Probably (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) best consumer sound cards on (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) market, (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y are (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) result of several innovations down at Creative Labs(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)it's NOT perfect, as some seem to make out, but (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)se are mostly only noticeable with professional audio gear, so it would maybe be unfair to criticise it for that(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) For what (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y are, (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y can clean (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) floor with o(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)r components at a similar price(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)

I got (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) Value card, I thought I'd share my experiences of it as an example(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)

INSTALLATION…
…was easy enough(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) card fits into a standard expansion slot, you connect (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) CD-ROM audio cable to (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) CD drive’s SPDIF (Digital audio) output and connect it to (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) CD SPDIF connector on (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) card(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) Easy(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)n you connect (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) powered speakers or headphones and away you go! (If you are a novice at this kind of thing, remember to switch (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) computer off first!)(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) I switched my machine back on, and Windows ME detected it fine(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) instructions in (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) manual are as clear as (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y could be, with diagrams to help (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) uninitiated(LETS ALL GO
AND BUM BIN LADEN)
(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)n (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) computer installed (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) SB Live! software…this gives you (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) choice of five pieces of software – Creative SB Live! Experience, Creative Keytar, Creative Rhythmania, Creative Sound Blaster Live! Value and Prody Parrot(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) My advice – ignore (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)m and install just (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) first and (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) fourth ((LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) o(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)rs are really pointless, trust me!)(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)n you follow a few instructions and you’re ready to play!

Unfortunately, that’s where (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) 9 page printed manual, er, stops(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) manual is half an inch thick, only by virtue of (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) fact that it`s written in no less than 12 languages(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) Ikea, anyone?

IN USE – MUSICAL APPLICATIONS
Well, let’s start with (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) MIDI side of things first(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) I hooked up a keyboard via a standard midi cable, played a few notes into my sequencer, only to discover that it only seemed to allow notes out! It wouldn’t accept midi input at all!
After a little head-scratching (10 years in midi and I’ve never seen that before!) I rang Creative(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y told me that it ‘was a problem with optoisolators(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)’ In layman’s terms, (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)se are little devices that consist basically of a light bulb and a solar panel, just in miniature(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) When (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) light comes on
(a bit of midi data coming into it, for example) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) bulb lights, (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) solar panel generates a current, and (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) bit it recreated and sent on its merry way(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) Why all this? Simply to avoid direct electrical connections between devices(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)
Suffice it to say that (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y are standard, and part of (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) MIDI spec, so I was baffled(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) Eventually I discovered (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) truth…you had to buy a CREATIVE midi cable (or just a cable with newer optoisolators but (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y didn’t say that though!)(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y had changed a normally defunct pin connection just to make older cables obsolete and make people buy a newer one! Ridiculous(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)
So once I had it working, it worked ra(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)r well(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) general midi soundbank is OK, some of (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) sounds being ra(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)r realistic, especially (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) percussion – but (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) real strength of (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) card was what I was about to discover(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)
Soundfonts were invented by EMU as (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) sampler format for (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)ir early hardware samplers, but (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)y became obsolete(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) Some bright spark decided to integrate (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)m to make a standard soundcard into a sampler using (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) RAM as memory(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) This is very helpful indeed…sampling allows you to have instruments that sound very
close to being (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) real thing(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) Combined with (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) card’s ability to run real-time digital signal processing as a multi-effects unit, you have a great card for (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) aspiring computer musician(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) As (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) MIDI is fine, you can run a sequencer such as Cubase, use (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) ‘Creative Recorder’ which records to wav (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) output of (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) soundcard, and burn (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) wav to CD – an entire production studio at your fingertips(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) If you are looking to get into computer music, or even if you are doing an A-level in music technology, this is a serious contender for your soundcard slot(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)
Audio quality is good, so long as you are using solely internal sound sources(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) When I connected a microphone, (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) quality was not fabulous despite (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) microphone being a professional one(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) However, if you want just to burn (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) finished product to CD without having to bring an external input into (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) equation, you’ll find (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) card a treat(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)

NON-MUSICAL APPLICATIONS
This card is fabulous as a general sound-card, as (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) audio quality is faithful when sent to a decent pair of speakers(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) Even as (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) budget version, it sounds quite warm with plenty of low-end and not much discernible distortion on a pair of Yamaha NS10s(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) If you are a gamer, for example, this is probably a great choice if you want to
upgrade(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) It has a rear out, so you can use surround sound quite happily(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) I had a Cambridge soundworks surround system on it, and Quake 3 suddenly became ra(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)r intense! (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) environmental audio is quite handy, but I didn’t see it as anything utterly fabulous…it just glosses (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) sound a little(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) If you’ve got a game with (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) capability, (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)n use it, but don’t be too concerned about it unless you have surround capabilities(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) If you have (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) old 4 speaker job, (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)n do turn it on during supported games as it will liven up (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) sound quite a lot in surround(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)


GENERAL
(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) software is a little intrusive to start with, with a drop down menu appearing whenever your mouse approaches (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) top of (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) screen, but you can turn it off(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) All (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) settings are fairly obvious, although you may find hardware conflicts when changing things if you didn’t uninstall your previous card completely(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) jack sockets are sturdy, although you won’t be plugging in and out too often so that isn’t an issue(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) I’ve had no problems with (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) card whatsoever in normal use, aside a conflict problem when I didn’t realise that certain components from my previous sound car d were still kicking around(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)

CONCLUSION
This is an excellent budget card(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN) If
you can afford a much more expensive card, get one, especially for professional use…but if you’re after a card at a reasonable price (under £50) that’ll make Quake shake…(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)n this is a jolly good choice(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)




(BORING PHYSICAL INFO IN CASE YOU CARE :-))
(Connectors – on back of card: Line in (Blue), Mic in (Red), Line out (green), Rear out (Black) – Joystick/MIDI connector
On card itself, (LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN)re is a modem connector, aux, telephone answering device (never used!), CD SPDIF, PC Speaker connector, and a CD audio connector if your CD drive has no digital out(LETS ALL GO AND BUM BIN LADEN))