Product: Audigy OEM
From: Creative Labs
Price: C$99
Pros: Low latency ASIO driver, FireWire port, multi-channel (4-speaker or 5.1 modes) audio, digital and analog I/O, fancy audio effects.
Cons: Bugs galore, particularly in the PlayCenter software. No EAX support in Windows 2000 or XP. (However, a driver for XP is now available.) 96KHz support is more "creative marketing" than fact.
Our initial experience with the Creative Labs Audigy was a bumpy ride. Our first attempt at installing the software on the CD bundled with the OEM card we bought at a local store for C$99 ended with a software failure; our next attempt resulted in a corrupted Windows Registry. Our third try led to a situation where the software seemed to install correctly, but the card failed its diagnostics our fourth try... well, you get the idea. To make a long story short, we finally got the card working... sort of. This is the tale of that experience.
Part of the problem was probably the fact that we had previously used a different sound card in our test machine. Although we uninstalled the drivers, then shut down the computer and removed the card, at least a few of our subsequent problems seemed to be related to vestigial remnants of these drivers. But far worse problems appeared immediately following the installation of Audigy's new drivers.
We had read numerous reports of limitations and compatibility issues in the shipping version of the Audigy WDM drivers for Windows 2000 (apparently not resolved, even with the newest driver update for Win98se/ME/2k/XP/NT4), so we elected to install it on Windows Me, where the full feature set is supported. Notably, Windows Me is the only platform thus supported. A few features -- which we doubt average users would consider limitations -- are missing from the product under Windows 98 and 98SE, including support for some forms of copy protection of downloaded audio content.
The OEM version of the Audigy card we tested consists of three pieces: the sound card, a MIDI/game port on a small, separate module and the driver CD. The card includes an AUD_EXT connector similar to that found on the Sound Blaster Live; it also includes internal connectors for attaching line inputs from a CD, Telephone Answering Device, and so on. The AUD_EXT connector can be used to enable additional I/O options on the card, including analog and digital I/O and the connection of external MIDI devices. MIDI devices can alternately be connected via the game port; if you prefer. It is worth noting that some users who have attempted to connect a LiveDrive IR module, as shipped with the company's SB Live Platinum, report that not all features of the external module work, when attached to the Audigy. The OPTICAL OUT, SPDIF OUT and remote control may not function and 5.1 digital audio support may not work; as well, plugging in a set of headphones to the LiveDrive doesn't mute the speakers, as it did on the SB Live.
As noted above, our installation did not go smoothly at first. For best results, you should start with a clean Windows installation. Most of the glitches we encountered seemed to be a result of previous sound card drivers. And if, like us, you find it necessary to use Windows Me's System Restore feature to recover from a serious problem such as the corrupted Registry (yikes!) that struck our system during our second attempt at an Audigy installation, bear in mind that your anti-virus protection might stop working, as did our version of Norton AntiVirus 2001. We recovered from that problem by using the procedure documented at Symantec's support website.
We finally managed to get the card working properly by following these steps:
Even after our fifth, finally successful installation, the card's worst tendency, on our Windows Millennium Edition testbed, is to freeze occasionally while PlayCenter (v3.00.17) is playing an audio track. This seems to occur most frequently if playing a track while attempting to open another Audigy software component, such as the "Oozic" music visualization window. Sometimes, the system will suddenly halt with a stuttering glitch that, in some cases, produces a feedback effect that grows louder and louder before crashing the computer completely. If you do get an Audigy, expect glitches in PlayCenter -- at least until the inevitable bug-fix updates begin showing up at soundblaster.com.
It's too bad -- PlayCenter has some cool features, including a great time scaling capability that allows you to slow down or speed up an MP3, WMA or WAV audio track in real time without changing its pitch -- a godsend for musicians trying to learn how to play a new piece of music. There's a neat audio cleanup feature that removes clicks and unwanted noise from tapes -- just the thing if you're considering transferring old LPs or cassette tapes to digital audio format. There's also support for the CDDB database that automatically pulls CD titles and track names from an Internet database. However, even this feature has annoying traits. We don't see why you are forced to register to connect to this service -- it's not as though your identity is important to anyone but marketers to whom, presumably, your listening habits are being revealed.
