Soundblaster lives 24 bit capabilities

[Kenn159]

Hi All
I have a question about sound blaster live that I tried asking creative labs and I think I got someone with very limited tech knowledge because he did not know the answer.OK here goes There are some external 24 bit 96K A to D / D to A converters on the market that hook up via spdif[ and the bit word width of spdif is supposed to be 24 bits] and the SB live has spdif digital ins and outs, My question is can I record with 24 bit /96 k resolution with the soundblaster live card using the spdif in and outs with a external converter and software that supports that bit rate like giga sampler and cakewalk 9.0.
Art just came out with a external 24 bit 96 k converter [since its external it wont pick up computer noises] called DIO and it only retails for $249, which means it will probably sell for about $175 , and judging from the price /performance ratio of some of there other products , this sounds very interesting .

[KIA]

Kenn

Hope your well. I was having a read and thought that if it was me I would look at somethink more...erm less fiddly... Frontier Design do the Wavecenter at £299 RRP which is 24 bit,8 ADAT I/O, 2 midi-in and outs,Digital and Optical I/O and have GSIF support giving you 10 outputs (if you use ADAT interface. I\'ll admit its only 48khz but for the few extra quid it would give you far more...(I think)

I am not a big fan of the SB Live now.. I did like it for a while but an extra hundred bats will get you so much more these days... Having said that.. I\'m skint anyway. I haven\'t told my wife that Ive bought a CS6X on my CC. She thinks its on loan from my friends at Yamaha.. Eeek its a cruel world.

KIA the Kentucky Fried Chickens best friend.

[Viktor]

Kenn,

SB Live wont receive nor sent 24bit audio. It is limited to 16bit/48kHz audio and it will resample your audio source whatever the sample rate is (even the digital in/out).

SBLive is very good card for the money but it is not pro card.

You should not be worried about noise inside the PC. There are cards on the market that will not pick up noise and their quality of sound is great. Midiman Delta 1010 for instance. Gadgetlabs 824 too, but it doesnt have GSIF drivers. Echo cards have good drivers but sound is a bit worse than Delta. Maybe new cards from Echo will be better (Layla 24). http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/1549E7330E53DEFE86256809001FB33B (\"http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/1549E7330E53DEFE86256809001FB33B\")

Vik



[This message has been edited by Viktor (edited 03-10-2000).]

[Kenn159]

Thanks alot for the response . I have only had the SB live a short time and I really like the lush sound of the reverb and the fact that It has the fastest processor [1000 mps, the gina and darla are only 66 mips] on the market , and its multi client capabilities .[even though its only a stereo output card]Anyway considering all that , I was hoping I could just by better converters, but I guess creative would have to write software for that because the way I see it the hardware capabilities are there , like fast enough processor and internal 24 bit word path , but I guess sinse the majority of it market base are multimedia people maybe its not worth their while to implement that .
Vik you mentioned that the delta cards like the 1010 sound better than the current echo cards . Sound quality is very important to me. So as you mentioned look out for the new layla[ theres also the mona that looks interesting ] although I dont want to spend that much for a card . What do you think of the delta 66 from midi man , that one is more in my price range . Ive leared as fast as things change in this industry not to spend $800 on a sound card like layla , I think I would be more in the 4 to 500 dollar range. thanks , Ken

[Viktor]

Kenn,

IMO,

the best audio cards with analog ins/outs:
Midiman Delta series (44, 66, 1010)
- great sound, good drivers, good support, company tradition

Echo:
Darla 24, Gina, Layla, Mona
-great drivers, good sound but not as good as Delta\'s (i expect a lot from new 24bits series)

Gadgetlabs:
8/24, 4/24
-very good sound, mediocre drivers, no GSIF drivers, good price, MIDI interface


Egosys:
Waveterminal 24/96
-dont know much about them, but users are satisfied, good price, good drivers,

Regarding Delta 66:
It has the same audio quality as Delta 1010 but with 4 analog ins/outs, 2 digital ins/outs and without MIDI interface. 350$

Delta 44 250-300$
same as Delta 66 without digital in/out

Hope this helps,
Vik

[elle]

Mads.
The original questions was: \"My question is can I record with 24 bit /96 k resolution with the soundblaster live card using the spdif in and outs with a external converter and software that supports that bit rate like giga sampler and cakewalk 9.0?\"

[Mads]

Hi

Try and check out the Hoonteck brackets and converters for the SB. Live.
See them at www.hoontech.com (\"http://www.hoontech.com\")

See yaahhh

Mads