All user reviews for the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

I bought this on a great closeout sale around 2005 years ago from zipzoomfly.com for $75 with rebate. Hard to find it for that price.

Allows internal recording on your PC Desktop, practically no latency when recording since you do not have to go through a USB or some other slow external interface. And you can conveniently plug your 1/4' jack right into the front of your tower! I used this for overdubbing bass tracks from some demos that needed bass lines and recorded some personal projects.

Need to know how to put computers together. If you are not hardware savvy, this is pretty much useless to you. Quality seems great for my purposes but it might not hold up to a real studio recording, this seems more for personal use.

Well constructed. I did have some of the pins on the card that connect the ribbon to the front panel bend a bit after multiple removals for one reason or another. Other then that this card should last you, even second hand.

Great low latency card for people who aren't afraid to break open there desktop and mess with it. May not be up to studio quality standards. Can be expensive if you pay full price. You should be able to find a used one or one on sale on eBay or some other internet site. Don't pay retail. But I would recommend it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

I bought this on a great closeout sale around 2005 years ago from zipzoomfly.com for $75 with rebate. Hard to find it for that price.

Allows internal recording on your PC Desktop, practically no latency when recording since you do not have to go through a USB or some other slow external interface. And you can conveniently plug your 1/4' jack right into the front of your tower! I used this for overdubbing bass tracks from some demos that needed bass lines and recorded some personal projects.

Need to know how to put computers together. If you are not hardware savvy, this is pretty much useless to you. Quality seems great for my purposes but it might not hold up to a real studio recording, this seems more for personal use.

Well constructed. I did have some of the pins on the card that connect the ribbon to the front panel bend a bit after multiple removals for one reason or another. Other then that this card should last you, even second hand.

Great low latency card for people who aren't afraid to break open there desktop and mess with it. May not be up to studio quality standards. Can be expensive if you pay full price. You should be able to find a used one or one on sale on eBay or some other internet site. Don't pay retail. But I would recommend it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Recording/playing for 17 years

$200 on ebay.

Works fantastic for digital recording. I run over 32 track playback with no problems. No lag or sync problems with the audio. Midi sounds are on par with typical sound cards. If you are getting recording problems with this card then your machine is either too slow or you don't have enough ram. The card itself is rock solid on windows XP.

Nothing.

Good, typical sound card quality.

This is a fantastic solution for a home recoding studio setup. Its the only low latency sound card available in it's price range.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

$200 To do home recording, needed a digital audio in sound card.

Everything is right there in the front, all inputs etc...

This horrific Sqreech it makes when it can't handle all the processing. Practically blows your monitors up. There is no fix/download for this Sqreech From Hell as other users call it. Creative Labs has slow, horrible tech support.

OK

Don't buy a Pro-Sumer card for pro audio. This is ok for an internet type sound card to listen to simple 2 track music, not so good for multi-track tasks. Buy Pro-Audio if you want Pro-Audio!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

CHARACTERISTICS:
- PCI Card Format
- Analogue connectivity (mini-jack / jack / RCA), numrique (optical and SPDIF), noon (In + Out Port compatible games)
- 48khz sampling - and 16-bit Analog 96Khz - 24-bit numrique
- Platforms: Win 98SE ok ... Win 2K few bugs ... Win XP ... lot of problem.
- Applications: package + Creative + Wavelab Lite Cubasis Recycle + + lite Storm

UTILIZATION

- Installation without problems for me. Some users have experienced error messages, or around blockers. Visit the forum Crative if you're not afraid to be afraid ... LOL

- Incompatibility with partiellle of soundfonts audigy: problem of non loops rsolus date (04/mars/2002).
- Incompatibility with EAX total Cubasis, whether in audio or MIDI (short c no use that to play this thing).
- Incompatibility of the card with the VIA chipsets
- Configuration = white hair, but c is specific to the activity area of ​​the sound is not easy .... numrique
- Installation and use? what books?? numrique a little help (HLP HTML PDF ...). A good guide trs music, well done. But I think it lacks the essential (unless I did not find??) Find a manual full of references. Both the card software on the operator.

GETTING STARTED

- The drivers. That is the PCH (not cute at all) of the Audigy. It seems that drvers do not exploit the total capabilities poustouflantes card, let alone the new environments such Systm XP.
The craziest is that the problem encountered by users are diverse and Varis. Nanmoins bullet points are:
- The ASIO drivers (c certainly works but often with noise)
- The driver who soundfont rgresse within the range of Sound Blaster.
- The compatibility with XP (according to the variables and partial configurations)

These drivers are not being frquemment days, Crative prparant a so-called stable version. Too bad because no beta version, users can not even participate in their evolution and remain blocked until the goodwill of crative.

From a software point of view, any set of books unlike antrieures versions. Software Crative seem functional, ergonomics is relative.
Software companions, version 'Lite' are extremely perverse. Indeed, they are versions of major releases flanges pay. They always lack the functionality that small comber your expectations. An example? Cubasis VST compressor does not have just one reverb, one Dlay, and a chorus. Now the compressor is the basis for any mixing, and has been for over 20 years.