Despite these issues, PlayCenter is not totally dysfunctional, by any means. It includes a built in audio CD burning feature, optimal skins -- several of which are quite cool looking -- and support for encoding MP3s at constant bit rates up to 320Kbps, and the more efficient variable bit rate format, producing smaller file sizes. The CD ripping feature has several useful options, including a highly customizable file naming feature that allows you to define the file naming convention for the ripped tracks including any or all of the following categories, in any order: Artist, Album, Track Title, Track number, Genre, etc. It can even automatically create folders for your songs on your hard drive using these naming conventions. But sadly, we must have crashed the player a dozen times during the first few hours after it installation, while we were exploring these features.
We're not surprised that Creative Labs has discontinued the download and development of it "Oozic" 3D visualization player -- as shipped with Audigy, this thing is a piece of blatant promo-ware, apparently designed in the heady days when internet-based advertising disguised as entertainment was all the rage. Still, there are a number of cool visualizations available for download that, when coupled with a decent 3-D graphics card and the Audigy, make for a fun audio/visual experience.
The Good News
For some users, these glitches won't matter much. Many audio buffs already have a favorite CDDB-compatible, visualization capable media player such as WinAmp or Windows Media Player (etc., etc.), and don't need yet another to to handle CD ripping or many of the other gimmicky features of the Audigy's PlayCenter and special-effects controls. Musicians care more about the card's low latency ASIO driver and SoundFont support, while gamers are concerned primarily with surround-sound gaming support and convincingly immersive effects, up to four of which can be controlled -- or even morphed between -- simultaneously. In both of these regards, the Audigy is a considerable improvement over its predecessor.
We were able to get the latency (the time between the original input signal and processed output) down to 5ms on our test machine (a 600MHz Celeron with 128MB of RAM), while still being able to play CD-quality stereo audio with two real-time effects (or VSTi) channels. We were able to process four simultaneous effects channels by bumping the latency value to only 7ms. Playing six simultaneous tracks through a CPU-intensive VST instrument such as the Universal Sound Module required another bump up to 10ms -- in short, not bad performance at all.
The ASIO driver currently lacks the direct monitoring feature found in some expensive sound cards, but, considering the Sound Blaster Live defaults to a latency of 750ms, the Audigy driver, even in its infancy, is a vast improvement. This, alone, makes the Audigy worth considering for Cubase users.
With that said, professional musicians will probably not find the Audigy an acceptable substitute for a dedicated pro audio capture card. When using the Creative EMU10Kx ASIO driver, you can only select 48KHz as your sample rate, although the DirectX driver supports other playback sample rates. Fortunately, the DirectX latency rate is not bad, either. With careful adjustment of the buffers in Cubase VST 5.0, you can use the DirectX ASIO control panel to achieve response times better than 12ms. (Good luck at that rate on anything but the fastest PCs, though!)
There are several other useful software applications included on the Audigy CD, plus a few frivolous ones. In the useful category, a waveform editor called Creative WaveStudio closely resembled Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge XP in both features and interface. It loads and saves WAV and MP3 files and allows you to set loop points, fade the volume in or out, add echoes or phase-shift effects, convert bit rates and so on. It also supports third-party DirectX plugins, further enhancing its capabilities.
There's also an interesting program called Firenet on the CD. This program, from Unibrain.com, allows the card's onboard FireWire port to be used as a high-speed network interface. (Its Ethernet emulation protocol is, says the company, faster than the IP over 1394 capabilities built into recent version of Windows.) The company also makes a Mac OS 9.x client version available on its website. See our feature on Superfast Networking via FireWire for more info on how to do it and why you might want to.
In the semi-frivolous category, there are some interesting demos on the CD, including a selection of SoundFont samples and a SoundFont programming overview. (To edit version 2.1 SoundFonts, though, you'll need the latest Vienna editor, currently available only on the CD bundled with Audigy EX and Platinum editions.) There's a demo program called Goldmine that shows off the Audigy's new EAX HD effects capabilities, including multi-channel environmental audio and sound morphing features. There's also a MiniDisc recording utility that appears to be designed to assist users of Sony MD recorders transfer audio to these units.
Conclusion
One of our main hopes for the Audigy was better performance in Cubase VST. In this regard, we're delighted with it. As a general-purpose Windows sound card, the 1.0 drivers currently make it a product best suited for technically literate early adopters and those who don't mind a few rough edges.
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