SoundCards

RubberDuck

K, i'm in 2 premiership TFC clans, missed two important league matches because I dont have a soundcard that can run hl sounds and Roger wilco sounds at the same time => I need a soundcard which can, two local dealers [pc] said they dont have technology that advanced! rofl, humm...you guys know more than they do [probably], Whats a good one to get, i also need a mic. those headphone/mic sets any good?

Mixie

I had the same thing, but setting RogerWilco to use directsound fixed it - didn't need a new card. Try it, if it doesnt work it doesnt work, but if it does u save a few quid

yankinlk

got my headphones in GAme, brilliant for 20 quid...hear sounds now that i never heard before....always getting accused of cheating now so i know they must be good

the big kind look like stereo headphones not the cheapy fragile white plastic ones that break easily

Mixie

I bought one of those headphone/mic sets in Electronics Boutique, after about 3 weeks the headband bit went funny, no idea what caused it (funny shaped head perhaps? ), but secured it with 2 mini-cableties. All was good. Unfortunately I dropped the bloody thing about 2 weeks ago and the whole mic bit broke off!?

Quality-wise, it wasn't great, it was good enough to play with, but... The mic was always either too low, or too high, and people complained they couldn't hear me properly at times... (English clans, so perhaps it was my accent? I dunno *shrug*)

Now using a desktop mic + speakers, and never been happier.

RubberDuck

Think Ill stick with the regular mic.

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*** You were kicked from #fortress.ie by Molly (bang bang)

phaxx

In my experience, you don't need a new card.

In ye olden days when I was awee lad using win95, I was using a microsoft sound system card, your basic piece of crap soundcard. At that time, I could only have one application playing sound at once, but these days when I'm using win2k I don't have that problem.

I'd recommend Win2k, half-life runs grand on it.

While I'm on the subject, found a cool little thing in the registry there the other day that lets me play half-life in a window, which rules. None of this arsing about changing resolutions now.

RubberDuck

running through Direct sound on Rw Didnt work, Downloading the latest drivers for my soundcard didnt work, I think it would be sensible to change my soundcard rather than my OS, so list a few good uns, is this Diamond 3D soundcard live thingy any good, costs 90 quids ffs

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*** You were kicked from #fortress.ie by Molly (bang bang)

SantaHoe

I had the same problem with the crap on-board sound that came with my latest motherboard... if Winamp was playing, there'd be no windows sounds, same thing with halflife or what ever else.

I just got a new sound-card, (Creative Sound Blaster PCI-512) and all was sorted.
Though in retrospect I'd have gone for a card that supported A3D as opposed to the dissapointingly crap EAX.

When buying your card, take a close look at the feature set... A3D is excellent for positional 3D sound (works nicely in halflife, but comes with a slight performance hit), as far as I've noticed - EAX is more about adding environment echo's and effects to your normal bog-standard game sounds... makes things sound nice, but otherwise useless.
Any modern sound-card worth its salt will give you at least 2 channels.
Just don't pay over the odds for a card with features you'll never use/notice.

_CreeD_

A3d is dead (As is A3d2) company's out of business and the technology never really took off. SBLIVE's emulate A3d-1.

EAX is pretty good on a 4 speaker setup, positional audio is nice and handy, not so great with headphones.

SantaHoe

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by _CreeD_:
A3d is dead (As is A3d2) company's out of business and the technology never really took off.</font>

Jebus! that's a shame, I really liked A3D

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">EAX is pretty good on a 4 speaker setup</font>

Nice.
Don't think I'll be ditching my 2-speaker + woofer rig for quite a while though
I'm bloody well tempted though

[This message has been edited by Sleep Deprivation (edited 12-07-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Dead{o}Santa (edited 12-07-2001).]

bonkey

A3D is primarily for emulating 3d sound-sources with 2 speakers.

EAX is primarily for adding "environmental" effects (i.e. echo and reverb).

Almost any "modern" card will handle your requirements, although I have to say that my current faves are the SB 5.1 series. Bit steep to be buying your local Compustore, but not too bad online.

RubberDuck

K, went to local video store, they sell soundcards strangely enough... they want 90 quid for this diamond something-or-other 3D sound blah balh thing, that too expensive?
its the only one they have atm anyway:/

Skud

John ! Game in cork have some good ones. If not there should be a few shops about.

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She knew my feelings were jangled and frayed, she took me into a wind blown alley way...

Supercell

90 quid on any sound card bar one of the SBLive! offerings is money ****ed away IMHO.
For that kind of money you get SBlive! 5.1 card which most audiophile type people will admit is a damn fine card.

Check out this Irish dealer for it.

-ADREN-

I have a Yamaha DS-XG came with my pc.. and it does the job u are talking about.. i presume this is a pice a **** card and doesnt cost that much if it came with my pc..
soo mabey look out for that.. seems to do every thing for me nicely.. does the rw and hl thing fine.

Supercell

Yes I_M_H_O

But if it does everything you want then..ok

Yossarian

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Longfield:
90 quid on any sound card bar one of the SBLive! offerings is money ****ed away IMHO.
For that kind of money you get SBlive! 5.1 card which most audiophile type people will admit is a damn fine card.
</font>

most audiophilles would class the SB Live as rubbish.
To get an idea of some of the problems people have with the SBLive have a look at this link..


http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?q=Y&a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=6350 906422



[This message has been edited by Yossarian (edited 13-07-2001).]

_CreeD_

The SBlive is the best jack of all trades. And it is used by many musicians for it's midi flexibilty, and decent sound spec.s for the money. The problem with saying 'audiophile' is that could mean anyone who thinks spending 500+ on their sound kits makes them one whereas the guy who spent more on his cables would laugh. And you're matching it against a vast range of 24bit/96khz cards starting to work their way into the home market these days.

Still , the SBlive is a superb all rounder, with the most game support and very nice sound quality for a consumer/gaming card.

Supercell

Yep _CreeD_, i suppose "audiophile" was a little strong, point well taken.
Still, it is very good value ,in the £90 price bracket, compared to other cards.