No luck trying to use 2 Audigy's to record in same PC. Any ideas ??

[J_Windisch]

I'm working on a software application that can record audio from 2 Audigy cards in one PC. This isn't multitracking so much as it would be launching 2 instances of the program and each one controls one of the soundcards for it's audio.

This isn't to record audio for music production, but rather industrial audio analysis ( think Bruell & Kjaer or Audiomatic Clio), calculating db SPL, freq analysis etc..

I inherited the project written to work with Creative Audigy and Directsound. So far it has worked adequately in a one card per PC setup, given that the soundcard was intended for low end gamign applications.

It was decided to try to add a second sound card/mic setup in the PC to increase thru put. Well, we found out the hard way, 2 Audigy's create a mess.

A few questions :

I already know that 2 Audigy's in the same PC won't work . I'm curious if anyone has information as to why. Is this a function of Directsound drivers, or of Creative's hardware implementation?

Has anyone gotten 2 Audigy's to work with a different driver scheme, say ASIO or WDM-K / EWDM drivers?

Can anyone recomend another soundcard manufacturer in the same price range, that could handle running in the configuration described above ?


Thanks in advance ...

[Bops2000]

delta 24/96's would work

[TimOBrien]

If I remember correctly from a long time ago, even Creative says that you can only have one card at a time.

The only way to use multiple cards is if the drivers are written to accommodate it. For example, I use a Motu interface and they guarantee that I can use 3 of them simultaneously because they have written their drivers that way.

ASIO also means you can only use ONE sound driver at one time, so you have to use cards from the same manufacturer, too. You can't mix-and-match cards.

Frankly, Creative cards are gamer cards and their drivers are a mess. You'd be better off selling them and getting decent audio cards. Here's a guide and 'you cant go wrong with any of these' suggestions:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

[J_Windisch]

Thanks for the info.. Look's like it's time to upgrade !

[ecc83]

Do the pairs of tracks need to be in perfect sync?

If not I have run an MA 2496 and a usb interface, a Behringer BCA2000 together for as long as I wanted using Samplitude se8. The tracks start and stop at the same time but there is nothing to stop them drifting. I did not try at that time locking the 2496 to the S/PDIF of the Berry. This was with a P4 3.2G machine 1G ram, xp pro.

Later I used a WMCE machine, again sam8 and 2496 with a usb MA fast track pro just a try out and that worked fine too. In each case I used MME drivers.

Dave.