{"id":150,"date":"2001-05-01T02:51:00","date_gmt":"2001-05-01T06:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/?p=150"},"modified":"2021-05-16T02:57:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-16T06:57:02","slug":"the-egregious-sound-blaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/2001\/05\/01\/the-egregious-sound-blaster\/","title":{"rendered":"The Egregious Sound Blaster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/images\/gadgetsbug.gif?resize=65%2C20&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"65\" height=\"20\" \/>&nbsp; &nbsp; I do a lot of audio work. Many sections of this site offer audio files. So when I wanted to upgrade my sound card, to one that could handle digital audio, I assumed my best bet would be to go with Creative. Ever since I first started getting into computers (back in &#8217;94, I think) I&#8217;ve always seen reference to &#8220;Sound Blaster compatible&#8221;. So if Sound Blaster is the standard, why not finally get one for my own? It seemed simple enough\u2026but then again most mistakes are simple ones.<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; I aimed high and chose the Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1. I learned too late that I was buying more than a sound card; it also contains an interface called Live Drive IR, which fits in a 5.25\u2033 bay. Unfortunately, I didn&#8217;t have an open bay (having recently installed an internal CDR drive) &#8212; so I bought the card only to find out I could not use it. All the digital and MIDI inputs Creative advertises are available only on this interface; the card itself just has outputs for speakers.<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; Eventually I talked myself into finally utilizing the sound card. I made room by removing my DVD-ROM drive temporarily.  Installation was fairly easy, but the Sound Blaster comes with a lot of seemingly useless and bloated software. For my dual-boot system, I installed all of it under Windows 2000 but only necessary files under Windows 98 (this was not by design as much as for space reasons). The Sound Blaster&#8217;s performance under Windows 2000 was very poor. The first few times I booted up there was a noticeable whine or loud hiss until Windows loaded. I was also unable to fully use the sound card; the Live Drive IR appeared as if dead. I could not input any audio through it, digital or analog. I almost thought it <i>was<\/i> dead, except for the fact I could get the headphone output to work. I have since discovered that other Windows 2000 users are very upset with Creative for their shoddy support of the card. Of course it would&#8217;ve been nice to know this three weeks ago, but at least I can console myself that I do not suffer alone. Updated drivers for the sound card are available at Creative&#8217;s web site, but I can join my fellow users in saying these drivers do not help and in fact can aid in crashing the OS.<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; Admittedly, Windows 2000 is not designed to be a multimedia operating system, so one might expect the Sound Blaster&#8217;s performance to improve under Windows 98. There was no difference. My Live Drive IR was just as dead as before. So, after two weeks&#8217; usage, I uninstalled the sound card this morning. I&#8217;m not even crazy about Sound Blaster&#8217;s uninstall program, since it left a lot of junk behind (in Windows 98). So now I&#8217;m back to my original Turtle Beach Montego card. It doesn&#8217;t sound all that great either (especially under Windows 2000), but at least it doesn&#8217;t crash my system.\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; I do a lot of audio work. Many sections of this site offer audio files. So when I wanted to upgrade my sound card, to one that could handle digital audio, I assumed my best bet would be &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/2001\/05\/01\/the-egregious-sound-blaster\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gadgets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}