Question about the SoundBlaster Live! Platinum

jmkz · February 05, 2011, 06:42:13

Yesterday, a friend of my brother gave him a Sound Blaster Live! Platinum sound card. I know that is famous in the world of the modules but I think that has some other stuff. We made a interchange by an other mine as the SB Live! P did not work on his Windows 7 and was surprised because has a 24-bit output (according to ASIO4ALL) What I can do interesting things with it, apart from being my main sound output? Maybe it's a strange question...

Saga Musix · February 05, 2011, 11:48:15

Quote from: jmkz on February 05, 2011, 06:42:13I know that is famous in the world of the modules

It certainly is not. The old SoundBlaster series (until AWE 64) were widely used by bedroom musicians, yes, but anything coming after that (including the SB Live) was not as widely spread. Which is a good thing, since Creative doesn't know how to write good drivers for their hardware. If you want a proper audio interface, there's a simple rule: don't get a SoundBlaster. It's gaming hardware, not music production hardware.

Well, what interesting things could you do with such a card? The first thing would be to get proper drivers, which should also come with decent ASIO support. Then you can use low-latency audio playback in OpenMPT.

LPChip · February 05, 2011, 12:29:12

Jojo, I really disagree with you.

Just because you hate the SoundBlaster, doesn't mean its bad.

I am a happy user of the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro, and although I have looked around for another, I simply cannot find one that can be as good as my current one, if not better.

I can agree that Creative doesn't know how to make proper drivers, but there are those who can alter the Creative Drivers so they work properly. I have the Creative Support Pack 2.0 (I can send it to you if required) which is for all X-Fi cards and there are these packs for other brances too. Just search on the creative forums to find them. They work very well.

The problem with the SB!Live P is actually one of the issues being discussed on the forums. What you want to do is download the drivers, then go to device management and uninstall the windows 7 WDM drivers for the creative soundcard. After that, you should be able to install the drivers just fine. Windows somehow thinks it has proper drivers for the soundcard, but fails in that, and it locks the proper drivers from installing properly.

Saga Musix · February 05, 2011, 12:40:06

Quote from: LPChip on February 05, 2011, 12:29:12
Just because you hate the SoundBlaster, doesn't mean its bad.

I don't hate SoundBlasters. I probably even have more of them at home that you'd believe. But how could you not agree that it's gamer hardware and not suitable for audio production? Plus the X-Fi series is semi-expensive gamer hardware, meaning that you get many things for your money, including the "fastest sound processor" noone needs, "sound improvement" technology and all that shit. Which means at the same time that you put less money in the stuff that is really important for audio production, for example really good D/A and A/D converters. If you buy an audio interface for 100€, you can expect it to have way better audio chips than an X-Fi in the same price range. I know you're a gamer so yes it might be useful for you, but for someone how needs a really good audio interface, a SoundBlaster is obviously the wrong choice.

LPChip · February 05, 2011, 13:59:35

I do not agree that its aimed at gamers in particular. Yes, most of the SoundBlaster series are aimed at gamers, but the ones that have the Audio Creation mode or Entertainment mode are certainly NOT what you'd want to use when gaming. I always use the Audio Creation mode when tracking music, and I haven't seen a replacement card to do this and support 7.1 surround. (Yes, I know what you're saying: making music with 7.1 sounds stupid, but really its not.)

My expensive 7.1 speakerset which is THX certified really benefits from having this card. But its not really the debate whether I like the X-Fi, its whether you can make music with it, better than say... an onboard sound card.

Sure, if your output is stereo, there are much better cards than the Creative cards. If you are going for 5.1 or 7.1 surround, and you want good quality, Creative really does make soundcards that can do this.

I suppose the more expensive Auzentech cards could work here too, given that some of their newer cards feature the X-Fi chipset and a modified version of the drivers, but even then, I personally would miss my audio console (which it seems is not even purchasable from Creative anymore either)

The biggest question when getting new sound hardware is as with any computer: what will you do with it? Its the same choice for a processor (intel or amd) as with a GFX card (nvidia or ati). Do you want a Creative card or another one, like M-Audio, Auzentech, Terratec, etc...

But to return the call to you Jojo.

