Creative Soundblaster Live external soundcard - any good? Ever use it?

Seanie M

I am thinking of getting this to be able to record my live clubbing sessions into my latop to make demos. Will this fit the bill does anyone know? Saw it in Argos for €60.

Creative info here.

Thanks,

Seanie.

sturgo

It'll record your sessions no prblem at all. That's all though. Bare in mind you're internal sound card should do the exact same job. You'd be better off going an extra few quid & getting an M-audio.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html

Seanie M

Thanks Sturgo. I know it will record them. But I want to know more about that. Obviously it is controlled from the pc/laptop USB source, but what is its capacity overall (from users experience) for e.g. recording a 3 hour set?

The soundcard on my laptop, I reckon, is just your plain and simply no-frills one. I haven't actually tested it, but It wasn't one of the lappies strongpoints! Thats why I was thinking of this gizmo.

S.

sturgo

You can record directly from your laptop without any external mics by using something like Audio Grab. You won't need an external card for this.
Weather you can record a 3 hour set or not really depends on how you compress the audio & how much free disk space you have.

Sound Blaster cards aren't designed for audio editing / production. They're designed for DVDs / gaming / listening to music.

Seanie M

But won't e.g. Audiograb/Wavelab/Soundforge etc only have the recording in 16bit sample rate, because of the internal soundcard? This external card gives the 'as you hear it' 24bit rate.

By the way, I should add, it is only to be used with the lappie for portability purposes. Thats why I want to record it. My main server/PC does all the work for me (VST's, converters etc etc etc), so the sound would be recorded with the Soundblaster/laptop, then transfered to the PC for editing/storage.

S.

sturgo

Recording in 24bit will be useless if you're DJing with MP3s or even CDs. CD's are 16bit. The highest quality MP3s encoded at 320kbs are nowhere close to CD quality. That 24bit stuff on the Sound Blaster is as usefull as go fast stripes on a Micra.

Seanie M

No offense sturgo, but I don't want to get into the semantics of the quality of material being played! Not many people can tell a 224kbps upwards MP3 from a wav/CD-direct anyway for almost any song, anyway. All I want to know is, in the absense of any long-playing/recording CD-R machine or Mnidiscman, can I connect the Rec Out on the mixer into the Soundblaster Live, powered by the laptop, bring it home, and save it?

I am assuming this product does, but before parting money with it, I wanted to find out if anyone used it, and what their thoughts on it are/were.

sturgo

Seanie M wrote:

No offense sturgo, but I don't want to get into the semantics of the quality of material being played!

in fairness seanie, you brought it up. all i'm trying to do is offer some advice.

Seanie M wrote:

can I connect the Rec Out on the mixer into the Soundblaster Live, powered by the laptop, bring it home, and save it?

sure you can! i reckon you'd get better results by using something like audio hijack.

Seanie M wrote:

I am assuming this product does, but before parting money with it, I wanted to find out if anyone used it, and what their thoughts on it are/were.

i used to have the audigy NX2. it's a few steps above the product your looking at. i used it for DJing once. never again. the quality of the outputs were ****e. no power whatsoever. grand for watching DVDs or playing GTA. soon after i converted to mac, got myself a powerbook & Harmony Audio sound module.

Kingsize

well, if your'e just using your laptop as a recording device it'll probably be okay.
I couldn't see it working out as a soundcard if you were using your laptop to play off though(i.e. using software to play your tunes) which is why i think people are advising you against it.
Personally i'd Steer clear of Creative there are much better pro-audio products for not much more cash.
I think i know the soundcard its about 40 quid? like i said it'll do the job as an input device but it might not be much better than your pc.
For a few quid more you could do a lot better though..

Seanie M

No, I'm just using the lappy as the 'portable storage device' for recording my set. I dont have an iPod or Creative Zen etc to simply jack in and record. So this Soundblaster Live was the other way I thought would work... Looks like it does, I guess.