MU card does 5.1 as they're recording and playback cards only, but they are VERY good at what they do. The 1820m is just a 1212m with more inputs and outputs (as that external audio dock thing).

If you want gaming and 5.1 support as well, I highly recommend an Audigy 2 + 0404/1212m combo. What you do is install the Audigy 2, then install the E-MU card, the drivers that is, you can put them both in at once. Depending on whether or not you use the original CD drivers on the Audigy 2 or the newer beta drivers, the installation should be smooth. Your safest and most stable bet is probably the original Audigy 2 drivers + latest E-MU drivers, but I'm running an Audigy 2 and 1212m with the latest of both drivers. It just took some fiddling - I had to install the Audigy 2 drivers, then the 1212m drivers (overwriting all files) then the Audigy 2 drivers again (overwriting all files)...both cards share many of the same driver DLLs so overwriting each other shouldn't be a problem, as long as it works. I couldn't get them to coexist with the latest drivers without coaxing.

Then you take the digital out of the Audigy 2 and plug it into the digital in on the E-MU card. The digital out on the Audigy 2 is a stereo mini. I believe both the tip and ring will carry the digital signal, or so my multimeter tells me. I just used the tip and it works fine. The E-MU card has RCA jacks as digital coaxial inputs. You just need a stereo mini (tip) to RCA connector, which you could easily make yourself. Or any mono mini to RCA adapter cable, or any stereo mini to dual RCA adapter cable and just let the second cable hang loose.

The E-MU Patchmix DSP should automatically route the digital in back to an analog out, at least it did for me. You set the Audigy 2 to be the default playback device in Windows, then in all your playback and recording software you select the E-MU card. Games send sound to the Audigy 2, which pipes the data to the E-MU card. The result? High quality playback and recording from your E-MU card with EAX 8.0 SUPER X-TREME from the Audigy 2. And since the digital out on the Audigy 2 bypasses the DACs and output stages, you don't lose any quality. Infact, you gain quality since you're using the awesome DACs and output stages on the E-MU card!

I recommend the Audigy 2 Value (which is just the Audigy 2) which can be had for about $40. It's the same as the Audigy 2 ZS - the ZS only has more inputs and outputs, which are pretty useless with an E-MU card. You can then throw in an E-MU 0404 which can be had for about $80 or $90. Or splurge and get a 1212m, which can probably be had for about $180. So total you're looking at, eh, $130ish or $220ish.

This method works with any card that has a digital out, but you'll want the Audigy 2 if you're doing any gaming. And since you just want something good and aren't an audiophile looking for top notch playback quality, I'd say the 0404 is the ticket. Especially when the 1212m has a daughter card, which combined with the Audigy 2, is 3 slots to take up - although the daughter card doesn't actually need a PCI slot, it has a cable connecting to the father card.

Wah! Holy crap, apparently the 1820m can do up to 7.1! Boss!

Now that doesn't get you EAX, but it will get you positional audio. That is of course, that the games don't have trouble using the 1820m for surround sound...I imagine Patchmix DSP should be able to configure it so that it shouldn't be a problem, but people do have problems gaming with the 1212m and 0404, compatibility and cutting in and out sometimes, so it's probably safe to say getting the 1820m to do surround in games will be tough. Not to mention you'll probably have to pay out your *** for it. Better just stick to the Audigy 2 + 0404, I think.

which audigy 2 is best to get? (there seems to be quite a range)

I found the 0404, seems nice and cheap.

http://www.sub.co.uk/index.php?sec=proddetails&pcode=0404

yeah because so many professionals use 44.1KHz for all their recordings

>.>

Whichever is cheapest. The only hardware differences are between the Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 ZS, and that's only inputs and outputs. All the other important hardware (the APU, DACs, etc) are identicle. The Audigy 2 Gamer, Audigy 2 MP3+, etc are all identicle. The only difference is the software package. The Audigy 2 Value is just the old Audigy 2 in a new box in attempt to sell more of them after the Audigy 4 came out.

Here are froogle links in the google dot co dot uk.

http://www.google.co.uk/froogle?price1=20&price2=&btnP=Go&q=audigy+2&scoring=p&price=between

http://www.google.co.uk/froogle?price1=&price2=&btnP=Go&scoring=p&q=%22e-mu+0404%22+OR+%22emu+0404%22&price=between

The £20 starting price on the Audigy 2 search was only to weed out the stupid results like "Audigy 2 case badge".

<.<

Although some people do record in 48khz and higher and then downsample. I personally don't see the point, and only record in 48khz if I plan on using the music in a video or something.

the point is to have your masters at the maximum possible quality... helps when a new format comes along like DVD-A