Audiophile soundcard problems

darrenw5094

I have just installed a new Audiophile 2496 sound card in my fairly new Dell pc. It slots into the PCI slot inside. There are various inputs/outputs. The details are below.

Anyway, after installing the device and the drivers....i get no sound when i plug my guitar into the inputs....also there is no sound at all from windows any more. I have Cubase and also Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro 3. No sound in either of them.

The setup looks complicated...lots of options...what am i doing wrong....what inputs do i use for the guitar and also the Dell pc stereo speakers?

I checked the Hardware Devices through control panel...and it tells me that device is working properly.

Key Features

Award-winning 24-bit/96kHz digital audio card
2 x 2 full-duplex audio performance
Gold-plated RCA jacks
S/PDIF digital I/O with PCM and AC-3/DTS passthrough
1 x 1 MIDI I/O

Main Features
2 x 2 analog I/O
24-bit/96kHz fidelity
S/PDIF digital I/O with 2-channel PCM
SCMS copy protection control
Digital I/O supports surround-encoded AC-3 and DTS pass-through
1 x 1 MIDI I/O
Zero-latency monitoring
Software controlled 36-bit internal DSP digital mixing/routing
Gold-plated RCA jacks
Apple G5 compatible
Includes Maximum Audio Tools software bundle


Much help needed,
Darren.

Anima

Did you uninstall the old sound card drivers? Did you disable any onboard sound card? Did you install the new ones correctly?

Try getting rid of all sound related drivers first and then reinstall the card in a new slot and then load the drivers.

darrenw5094

I have disabled the onboard sound card...Sigma Tel onboard sound device...it's part of the motherboard.

i haven't uninstalled the old drivers yet.

I disabled the Sigma Tel through the control panel/sounds and devices.

Anima

You'll need to disable the onboard card through the BIOS and remove its drivers. You'll have to reinstall the audiophile drivers as well. Should work then.

darrenw5094

Still nothing....starting to annoy me by this stage.

eddyc

You should try asking i the cakewalk forums,

I had a problem getting sonar to work with my soundcard, turns out that the soundblaster card that came with my pc was conflicting with the m-audio soundcard I wanted to use with sonar, tried uninstalling the drivers but no joy.
I ended up physically removing the soundcard and it worked grand.
Since this is not an option for you, you may have to tell windows to uninstall the soundcard drivers and then to never try to automatically install them again (which it likes to do). I dont know the exact procedure, but the lads on the cakewalk forums should.

cornbb

There shouldn't be a need to disable or uninstall your Sigmatel soundcard or its drivers, they should be allowed to remain on your machine but stay inactive. Its more likely you just need to configure your Cubase/Cakewalk audio software properly. The fact that your outputs don't seem to be working properly is a bit strange though, e.g. can you hear MP3s or warning sounds through the new soundcard? And does the new soundcard come with its own configuration/routing software?

selephonic

darrenw5094 wrote:

what inputs do i use for the guitar and also the Dell pc stereo speakers?

Your speakers won't connect directly to the RCA connectors on the sound card. You could get an adapter, rca to female 3/4" jack or plug into a stereo instead, using standard phono cables. For connecting guitar , I'd recommend a mixer.

If there's no audio going into your software at all, then it could be an IRQ conflict between the onboard sound and M-audio.

darrenw5094

selephonic wrote:

Your speakers won't connect directly to the RCA connectors on the sound card. You could get an adapter, rca to female 3/4" jack or plug into a stereo instead, using standard phono cables. For connecting guitar , I'd recommend a mixer.

If there's no audio going into your software at all, then it could be an IRQ conflict between the onboard sound and M-audio.

Thanks.... the pc speakers are now sorted.....what i now need is how to connect the guitar to the pc.

What connections do i use and what settings.
Also in the quote above...what mixer do i use?

Thanks,
Darren.

selephonic

To connect guitar you could mic up the amp/acoustic, plug the mic into a mixer such as the behringer xenyx(or something similar) and connect the outputs of that into the rca line in on the soundcard. This way you'll have at least one preamp to bring up the level of the mic to a usable level without too much noise.

You could get an adapter to connect rca to a standard guitar jack but that is going to mean a terrible sound and loads of noise because the signal from the guitar is too low and will need to be turned up in your software so much.

There are other ways, such as di-ing the guitar amp, opr changing your audio interface. I suggest the mixer way because in my opinion you'll get best results at least money and can upgrade quite easily(i.e. you'll be able to use a mixer for different things later on or sell it).