Sound Card installation help needed

[SculptorD5]

Me again. With help of a very smart friend, I'm going to be putting together a new computer next week.

I hope this post makes sense.

My big question is about my Gina 20bit soundcard. My main use for this will be to record Vinyl.

Will this take over all the audio functions of my computer? What I mean is, will all the audio such as webpage sounds, etc, come through this card and out my computer speakers, or will I have to connect the stereo system to the card Via the breakout box to get audio ?

I'm at a loss here, and so are most computer tech's I've talked to as they have no experience with hi-fi audio cards.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, do i need to get a separate sound card in addition to my Gina such as a Turtle Beach so I can utilize headphone/computer speakers for background music and internet sounds, and manipulating audio files taken from vinyl.

very confused, and the Gina manual is of no help yet again,

Danny :realmad:

[-=Rudy=-]

Standard response: "it depends". :D

I have a digital-only input card (made by the long-departed AdB International) that I used to dump my vinyl and tape onto the computer. I have only run it on Windows 98 or earlier, since it is an older semi-pro card and has no Win2K/XP drivers for it, and is an ISA bus card.

I bought it and put it in my older computer, a Gateway Pentium Pro, 200 MHz. I kept the Ensoniq card in the computer, so I actually had two sound cards in there. Never had a problem. Windows used the Ensoniq card for everything, even playing back the audio I'd recorded onto the hard drive. BUT, in some of the media options, I was able to choose if I wanted the sound to be output to the Ensoniq or the AdB. Ditto for input--I think in my sound editor, I had to choose which card I wanted to be the source.

The only thing I would warn against is on-board audio on the motherboard. That is the only thing that has caused some strange conflicts in the past. As long as I disabled it in BIOS, though, no problems.

So I can safely say I had no problem with using two cards on my older computer, but have NOT tried anything on my XP computers at all.

[mudbone]

Originally posted by Rudy@A&MCorner
Standard response: "it depends". :D

The only thing I would warn against is on-board audio on the motherboard. That is the only thing that has caused some strange conflicts in the past. As long as I disabled it in BIOS, though, no problems.

So I can safely say I had no problem with using two cards on my older computer, but have NOT tried anything on my XP computers at all.

What Rudy points out is key. That onboard audio will screw things up if you have it.

Do you know what motherboard you have and the model?

mud-

[SculptorD5]

No, haven't bought a new motherboard yet. I'll be getting that, plus a new hard drive on Tuesday. Not sure which model my friend had in mind, just that it's a nice one with a fast processor.

I"m sure that doesn't help you to answer my question any.. sorry.


I should add, for those not familiar with the Gina soundcard, that aside from the cable to the breakout box, it has 2 RCA jacks, one "in" and one "out". not sure what those would be for.

Danny

[Grant]

Originally posted by mudbone


What Rudy points out is key. That onboard audio will screw things up if you have it.

Do you know what motherboard you have and the model?

mud-

Most onboard sound leaves a LOT to be desired. Acyually, i'm supposed to have very good onboard sound with my Intel board called SoundMaxx. But' i'll never know because the drivers play havoc with WinXP. So, I wonder why they even bothered. So, I disabled it from the BIOS and put in my Santa Cruz card for now. I had to install XP drivers for the Santa Cruz card and fiddle with both the card's and Window's mixer, but I got it all working well, except that XP insists on using the system sounds like bleeps and poings, even though I keep disabling them...well, I *did* use the system restore a couple of times...:D ...never mind...

[-=Rudy=-]

My Asus A7N8X Deluxe has onboard 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. I've been tempted to find a way to try it out, just to see if it's any good. My current card is the dreaded Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum...it was SO promising, but ultimately a waste. It does play back well, so no complaints there.

[JonUrban]

I currently have 2 soundcards in my PC. A dreaded Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum that I use when I need SB compatible stuff like playing back a DVD or recording video from the TV.

For Music, i have a Yamaha DSP Factory multichannel 24 bit card that I use when I record quad stuff for convrsion to DTS.

I have the SB connected to the analog input on my speaker set, and the Yamaha connected to the digital input of the same.

There are no conflics, however, you do have to go to the control panel/audio setting and select which card you want to use for specific functions at times. Most of the time, I leave the SB as the default, unless I am recording.

I have NO sound on my MB.