What do u dislike in the Creative Audigy Platinum?

[Ralph khoury]

i've heard a lot of people, talking about how much they hated this card, without ever knowing what they hated exatly! anyone tried it? i've been using it for 2 years or so. i guess the only problem i am facing is that the guitar sounds thin and digital when i record at high gains using the GT3. dunno if its actually the GT3 or the card itself.

[JESTER700]

Originally Posted by Ralph khoury

i've heard a lot of people, talking about how much they hated this card, without ever knowing what they hated exatly! anyone tried it? i've been using it for 2 years or so. i guess the only problem i am facing is that the guitar sounds thin and digital when i record at high gains using the GT3. dunno if its actually the GT3 or the card itself.

1. Resampling to 48k of SPDIF. Stupid. Plus, the resampler sucks.
2. Limiter on analog when you hit -6dB
3. Drivers that never completely go away...
4. The biggest hype machine of any sound card company. The above wouldn't be an issue if they were honest and sold it as a game card with very good sound (for a game card). But they sell it as pro quality; it isn't. Get a Mia, Audiophile, or similar.

[Kev Brigden]

[quote="JESTER700"]

Originally Posted by Ralph khoury

2. Limiter on analog when you hit -6dB

what does that mean exactly?

[JESTER700]

The audigy limits the signal when you get close to 0dBf. That CAN be OK, but it's set way too low at -6. Even that would be OK, except you can't switch it off, and they don't tell you about it. So. If you use one of these, try to treat -6 as your -0 and eat the extra 6dB of noise. Or consider -3dB your top and figure that you have a limiter at -3dB (but it ain't a great limiter...).

AND, if you go in SPDIF, do it at 48k and use software SRC to convert to 44.1k.

[Ralph khoury]

Jester is that the reason why the guitar sound becomes muddy and digital on Lower notes when i use a high gain amplifier in my GT3?

[Kev Brigden]

Jest, could that explain why my final mix down tracks have always got extremely harsh clipping on them, despite the fact Cubase says it isnt. and the actual outputed .wav master tracks are DEAD quiet?

[Polaris20]

Why anyone would spend money on an Audigy when you can get an AU or Mia for the same price is beyond me. Unless all they plan to do is play games.

But if the purpose is recording, the Audigy is a bad card.

[BeastofLove]

Well, you ARE recording straight out of a GT3, so it is going to sound pretty harsh and digital anyhow. When I ran my pedals straight into my Audigy Platinum, which I did ONCE, it sounded like complete digital crap. But when I've mic-ed an acoustic, vocals, or a distorted amp, running my Oktava MK-319 through my ART StudioV3 into the Audigy, I get a completely passable and low noise recorded sound. Sounds very much like the sound heard in the room. It's definately not as good as my friend's 8-track reel-to-reel (has a richness and ambience to it), but it's more than good enough for home recording demos, jams, etc.
If you're getting too much noise after getting the levels +6db, because of the Audigy's limiting on your recorded tracks, then you need to do something to fix the SOURCE, rather than the recording hardware.

Would I reccomend it for folks recording CD's to be pressed, distributed and sold? No. An Audiophile? No. To someone wanting to put ideas down digitally in near CD quality? Sure.

-Ben

[JESTER700]

Originally Posted by Ralph khoury

Jester is that the reason why the guitar sound becomes muddy and digital on Lower notes when i use a high gain amplifier in my GT3?

I don't think so. The note's frequency shouldn't matter; only the level. IIRC, the frequency response on the Audigy isn't that bad.

[JESTER700]

Originally Posted by Kev Brigden

Jest, could that explain why my final mix down tracks have always got extremely harsh clipping on them, despite the fact Cubase says it isnt. and the actual outputed .wav master tracks are DEAD quiet?

Could be. The analog electronics aren't great in the Audigy, so it may not be digital clipping at all. And Cubase wouldn't show it as clipped samples, any more than it would show a fuzz tone as such.

[JESTER700]

A couple things:
1) I need to work on my reading ability... I've been talking about the original Audigy, not the Audigy2. And they may have fixed things, so if you're talking about the newer one, take my words with a grain or 2 of salt...
2) Beast is right. You CAN make good music with these cards. They're as good as most of the early DATs, ADATs, etc. and plenty of great stuff was recorded on THOSE. Especially if you know the, er, peculiarities of the card and work around them.

[BeastofLove]

I'm sorry- there may have been some confusion then; I was referring to the Audigy 2 Platinum I have, and don't have experience with the original Audigy. So if folks say the original Audigy is worthless for recording, it may very well be!!

And Jester is definately right- you need to get to know the nuances of the card. It's like any different recording medium- each has it peculiarities and you need to modify your recording technique when using them.

-Ben

[Ralph khoury]

Actually i recorded direct to a protools HD card using my GT3 the sound wasnt so Digital and thin, i guess the problem is the Audigy, anyway i will try the emulated line out of my Marshall combo to c if it would make any difference.

I would love to have an Audiphile card, but i cant find it in Lebanon.

The Funny thing that everything sounds "great" on the Audigy until when it comes to Recording High gain distortions, i recorded the Marshall emulation on the GT3 and it sounded good, since it has mild gain, but i will never be able to record the main amp i use "the 5150 emulation".

[Ralph khoury]

I noticed that the audigy sucks anyway, the problem is in the poor quality AD/DA converters.