The Creative Nightmare Never Ends...
 

I'm completely fed up with my SB Live! 5.1. I'm pretty much looking for suggestions on another card to get instead...but there are a few clinchers. SoundFont support is important, because I'll be doing some MIDI projects with a friend using some high-end ( and priced >.o; ) SoundFonts soon. The other thing is that I don't have a whole lot of money to throw around...100 bucks is my limit, unless someone can recommend a card that's so incredibly good that it's worth saving up for and dealing with my SB for a while longer.

Ever since I installed my new AGP card, the WaveOut has been spazzing out at the very start of each song, and while the wa2update fixed it somewhat, it still happens. The problem isn't limited to WinAmp, however: it happens to all my sound programs, like Super Jukebox, etc.. Thankfully WA works with the DirectSound output...but even so, it's not tolerable for the rest of my programs.

Any recommendations are gladly accepted. I'm fairly good at price hunting, so even if it breaches the 100 mark some, I might still be able to find it slightly cheaper.


Many thanks!

Hi :)

I feel your pain.

Check out some of these:

M-Audio Revolution
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (aka: Videologic Sonic Fury - in Europe)
Hercules Fortissimo II/III

Ah, the Santa Cruz...I've heard a lot of good things about that, VS the SB Live! series. Sadly, I got the SB first. When I bought it, I was under the impression that it would be better than my old SB16 ISA (I still love that card, but no longer have ISA slots)...but when I plugged it in, it sounded so muddy. It took a lot of tweaking to make it tolerable.

I've also heard that the Santa Cruz did have some driver issues though. Anyone know if that's been resolved, or if it's even a big problem? I'm no expert on sound, I just need something that will sound good with the games and MP3s I listen to.

Thanks for the links, DJEgg!

...when will the hurting stop?
 

Ok...so, my SB Live! has managed to get worse in the past 24 hours. DirectSound now glitches too. Since I have Windows 98, I can't use the M-Audio card. I've narrowed it down to either the Fortissimo III 7.1 or the Santa Cruz. I can get the Fortissimo for $46, or the Santa Cruz for $58.

Anyone know which I'd be better off with? I have to get this SB out of my system before it kills my computer. X_x;

Santa Cruz is generally regarded as the best sounding 16bit consumer soundcard, and the drivers for it in Win2k/XP are basically solid. I'm unsure about Win9x drivers support for the SC, since basically Win9x is very much unsupported these days.

F3 is cheap and good sounding and the drivers are ok, but needs the latest 6.09 drivers for it in Win2k/XP. Once again, I'm unsure about driver quality in 9x.

The sooner you dump the Sound Mangler, the better life will be.

Ran the Sonic Fury on 98SE for a couple of years without a problem, very good card.

UJ

Well, sounds like the Sonic Fury/Santa Cruz is the way to go for the few extra bucks. I think I'm just going to pull the SoundBlaster out right now and use my onboard sound till the Cruz gets here. I'll just have to get an external SoundFont program like LiveSynth...

Replaced my old Soundblaster Live! with a "Terratec - Six Pack" after having several issues with the old card. Must say that I am really glad with the new product. Definite sound improvement in comparison with the Soundblaster and I can absolutely recommend it.

I'd love to get a Terratec...but $200 is out of my price range at the moment. Thanks for all the help, everyone!

Don't know wich model you are thinking of, but mine was around 100 Euro, wich should be quite close to 100 US Bucks.

That's it? Wow...the TerraTec site listed it at $199. Mighty big price difference.

Here is a link to the prices on the Dutch TerraTec site and it is listet for 80 Euro. Mybe you can try ordering it in Europe in case you are keen on it. Might be worth the wait.


http://www.terratec.com/ttnl/default.htm



Check out the link called "prijslijst"

Just checked out the prices on the American Site it really is 200 Dollars. Really can't believe it that is more than twicw of what it is over here. You guys must have some crazy Import Tax on European products or something like that.

Must be some kind of insane tax...such a shame, I'd love to have a Terratec if they weren't so expensive to get here.

The Santa Cruz is still a great option. Both Santa Cruz and SixPack uses the same sound DSP, CS4630 and the same DACs.

That's an interesting bit to know, and something I didn't come across while reading up one card comparisons. If they're using some of the same hardware, I guess I've got nothing to complain about...I just can't wait to get this horrid SB out. I think I'll throw in another hard drive while I'm at it. ^^