Anyone with exp. with Sound Blaster® Audigy® 4 Pro

ezway wrote on 4/16/2005, 11:33 PM
I have been reading the adds for a new sound card. My current is a sound blaster live. I came across the Sound Blaster® Audigy® 4 Pro with external ports and such, and I thought you fine folks might have some direct knowledge on such things.
Please know I thank you for your help,
Marty

Comments

jimingo wrote on 4/17/2005, 12:00 AM
I have the audigy 2 platinum ex (real similar to the 4) and all the extra inputs really come in handy. I recorded my band's demo cd with vegas and the audigy card and it worked great.

-Jim
pelladon wrote on 4/17/2005, 12:09 PM
A bit off topic, but did you check this out?

Creative Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor
jimingo wrote on 4/17/2005, 2:01 PM
Do you know how well the 2ZS video editor works with vegas?
pelladon wrote on 4/17/2005, 2:11 PM
No idea, brand new unit. It was announced at 2005 CeBIT.
ezway wrote on 4/17/2005, 3:13 PM
wow pelladon ! thank you,
The specs are very good.
24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 96 kHz sample rate
24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources at 96 kHz to analog 7.1 speaker output
Supports Sony/Philips Digital Interface (SPDIF) format of up to 24-bit/96 kHz quality
SPDIF output at selectable sampling rate of 44.1, 48 or 96 kHz
And all for under $250.00 USD!

Thanks Again
Marty
Hunter wrote on 4/17/2005, 7:13 PM
Not a bad card but the drivers are total crap. If you do get a creative labs card go find the kx drivers, they are free and work 200% better. No bells and whistles.

Hunter
ezway wrote on 4/17/2005, 7:59 PM
Thanks Hundter,
Is there a better card you might suggest?
My present card came with the computer, I suspect it is not great. I have such little experience with sound cards, and do not wish to be a burden but I really need somthing better for Surround sound 5.1 ->.
an example is when I use sound forge 8 and try to convert bit depth to 32 I get a dialog that tells me that my device will not support this opperation.
Thanks
Marty
B.Verlik wrote on 4/17/2005, 8:01 PM
Hey Hunter, do you think you could add a couple of details about those drivers? What is kx and what about this, that, and ....blah blah blah
Rednroll wrote on 4/17/2005, 8:07 PM
Personally, I would avoid any Sound Blaster card at all expenses. Their specs always look good. In fact they got sued for posting specs that weren't accurate for the Audigy 2 cards. From what I have read over the years, their drivers are crapola also. If you ask most any audio user and you see the two words of "Sound Blaster" and "Pro" in the same marketing line, most would laugh at the oxy moron. Basically, I wouldn't recommend a Creative labs card to my worst enemy for recording work.

I would highly recommend cards a step above Creative Lab cards, SB cards are consumer/prosumer level at best. Check out something more of on the lines of these manufactures.

Echo: www.echoaudio.com
M-audio: www.m-audio.com
RME: www.rme-audio.com
Mark of the unicorn: www.motu.com
Edirol: www.edirol.com
B.Verlik wrote on 4/17/2005, 8:12 PM
Too broke for a new sound card right now, so I still need that info on those kx drivers when you get a chance.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 4/17/2005, 9:41 PM
I agree with Rednroll. I owned a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and the drivers were always giving me problems. I could never record at anything better that 24-bit/48Khz (i.e., 24/96 would just crackle and sometimes not work at all). I scrapped the card for an M-Audio Firewire 410 and the difference was very noticeable. I cannot recommend any Creative/SoundBlaster product for pro audio. Great for gaming, but not for pro audio.

The M-Audio Firewire 410 has XLR inputs with Phantom power and mic preamps. The Audigy line has NOTHING like that. It’s a consumer grade card despite whatever marketing spin Creative puts on it.

~jr
goshep wrote on 4/17/2005, 10:21 PM
Sound Blaster + PC Games = Audio Immersion

Sound Blaster + Audio Editing = Latency and snap, crackle, pop

M-Audio is great on a budget.

B.Verlik wrote on 4/18/2005, 1:54 PM
????
pelladon wrote on 4/18/2005, 3:45 PM
just do a search on Google

kX Project
B.Verlik wrote on 4/18/2005, 4:01 PM
Thank you.