vegas, vista and sound cards

The dufferz wrote on 1/18/2009, 7:49 PM

I use vegas for video production so I am asking this here. I have had trouble with creative since I upgraded to vista. I looks like I will be needing to upgrade to a new sound card, and based on other things I have read, creative may not be the best option. thoughts on what the best sound card/manufacture would be that would be compatible with Vegas and Vista?

Thanks in advance

Duff

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 1/18/2009, 8:32 PM

Many here (and in the Sound Forge forums) use products by Echo and M-Audio.
Both have good specs, configurability, and reasonable price points. I, for one recommend against Creative as your primary audio interface.

That being said, their are others out there that offer the same advantages, and are equally compatible with SMS applications.

Shop around, but check back here first for possible problems before you purchase. That is the best advice I can give without venturing specific recommendations.

blink3times wrote on 1/19/2009, 3:09 AM

I'm running Creative x-fi elite pro with no issues at all. I even use the creative asio driver for both Vegas and Adobe Audition.

What creative sound card are you running?

JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/19/2009, 6:34 AM

I would look not only for Vista compatibility but specifically Vista 64 compatibility. As others have mentioned, Echo, M-Audio, & Pre-Sonus all make good devices. Not all have Vista 64 drivers even within the same manufacturer so be careful which one you buy. External devices like firewire are preferred as they are not susceptible to internal noise from your PC like PCI cards are.

The reason people recommend against Creative is because their drivers are terrible, their hardware only works at 48K sample rate (it interpolates everything else in the software) and their cards are designed to make movies and games sound great by coloring the sound. The last thing you want for video or audio editing is to have your sound card lie to you about what the audio really sounds like. I owned several Creative cards before getting my M-Audio Firewire 410 and the results in clarity of audio are like night and day.

~jr

musicvid10 wrote on 1/19/2009, 8:14 AM

Nice to have someone of John's credentials weigh in on this!

I do keep an older SB on my machine for legacy audio and hardware midi, but never as a primary device.

AtomicGreymon wrote on 1/19/2009, 8:57 AM

I've got an Asus Xonar D2-PM, which seems pretty good. It replaced a Creative Audigy 2 ZS I'd had forever, once I upgraded to Vista. I also had an M-Audio Delta 44, however at the moment it's sitting in its box as there are no x64 drivers for it. I'm about ready to stop waiting for that, though, and pick up a new external device; to supplement my Asus card.

plasmavideo wrote on 1/19/2009, 8:58 AM

Are any of you mixing in surround, and if so, what are you using to monitor it? That's the only reason I thought about keeping my old Audigy 2 for the new computer. I'm not doing surround yet, but plan to.

blink3times wrote on 1/19/2009, 9:06 AM

I would be careful with M audio and 64 bit platforms.

They're so far behind with 64 bit drivers it's not even funny. Last I heard on this subject was a couple of months ago and they JUST STARTED releasing 64 bit beta drivers.

"Are any of you mixing in surround,..."

Yes... I am.
again... creative soundblaster x-fi elite pro on Vista 64... no issues at all.... good sound card

blink3times wrote on 1/19/2009, 9:11 AM

"The reason people recommend against Creative is because their drivers are terrible, their hardware only works at 48K sample rate (it interpolates everything else in the software) and their cards are designed to make movies and games sound great by coloring the sound"

The x-fi elite pro comes with 3 different operating modes: game mode, Audio creation mode, and entertainment mode.

Mine is set all the time in audio creation mode which bypasses all the "coloring effects" (if you wish) to get a nice flat, and accurate reproduction. Sample rate is adjustable.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/19/2009, 11:12 AM

> I would be careful with M audio and 64 bit platforms. They're so far behind with 64 bit drivers it's not even funny. Last I heard on this subject was a couple of months ago and they JUST STARTED releasing 64 bit beta drivers.

Yea, that's why I said check first. My M-Audio FW-410 still has BETA drivers for Vista 64 and it's 2009 already! I also bought a PreSonus FireStudio which does not have Vista 64 drivers while the PreSonus FP10 (i could have bought at the same price!) does have them. Very disappointing. :( So check, check, check, BEFORE you buy.

~jr

The dufferz wrote on 1/19/2009, 2:19 PM

Blink3times;

I am using the audigy 2 zs that came with my dell. The problem is sound that cuts out while I am editing and now I burned a bunch of audio CD's and a few of them burned nothing other than track info, so sound at all. Grrr. I used some of the workarounds that I have read about here, but I need this to be reliable.

blink3times wrote on 1/19/2009, 2:45 PM

Yeah... the audigy 2 zs series is an older series and was never really intended to fit with vista. They did obviously create drivers for them, but none the less they never worked very well.

I have an audigy 2 zs video editor

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=11226

And it was a great little machine under XP. But even with the upgraded vista drivers it was never really the same so I had to give it up.

X-fi is a different animal however.... and really pretty good. I can't speak for the cheaper x-fi versions... but I have had no issues at all with the elite pro. It's even THX certified. One note on it however.... the external control box that comes with it is NOT as small as it looks in the pictures. It's about the size of a small dvd player.

GenJerDan wrote on 1/20/2009, 4:39 AM

But does you beta M-Audio 64 driver work? Mine, for the 1010LT, works fine.
:)