I've wondered about this myself, because some people say that you need six separate ouputs on your sound card to properly monitor 5.1.
That would put you in the Delta 410 and Echo Gina category.
Others (as above) say that cards like the Revolution are capable of monitoring 5.1.
I'm still not sure. Is the monitoring really accurate with a consumer 5.1/7.1 card?

M

Maybe I've missed something here but hasn't any 5.1/7.1 card got separate outputs?
BTW I think the latest Creative boxes are pretty good, don't have one myself as I wanted things like balanced mic in as well but for straight monitoring they seem pretty good value. I know in the past their stuff was pretty poor and they treated their users like s**t.

>>I've wondered about this myself, because some people say that you need six separate outputs on your sound card to properly monitor 5.1.

The Revolution 7.1 has 8 independent signals that are output from 4 "stereo" connectors. The first output carries the front left and right stereo and Vegas calls these outputs 1 and 2 or 1/2. The Revo output 3/4 carries the Center Channel and LFE. 5/6 (the 3rd stereo connector) carries the right and left side/rear channels and the unused by Vegas (for now) 7/8 connector carries the right and left rear channels. You can use 3 of these connectors to output Vegas 5.1 with 6 independent outputs that are controlled by setting an LFE channel and panning within Vegas. You could potentially set up 6 totally different tracks in Vegas (God Bless America on Track 1, Star Spangled Banner on Track 2 etc.) and by turning speakers off selectively in the 5.1 panning control have 6 songs playing out of 6 different speakers. I have done this and it works. I have also rendered this file to a Widows Media Player (Version 9) 5.1 audio file that will output that signal correctly to my 6 Surround Sound speakers via the Revolution 7.1.

Here is how I have it set up. Go to Options/Preferences/Audio Device and set up as follows:

Audio Device Type: M-Audio Revo ASIO

Default Stereo and Front Playback Device: Analog Out 1/2 Revolution (1)

Default Rear Playback Device: Analog Out 5/6 Revolution (1)

Default Center and LFE Playback Device: Analog Out 2/3 Revolution (1)

Works like a charm.

What is a reasonable price for this equipment? Also, can anyone recommend a good place to purchase it?

I bought the Revo 7.1 from NewEgg for $100. I have seen it for $90 but don't remember where. Do a search at www.pricegrabber.com and it will lead you to NewEgg.

Thanks for the explanation InterceptPoint.
I did mean six different connectors when talking about six different outputs.


M

I'm using the M-Audio 7.1 with Logitech's Z-680 speakers. Had M-Audio's speakers been available at the time, I would have gone with those. Be that as it may, I'm very happy with the system I have currently. It's working very well in mixing 5.1 surround sound--sounds great!

J--

is my setup and although a complete audio neophite, this combo is amazing....never thought small speakers could sound like this...really, really impressive...(though not pro quality I guess, but for an amateur...)

BTW, anyone else have these speakers? Curious to know how they are rated/valued overall....

The revolution 7.1 I bought was highly recommended by several (including Earl Foote from PC NIrvana over at the COW). Couldnt be happier, though probably could be slightly less out of pocket (speaker set-up here in Spain put me back approx 500$ which is probably way over priced...but THX looked good...)

Regards

Paul.

FWIW, typically the channel setup for surround is:
1-Front left
2-Front Right
3-Rear Left
4-Rear Right
5-Center
6-Sub

It doesn't matter at all unless you are sending mixes to a buddy who is 'standardized' or if you move to a 'standard' room, but if it's just being mixed in your own facilty, it won't matter one whit.