Lets say, I want a 7.1 surround sound card, and one of the features I really need, is that it has a Graphical Equalizer on board... what card would you recommend me?

Saga Musix · February 05, 2011, 15:06:18

QuoteI do not agree that its aimed at gamers in particular.

Ok, let's call it "consumers" instead. Basically all features of those cards are intended for gamers and home entertainment users, but not musicians.

QuoteI always use the Audio Creation mode when tracking music

So let's face it, what is so special about this option? As far as I can see, Creative advertises this as a mode where you can route input and output signals to different channels, balancing them, amplifying them, muting them, etc... That's nothing special at all. Apparently you can also apply stock effects like Auto-wah on the recorded audio - why? That's what I have an audio editor for.

Quoteand I haven't seen a replacement card to do this and support 7.1 surround. (Yes, I know what you're saying: making music with 7.1 sounds stupid, but really its not.)

So what are you actually using for creating 7.1 music? Certainly not OpenMPT.
And what on earth makes you think that I'd say "making music with 7.1 sound is stupid"? Of course there are people who have to do this f.e. for movie soundtracks or whatever, but such people certainly don't rely on consumer audio cards. And let's not forget that proper stereo mixing is already an art which many people here excel in, and surround mixing is a lot more complicated than stereo mixing.

QuoteIf you are going for 5.1 or 7.1 surround, and you want good quality, Creative really does make soundcards that can do this.
Lets say, I want a 7.1 surround sound card, and one of the features I really need, is that it has a Graphical Equalizer on board... what card would you recommend me?

If I needed 7.1 surround madness and I needed something affordable, I'd most likely go for the ESI Prodigy 7.1 Hifi, which has a full set of analog input / outputs and also 2x S/PDIF (digital).

LPChip · February 05, 2011, 15:52:32

Its available for 100 euro in NL. If my soundcard ever breaks, this is a good replacement.

Thanks for the suggestion.

jmkz · February 05, 2011, 22:27:59

Quote from: Jojo on February 05, 2011, 11:48:15
Creative doesn't know how to write good drivers for their hardware.

Hehe, I know, I have some BSoD's while installing this soundcard and while managing output streams of some applications.

I think that its better than my other sound card with CMI-8738-MX (Diamond DT-688) and i have BSoD's too because is old, and has support for windows 7.

Finally, for audio production, which soundcard do you recommend for me? (or chip, less than 120 euros or 200 USD

)

Saga Musix · February 05, 2011, 22:58:27

Quote from: jmkz on February 05, 2011, 22:27:59
Finally, for audio production, which soundcard do you recommend for me? (or chip, less than 120 euros or 200 USD )

For about 120€, you'll get a fine ESI Juli@ (if you want PCI) or the ESI Maya44E (if you prefer PCI Express). The Maya44E can even be used easily for creating Quad Surround music, since it has four inputs and outputs (that works flawlessly when using ASIO in OpenMPT, I have tested it myself). But if you're ok with PCI and only need two inputs and outputs (i.e. one stereo input and one stereo output), I'd rather go for the Juli@ - while I think both cards are great and of high quality, I think the Juli@ is still slightly better.

I think it's one of the best cards in this price range, so if you want a really good card that you'll love for the next ten years, don't hesitate to buy it - it's definitely worth the money, even if it might sound expensive on first sight. Good sound cards are not like graphics cards, you don't need to replace them every two years to have the best shit in town. Only problem might be that PCI is slowly getting old-fashioned.

jmkz · February 06, 2011, 03:44:56

Ok, so, i'm pretty happy with the SB Live! and my other sound card

jmkz · February 06, 2011, 11:15:58

ESI Juli@ is on my wish list now

Saga Musix · February 06, 2011, 17:13:07

Quote from: jmkz on February 06, 2011, 11:15:58ESI Juli@ is on my wish list now

Good choice - I'd say the Juli@ is the best purchase I've ever made.

jmkz · February 06, 2011, 19:22:31

Quote from: Jojo on February 05, 2011, 11:48:15
The first thing would be to get proper drivers, which should also come with decent ASIO support. Then you can use low-latency audio playback in OpenMPT.

Mm.. ASIO don't work fine here, my system was a little bit unstable, and well... I turn back the old drivers which were better than those news...