Re: Sound card

[Michael Beck <mibeck@vassar.edu>]

> More power to you if you have better fidelity equipment.    I just ask 
>for
>a little compassion for those of us who do not.

    Absolutely. Did not mean to sound snobbish; just paraphrasing what 
I found in a quick search of my old D-H Digests, which consisted 
largely of advice like this:

>In a nutshell: avoid the Soundblaster Live series like the plague!
>
>Everything that goies through the SBLive is resampled.  Do not use it for
>high-quality DAT transfers.

    I tried to temper those relatively caustic comments with the 
statement that it's not really *that* big of a deal if your card 
resamples (and the SBLive is not the only one, btw). Certainly for a 
1-generation transfer I doubt if anyone could tell the difference. 
But either way, it might be worthwhile to know that what you get out 
is not an *exact* copy of what you put in.
    As a side note, there apparently is a less than $30 sound card out 
there called the Zoltrix Nightingale that doesn't resample its 
digital inputs, but the analog side is crap. Some people run both the 
SBLive and this card at the same time. Don't know about config 
issues, but it's probably not too intense. One hitch is that the 
Nightingale might have only an optical S/PDIF input, but you can hack 
it into a coax. Again, this is just what I turned up after a quick 
search. Don't hold me to it if I'm wrong.
    Lastly: yes, of course I don't condemn everything made on a 
SBLive, any more than I would condemn everything made on a cassette 
4-track. That wasn't my intent. As I believe I said last week in a 
similar conversation, it's the music that matters more than the 
equipment you make it on - and sometimes the limitations can provoke 
creativity. However, I do think that people should know that better 
(or at least more accurate) sound cards are out there, so that if 
they do feel limited by their equipment, they can upgrade. I have 
issues with the card, not with the music.
    As far as my equipment: I don't have an amazing setup, but I do 
take the time to find the deals & buy what I can afford. At one point 
all I had was a guitar and a cassette 4-track, and still, when I got 
that little guy it was amazing! I appreciated what I had then, just 
as I appreciate what I have now. It doesn't include a Prophet 5 :), 
but it makes me happy. On-topic: when I find my cheap EDP, I'll be 
even happier!

                                                     - Mike