I bought this product to make music, compose, and record layouts, personally. I am 50 hours, I always freezes on a particular point (Asio, Soundfount, Crash, ...)
We can certainly get 4ms latency, but we want to combine multiple audio tracks, it's back to 20ms to avoid unwanted noise. Try to see to sing (the song always comes last) and with a return DCAL dfform: impossible!

The craziest in this story is the blurring of the causes, and more on solutions. Not drive fast enough? Ram not enough? Driver? Asio config? In short, we spent hours clicking, closing, re ...
I still hope ...
My only Russianness own is today ... Stereo track tape accompaniment, and another song stro ...

My config is a PIII-500 128MB SDRAM-133 HD A fast IDE 9GB.

OVERALL OPINION

I have the card for 15 days.

The strongest feeling is the distortion between the marketing argument (EAX HD / 4GB of sound are 2.1 / 24 audio tracks) and Ralite: EAX is not a musician, the soudfonts are gross (not loop of clean, no effect), after 3 audio tracks on the latency or loss is the quality.

I have not tried before. This kind of product does not grow on trees. Specializing in computer shops are not musical trs 'Crative' (we understand), and structures gnralistes to know anything ...
I document ...
I wanted soundfont midi + + Registration numrique. C'tait my only choice. Well, almost: the version antrieure 'Live' seems stable !!!!!!

What is poustouflant, it is the soundfont (256MB leaving 64 just for them. I can not test the bank Fully FLUID 3.0 (freeware, thank you Franck !!!), but the samples sound really. ..
Finally, violin (acoustic) worthy of the name, and drum kits that have the attack.
If my problem is rsolvent, the report qualitprix is ​​excellent (- 250 of tax). Otherwise, I think I would have given up on MIDI and soundfont to see at TerraTec. Diffrent leaves fill my two other needs.

With the exprience, I waited three months before diving, bein ... I waited 3 more months ... to finally hear that drivers taient ok.

Prciser I will return later if I give up or whether I found my way in the use of this product.

J'espre my eyes, not pro, the INTERESTED acqureurs = increasing.

PCI card comes with an external rack connections with many different formats: MIDI input / output, RCA input / output, Input / Output ..... 6.35
Card supplied with Storm, 85 MB of soundfonts and Cubase VST (monitoring disabled!! Cubase, no possibility to listen cubase effects in real time :-(((()

Cubase VST, no problems, very low latency (thank you asio 2) nothing to do with SBLive Platinum.

UTILIZATION

Installing XP without a problem.
Light manual

But we must absolutely download the updated driver for XP
A difficulty also with Vienna sound font manager, I download the version presented on the site soundfont.com

GETTING STARTED

Thank Asio 2, Creative announced a latency of 2 ms. With Cubase, the latency is actually very low because this version of Cubase was changed to the Audigy. Indeed, monitoring is not done through the application Cubasis it goes live on the map using any effects included in the map: It is a hack to reduce latency to max.

If you use Cubase VST, monitoring is done properly with a latency accepeter.

With Cakewalk, it goes worse, latency can not drop below 40 ms, a threshold below which we get a shot on "drops out" and a monitor full of clicks and sounds incongruous.

I think we can easily reach the limits of the card if you want to do great work.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for three months.

it's better than the SBLive is cheaper than a pro-audio card semie but we must not ask him too.
management noon is not terrible, you should use an expander, for cons with sound fonts is great.
For a singer or a solo musician, why not?

I got the sound card to record about 20 audio tracks but would have been with a stable 16, but it did handle 20 tracks of audio in cubase with a latency setting of 10ms. 5.1 EAX with good quality effects, nice gold plated inputs easy to use control panel software. The live drive is great and has all the features to would expect from a dedicated pro audio card. I had to spend 2 days just getting my PC to except the drivers I had all sorts of problems and had to format my HD to get it to work ok and even then It only seemed stable with win 98se but this could have been a isue with my Via chip set and the creative live player software.

Price paid

£150

UTILIZATION

Easy , Easy ,Easy! The mixer controls are nice and all is at easy reach to change settings.

GETTING STARTED

The card is built well, sound is great, audigy drive is well built and even has a remote controll. There are issues with installing this card which other wise is great value.

OVERALL OPINION

What I put in was what I got out it was as simple as that, I had not drop in quality at all and no drop in recording level on recording. I had the SB Live card before and this Audigy card has far better audio quality . Top marks for the recording sound quality. The sound chip is ok if you have nothink at all and when used with the creatives reverb and effect they come to life so much more.

Havent had it long enougth yet but im sure if this card keep working as hard as it is now im sure to love this card!

