Sound cards with IO bay\box?

[Golden Dragoon]

Ok time has come to replace my venerable Gametheater XP as it won't work on any 64bit os and I would really like to use all 8gb of my ram rather than 3.25gb and I do not want to use the intel hd audio on my motherboard as it is quite unsuitable for my needs
I am wanting to know if there are any sound cards avalible that have the features of the GTXP at a reasonable price (Breakout IO box\drive bay with midi inputs and ability to hook up an electric guitar\bass or output from a bass amp) I do remember at the time that the soundblaster live series wouldn't allow me to hook up my bass directly, which is why I went with the xp.
I was thinking of an Audigy or X-Fi with a breakout box\drive but I will admit to not knowing anything about sound cards tbh and want to know if there are any alternatives or even if they would work in the way I am expecting them to?

Oh also I output my sound via optical out in DD5.1 format for everything curently, I assume that these newer cards will have that capability, and if not how can a 2001 card be more advanced than the "latest and greatest"

[Golden Dragoon]

Bump, would really appreciate some help, or being pointed in the right direction to find some help on this matter.

[DDY]

One soundcard I have experience with directly connecting to an electric guitar to is the Creative X-Fi Elite pro, it ticks all the boxes, external I/O box, 5.1 Optical DDS, MIDI I/O etc but comes with a £200 price tag.

[Powderhound]

Sure it wouldn't be easier to get one of the cheaper ones and use this:http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34199

[TooNice]

I am not sure if Azuentech's X-Fi is different, but Creative optical out - unless they've changed in newer release, only do 2.0 (Edit: After reading DDY's post, maybe I am wrong on this). To be fair, the DAC and Opamp of the Elite Pro is quite respectable, give better quality than you would going optical on most multimedia speakers.

That's not much of a consolation if you do not want to deal with analogue input, or have a proper good audio receiver though.

I can comment that the Elite Pro works fine with an Electric Guitar. I don't know about Bass though. If you are mainly looking for audio recording though, it may be better to look into M-Audio and EMU line of cards.

[Golden Dragoon]

Sure it wouldn't be easier to get one of the cheaper ones and use this:http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34199

That won't really work for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because the signal a guitar puts out is both similar and also quite different to a microphone


I have had a look about and I think that the elite pro fits my needs, I am only ever going to be an amature when it comes to recording my own stuff so am not sure that £200 is really a good price for me to pay, would I be right in thinking that a used Audigy 1/2/4 with the external IO box will do 90% of what the X-Fi will obviously excluding all the new eax stuff (I know I will loose out on 5.1 output on optical, but my reciever has analog inputs so I can hook it up that way, just means more wires)

Edit: that is assuming there are good 64bit drivers for the Audigy

[Ciber]

I have one of these I was lucky enough to win: X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series I think it has everything you specify and a 64 bit driver is here: http://support.creative.com/Products...hampion+Series

Not sure if you can still buy one though.

[Hawker1986]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...tid=11&subcat=

That has an I/O box with extra connections, not sure if its what you need for your guitar, but im sure you can find out, scan and ebuyer also sell it. Its cheaper than the Elite model too.

Hawker

[Golden Dragoon]

Was interested until I noticed the lack of midi in\out

[DDY]

Have you considered connecting your MIDI devices via USB? When I sold my X-Fi elite pro and moved to another soundcard lacking MIDI ports; I bought a USB-MIDI cable off eBay for £5 and I'm very happy with it.

[Ciber]

These ones look like they have the same front panel as mine which has midi in and midi out (round sockets):

Ebay £80: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Creative-Labs-...ayphotohosting

Amazon £50: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...8/ref=dp_olp_1

Hope that helps

[Golden Dragoon]

I just picked up a Audigy 2ZS Platinum at the local computer fair for £35, works pretty well though it is lacking 5.1 optical out, so am going to have to find a set of audio cables for analog out as it came bare with the card + io panel, midi seems to work as expected and even in 2 channel the sound is noticably better compared to my GTXP, I have to assume that it is the 24bit\96khz compard to the 16bit\48khz my card supported.
Hooking up my bass works well, both direct and through my amps output, and have made a few test recordings, still need to work out all the equaliser settings, but that is just natural.

I still need to work out my cable\tubing management, as the GTXP had an external box, my water pump was in the place where the io bay now sits with the bay res above it, I think I will chop off some of the metal excess on the io bay so I can still fit my pump in that space, as my tubing is cut to the right size and I want to keep the pump in the same place, tbh my case is a bit too small for the water loop I have in it lol something like an antec 900 would be better suited than this slk3000b.

One nice bonus is that looking about a bit for drivers I found the KX audio drivers, and it works perfectly in OS X, so I can finaly disable the intel audio on my motherboard for good and use the one sound card for both.