Multiple sound cards

[Guest]

I've searched the forum, but found nothing so far...Does anyone have any experience of using multiple sound cards in the same PC? I'm running XP Pro and I currently have an Audigy installed. I still have the SBLive! that was replaced. I want to be able to continue using the Audigy for playback through the speakers, but use a second card to run a headset-and-mike exclusively for Roger Wilco. The purpose is to be able to separate the RW sound from the FS sound for those panels that do not play sounds through FS, but use Direct Sound instead (eg Oleksiy's new Dash 8 and Richard Probst's 727). As things stand currently, the sounds from those panels are so pervasive that they drown out RW chat.The idea sounds like a recipe for disaster with competing IRQ's all over the place and I don't want to jeopardise a stable set-up, so I wondered if anyone else has tried this.Cheers,AndyEGTR

[wsieffert]

Yes, it is possible! You are correct about separate IRQs. Some sound cards demand a certain IRQ. I don't know if the SBLive! does or not. My suggestion would be to try different PCI Slots to see what IRQs are assigned and whether the sound works. You definitely don't want the sound and the graphics adapter to share IRQs if at all possible.This very topic has been discussed lately, but I don't remember where as I review many flight sim forums daily.

[Guest JonP01]

Andy,Do you need to use both cards at the same time then?

[Guest]

Yeah, that's the general idea. One card is used for playback of aircraft sounds, the other for playback of RW and mic input to RW. If the FS sounds are too intrusive, that cards volume can be cut for clear voice reception/transmission on RW. Normally, this isn't a problem because you're just hit the 'Q' key to silence Fs, but with the increasing number of panels that are using DirectSound for playback, this isn't possible because FS controls have no influence over the sound. If you try Richard Probst's new 727 panel for example, if you pause FS, or press 'Q', you'll still hear the sounds.Hence the need to be able to play FS sounds independantly from RW rather than use the same playback channels.AndyEGTR