2 soundcards in the same computer?

[DURBANS]

Hello

I wanted to know if this was possible. I currently use an old "vintage" (LOL) SoundBlaster Live 5.1 sound card for both recording and composing drums using SoundFonts through Cakewalk Pro Audio 8. Yes... call me OBSOLETE but hey, that's me... hehe. I'm very comfortable with the way I work doing the drums using soundfonts and I've been doing this for 5 years with no trouble what so ever.

Now, the guitars sound crappy when I record them through the SoundBlaster card, of course. I use a Shure SM57 and then straight to the soundcard using a 1/4 to 1/8 converter.

Yesterday I bought an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard, since most people told me it's great for home studio recordings and that the guitars will sound good enough. I also bought an ART TubePAC (preamp and compressor).

The question is... is it possible to have BOTH cards installed ? Like, If I want to use the SoundBlaster card for doing the drums ONLY and the 2496 for recording the guitars/vocals and reproducing the audio through a pair of monitors (which are KRK RP5's). I've seen the Cakewalk audio options menu and you can "choose" between different options, like, channels, etc. Maybe if I install both cards, I will be able to choose the SB for MIDI and the 2496 for .wav ?

Let me know before I install the 2496... thanx in advance!

Leonardo

 

[Mutant]

I'm using SB Live and/with E-mu 1212M without any problems.

 

[JBroll]

It's possible, although sometimes annoying... I've got an Audigy in my new build and I'll be moving my 2496 over to it before too long, only problem I've had before is that sometimes program defaults are set to the wrong one. Just be patient with it and you'll get it working sooner or later.

Jeff

 

[DURBANS]

Oh then great guys, thanx!

 

[Torniojaws]

You can use as many sound cards as you can fit into a motherboard And naturally you can mix sources too, ie. PCI, Firewire and USB-sound cards.

 

[-Gavin-]

WDM drivers, you can use more than one card in the same application.

 

[Pot]

yes u can use 2 soundcards but only 1 asio driver at a time. wdm drivers are different.
i´d run everything through the 2496!!
i personally have 2 soundcards in my pc: 1 creative audigy LS (use only to watch films in 5.1) and a RME 9632.
I have no problem whatsoever with running them on my pc

 

[::XeS::]

uhm.....today I tried my new Firepod...and the other soundcard is a creative sb512 (16bit)...I can use and switch the 2 soundcard, but if I choose 24bit on Sonar, it shows me an error message because one of the 2 souncard are not able to works at 24bit...

 

[JBroll]

Hmm, does Sonar allow disabling individual sound devices?

Jeff

 

[Torniojaws]

uhm.....today I tried my new Firepod...and the other soundcard is a creative sb512 (16bit)...I can use and switch the 2 soundcard, but if I choose 24bit on Sonar, it shows me an error message because one of the 2 souncard are not able to works at 24bit...

I guess you either need to keep switching to different bit depths as you change cards, or just settle for the lowest common denominator.

 

[::XeS::]

I choose 24bit with firepod, but I'm not able because the creative is 16bit card...
Anyway, I have totally disabled the creative and now the firepod works good at 24

 

[systmovadown]

i had cakewalk for a while and you can select which sound cards you want to use. i hate cakewalk though, the buffer is shit you cant get past 10 tracks simultaneously. i switched to adobe audition and now i can do at least 30 simultaneously

 

[-Gavin-]

i had cakewalk for a while and you can select which sound cards you want to use. i hate cakewalk though, the buffer is shit you cant get past 10 tracks simultaneously. i switched to adobe audition and now i can do at least 30 simultaneously

Then your PC is clearly shit or your knowledge of setting up buffers.

On a 128, i am currently doing a project with 47 tracks and no stutter.