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: Unknown ( 5-, 2002)

The usual features are there, I think. I like this card cuz it has RCA IN; RCA Outs would be nice; or just more INs/OUTs over all. The midi is doable--there's a MIDI gameport I don't use and two little midi ports for in and out (they look like keyboard/mice plugs); they require an adapter that came with the card. I use those from a MIDI Out on the MPC3K. With CakeWalk, XP Pro --no problems w/latency/drivers, thus far. I do NOT like the separate hardware interface with all the plugs/ports in and out--it takes up space in a hard drive bay even though it looks cool and has a remote control.

Price paid

$199 US (Overpriced IMHO)

UTILIZATION

A blind paraplegic could use this thing (no offense!), but it was out of the box, in the machine and working in like 20 min. Even when I moved up to XP, a simple reinstallation of the drivers made the thing work again without problems.

GETTING STARTED

I think it's solid and won't crack or anything pulling stuff in and out. Buttons could be larger and the actual soundcard (in the motherboard slot) is just like the $30 card with more ins/outs. I use a fourtrack portastudio's like a recording backup for the PC/soundcard; it's much more stable.

OVERALL OPINION

I can't compare with other similar cards. The sound quality is good to me. I get hot mixes and relatively low noise; the noise I get is not from the card.

I love it cuz it's all I have at the moment. I use the thing like a hard disk recorder, (and of course to spit audio out) although it brings in the audio *and MIDI nicely. The PC was much improved with this soundcard and while it was overpriced, I'd probably pay it again.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: Unknown ( 6-, 2002)

I thought it would be a step up from the SB Live! but I was wrong, just a few more software titles but essentially the same as my $30 SB Live! card

Price paid

$249.00 US

UTILIZATION

Very easy to use card, very simple operation. Manual was detailed. The card itself just did not live up to my expectations. I thought it was going to be 10X better than my little SB Live! card and it wasn't.

GETTING STARTED

I would not use the Audigy in a gig, only for playing computer games. In my opinion, the Audigy should not be marketed as a sound card for music production, but for games because that's what Creative is good at.

OVERALL OPINION

Sound quality was not better than my $30 SB Live! card. I bought the Audigy because they hyped it up as 24 bit and could be used for music production. The hiss off the card was SOOOOOOOO annoying! I sold the card on eBay after two weeks.

Did not love the Audigy. No love here. Where's the love? Like N'SYNC, it's "Gone".

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: Unknown ( 7-, 2002)

The features are basic on the version i bought, which is the platinum ex. Its has ports for a coaxial jack, a front conection for headphones and an additonal line in.

Price paid

$500 bz (approx. $250 US)

UTILIZATION

This device is fairly easy to use. I am in the verge of upgrading to a EMU 1820, but thats because at this point in time i really need something more. ITs one of the less troublesome drives i've worked it.

GETTING STARTED

Well, i can say that after about 3 years of usage i haven't had any problems with this baby, i keep changing PCs i use it with and its proved quite mobile and helpfu.

OVERALL OPINION

This Sound Drive is what i would call the basic for home recording. Its quality is good enough for you to listen to yourself and start getting a good idea of strategies you should use to improve in your PRODUCTION techniques.

I can say i've grown an affectioon to the thing.. he he! but thats because its been my friend out in the third world, where these things are not easy to come by!

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: belizeño ( 6-, 2005)

There are a lot of inputs you can choose from depending on your mixer output, so I have no complaints with that. And if you’re using ASIO you get real-time monitoring of the dry incoming signal, so you don’t have to activate hardware monitoring (it's on all the time). The card sucks big time for games, though. I’ve got on-board Realtek, so at least that does it for me. Two things disappointed me: -No recording on 44.1 with ASIO. -With the 2496 driver you can only record from the external inputs (Line In 1-3). The media converter is a nice bonus.

Price paid: 210 Euros

UTILIZATION

Rather straightforward, and besides the self-important installation of autostart programs (easily removed with Services and MSConfig), it’s very easy to use.

GETTING STARTED

If you’re using ASIO, the driver communicates directly with the hardware, so it doesn’t use the media panel from windows. It means that you do not control the inputs from the record input slider. No big deal.

OVERALL OPINION

I was using a Live! Platinum 5.1, and I thought that the audio was already good. The Audigy 2 has better playback, but I find recording is only slightly better. This card seems to be very sensitive to IRQ sharing, so if you buy this card be careful to avoid errors while recording: -Install Windows 2k or XP as “Standard PC” (the F5 trick during installation) to disable ACPI –even if your motherboard doesn’t have a setting to turn it off. Also, let the BIOS handle resources. -Make sure the card has its own IRQ (mine is 12 right now), otherwise you might not get a good recorded sound. I can only compare the sound to the SB I was using before, so I don’t know how much worse is the sound compared to one of those M-Audio or Echo cards; the card sounds good to me. I'm using the Creative drivers; haven't tried KX yet.

I’ve been using it for a year now, and has served me well. It doesn’t get as hot as my old SB Live!, which means the parts and solder points are under less stress. A nice piece of hardware.

Most of my complaining has to do with the software implementation of this rather nice piece of equipment. Since I have to take every aspect into consideration, I’ll say that I’m happy, but not impressed.

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: running ( 8-, 2005)