Vampyromaniac

I was wondering if dallasstar or anyone else would please explain just how to do a dual-sound-card setup. I'm thinking of getting an Acoustic Edge soon, and would like to use it in conjunction with my old card, a Montego II.

I see dallasstar has his set up so his Santa Cruz handles music and movies, and his Audigy handles games and midi. That's almost the same thing I'd like to do: Acoustic Edge for music, movies, and TV; Montego II for games.

So can anyone please tell me how to do it?
thankyouthankyouthankyou!


Oh, I have Win98se; AIW Radeon for TV

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RIV@NVX

I think dallastar has headphones on his Audigy and some speakers on Santa Cruz, so it isn't any big deal to set up.

But I want to know how to put two soundcards on one speakers.

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-- Vedran

e-Seeker

Connecting two sound cards on one speaker set is not a big deal...
He was asking 'bout something else...

I think dallasstar has more experience with this... I just don't want to 'screw' something up with your configuration

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Vampyromaniac

Yes yes I'm interested in both the physical wiring of the setup (lines from card to speakers or card to card, etc.), and also the configuration within Windows (like how to make one card process some sound, and the other take care of other sound.)
Thanks for the replies, and deykee, please feel free to say whatever; I'd like to hear anything, since I currently know nothing.

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RIV@NVX

But I was asking about that...

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-- Vedran

e-Seeker

Check PM, as it is in Croatian

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DallasStar

First of all, I would like to clarify that I have both soundcards hooked up to the same set of headphones. They do not have seperate speakers.

Now, since I have just stereo headphones (yeah, 5.1 headphones exist, but I don't have them ), I just use an analog sound cable to hook the line-out of the Audigy into the Line-In of the SantaCruz. Then, I went to controlpanel-->sounds and audio devices--> and set the santacruz as the default playback and recording device and the audigy as the default midi device.

Now, If I ever have an EAX3 game, I have to make the Audigy the default soundcard, but since SantaCruz handles most games fine and since I don't really have any EAX3 games, I just use the SantaCruz for gaming too.

If you wish to do this with a 5.1 setup, you'll have to do this digitally. By this, I mean that you have to get an optical or spdif cable. You have to set the soundcard that won't be the primary music card as having spdif or optical output and hook up the spdif/optical cable as outputting from this card. Then, you have to plug this spdif or optical cable into the spdif or optical input of the soundcard that will be the primary music and recording card. Then, you can configure the primary card as you normally would and then everything works .






So a basic summary:

Just install both cards. Hook them up together in the way that corresponds with your speaker setup. Then, go to controlpanel-->sounds and audio devices--> and set each device however you want and make sure to set the primary music soundcard as default playback and recording device.

For gaming:

If the card you will use for gaming is different from the card you will use for listening to music, then, prior to gaming, you will have to change the gaming card to the primary music card (though I might be wrong about this requirement cuz I was once playing an EAX3 game and did a bit of experimenting and found out that the Audigy was playing the music even though the SantaCruz was set up as default music device ).

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"A picture of my existence... would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow... stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night." --- Franz Kafka

Vampyromaniac

Thank you very much!
I'll have to read it trhough a couple times and visaulize how it'll look

But I think I may be stuck on one thing . . . My TV tuner needs to go to a line-in, but it looks like I'll be using the Acoustic Edge's for the old sound card . . . I could plug it into the old one, but I'd rather not, because its sound quality isn't great . . . might have to though.
Hey, does anyone know if such a thing exists: an analog cable that has 2 connectors on one end, and one on the other, to merge 2 inputs into 1 output??

Thanks again

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e-Seeker

Hmmm, I'm not sure, but if not - there's nothing a simple 'seperator' can't solve...

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Vampyromaniac

Eh? "Separator?" Do tell!

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e-Seeker

Ehmmm, I'm in lack of certain tech. terms in English (DAMN!)... I'll give an idiotic description: it's this little 'device' (not a device actually) that splits one branch (tree) of the the mini-stereo connector into two...

Please shot me!

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DallasStar

erm.... just go to best buy or some audio store and ask the sales person for an analog audio "Y cable" with 2 female and 1 male connectors. ( haha that sounds kinda funny!)

just make sure to realize that they come in different sizes and that you'll prolly be needing the smaller size (whichever looks like it'll fit in your soundcard)

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"A picture of my existence... would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow... stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night." --- Franz Kafka

Vampyromaniac

Cool, thanks guys!

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DallasStar

here are some examples:

Most of the common Y-cables look like this:

(this can be bought from: http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/prod...roducthome.asp )


monstorcable.com has a cool version without the cable part... just plain gold meaning that the short distance that the signals have to travel will result in much less signal degration:
http://www.monstercable.com/productP...n=655&mixtype=

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"A picture of my existence... would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow... stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night." --- Franz Kafka

Vampyromaniac

Thanks again very much dude!

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RIV@NVX

But wait, when I have to connect ONE speakers to TWO soundcards (because I don't have Audigy Platinum so there is no SPDIF), isn't it different - two male and one female connector.

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-- Vedran

Necrosis

Yes it appears it would be this kind of connector. Which is also made and usually used for sharing head phones on a portable device. Make sure you get the actual "wired" splitter and not the module type. Try to keep your number of splitters down as this can introduce interference into your setup; I would advise buying the gold plated splitters as well. You have less degradation and will not have to worry about your connectors oxidizing.

RIV@NVX

Average price on that gold plated splitters?

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-- Vedran

Necrosis

Hmm..I'm guessing around $5.00 - $7.00