Hi,

I was wondering if there are people here who are successfull in using the SB Audigy 2 or SB Live 5.1 for music making? I know most people recommend other cards for music, but since I want to be able to play EASport games like FIFA and NBA 2004 at best conditions, the Audigy 2 still seems like the best choice for both music and games. I don't intend to record external stuff for now, I only want to be able to play VST instruments from an external keyboard, so my first question would be how good the SB ASIO driver is with the latest update from the Create site? Can you really get latency of 2ms in Cubase or is that impossible. I would use it in Windows XP by the way.

I know that you have to set samplerate to 48khz in Cubase, but apart from that does this card work well then in Cubase? No midi/audio syncing problems or tracks drifting apart or something. Any tips you can give me to make this card work well for music making?

Also, is it OK to use the latest SB ASIO drivers or is it better to get those kX drivers. My main question however is if you use those kX drivers how well they perform with EASport games cause I like to play those alot and on the kX site they mention that with some games you can have clicks and audio artifacts in games, so I was wondering if anybody can tell from experience if this also happens in FIFA and NBA 2004 to name a few EASport titles I like. Anyway, if the latest SB ASIO driver is just as good I would use that one then I suppose.

By the way, is there much audio difference between the Audigy 2 and SB Live 5.1 cards or are they pretty much the same?!

Like I said, I know that most people recommend other cards, but I was just wondering if anybody is successfull using the Audigy 2 or SB Live 5.1 with VST instruments in Cubase SX and with Reason?!

Thanks in advance for all good feedback!

sb live and audigy are pretty much the same i guess, audigy with slightly better performance.. I used the kx drivers on my previous computer (with a sblive card) and they worked fine for me but some people seem to have serious trouble using them. I also played games with it so no problem with it. I really don't know if you would gain speed using the kx drivers. 2 ms is like really low so you will need a powerfull system if you want to use some plugins. I've got my terratec 6 fire set to 2.9 ms @ 44.1 khz and if there's not too much going on on my computer it runs smoothly but I wouldn't go any lower than that if you don't want any audio/midi sync errors.

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i have the audigy2 platinum zs and i get about 5-7ms with it on the asio drivers. Its low but indeed can be lower with a better card i guess. Right now its fine for me. If you use the kx drivers i think u can bring it down to about 2ms. I haven't tried those becuz i think the zs series is not fully compatible yet with it. I also dont like playing with drivers since i have bad luck.
I wouldn't mind a delta 66 or sumtn I dont think others cards should effect your gameplay really. I usually play with my headfones anyway

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I have the Soundblaster Live 5.1 which is good for my 5.1 speaker setup for gaming, movies etc, but im looking to upgrade my sooundcard and speakers so i can start producing when i can afford it.

Does the Audigy 2 ZS also have a ASIO 2 driver like the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro?

And what about the regular Audigy 2, I believe it has only ASIO 1 but I don't see the problem with that, but would I also be able to get low enough latency for realtime play. It doesn't have to be 2ms by the way, everything under 10ms would be fine, but I am more worried if there are no problems with this card or its ASIO driver cause so many people complain about it. Anybody can comment on the regular Audigy 2, as this would be the card I intend to get, unless ZS is that much better. Which latency can you get without problems?

PS: is it best to set samplerate at 48khz in Cubase with these Audigy cards or can you also set it at 44khz. Perhaps most problems in Cubase arise because of setting it at 44khz since the ASIO driver is fixed at 48khz if I am correct.

PS2: does the SB Live 5.1 have its own ASIO driver?

Last edited by Dance123 on Jan-02-2004 at 19:37

Here are the specs n stuff for the plat.zs
http://us.creative.com/products/pro...lSpecifications
I also have a midi keyboard and so far im fine with it

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quote:

Originally posted by EliPsE Here are the specs n stuff for the plat.zs http://us.creative.com/products/pro...lSpecifications I also have a midi keyboard and so far im fine with it

Thanks, but I was more looking for comments on the regular Audigy 2 or regular Audigy 2 ZS (not Platinum version). Anybody has any of these?

quote:

Originally posted by Dance123 PS2: does the SB Live 5.1 have its own ASIO driver?

Don't think it supports them, but not sure as the drivers I got with it were fu*ked, so I had to download them from their site.

Airbase uses the audigy 2 and he has multiple vinyl releases.

I know I am a bit late in posting, but I had to wait till I was allowed in..

I have an Audigy 2 card, the “standard” one… that is the same card as the platinum, but without the breakout box…

Just to clear up a few things, first the Audigy 2 cards are 24 Bit cards, capable of recording at 96Khz… They are NOT the same as the SB live cards.

As for using to create music, hell yes!! I personally have installed around 15 of these cards in local musicians homes and studios… Most of us use Cubase SX and other programs like Reason 2.5 and have had no problems with latency or other nastiness…. However… One word of warning, I recently checked the creative web site for updates, and rather stupidly updated my drivers BEFORE I checked where my Cubase CD’s were… Result? One no working Cubase as I cannot find my original CD’s Bugger..

Hi,

Thanks for the reply!

1/ You mention that the card records at 24bit/96khz, but isn't it so that the ASIO driver which you use in Cubase SX will only work at 16bit/48khz?! Doesn't that mean you lose all the benifits of 24bit/96khz and even will lose some audio quality because of samplerate conversion?! How is that with this card exactly and its ASIO driver?

2/ Second, how much latency are you able to get at 48khz (and 44khz) in Cubase SX without getting any problems?!

3/ You mention that you had problems with updating the drivers. Is there a problem with the latest drivers and Cubase SX perhaps or did you mean something else?! Could you please clarify?

4/ is there any advantage getting the Audigy 2 ZS instead of the regular Audigy 2 for making music, or is it all the same?!

Thanks in advance for the info! If anybody else has an Audigy 2 card, please post your commments also!

Last edited by Dance123 on Jan-20-2004 at 13:25

1/ Not actually sure what you mean there.... but anyway, 16bit 48khz: is cd quality anyway... I never actually changed any settings in cubase... i loaded the program, plugged in my keybaord and away I went... I only use the higher rates when mastering (with t-racks)

2/ (I cannot remember exactly... but it was pretty low.. ie when I hit a key on the keyboard there was no delay (15ms)????? audio was also spot on (no crackle) I do have 512Mb memory in the main PC and a Ti4600 128Mb graphics card as well.... so the cpu & soundcard work well..

3/ There would be no problem if I could find my cubase install cd's as all I need to do is reinstall cubase... I did the silly thing of updating the (soundcard) drivers directly from the creative site... (it would be better to download them and instal manually

4/ I dont think there is much advantage, have a look at the specs here....




http://www.microdirect.co.uk/compan.../SOUCRESB71.htm



hope that helps...


BTW I use reason 2.5 and have NO problems.... my problems were self made, and should serve as a warning to others not to do what I did