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Hi,

 

I'm seeking to replace my old Audigy 2 ZS, an antique card that allowed me to do some crazy stuff. Is there a soundcard, preferably affordably-priced, that does all this?

 

- Create several Windows playback devices

- Has several physical output

- Allows to freely mix and match between those (e.g. playback device 1 > physical out 1, while playback device 1+2+3 > physical out 2 and play back device 1+3 > physical out 3)

- Natively supports ASIO, allows to freely send Windows playback devices and physical ins to ASIO ins and mix ASIO channels.

- Output ASIO out to a physical out AND to a Windows "Recording device" (to be recorded by non-ASIO software).

- Allows for all of this with minimal delay

 

My typical workflow would be as follows:

- Software 1 > Windows playback device 1 + Software 2 > Windows playback device 2

- Windows playback device 1 > Physical out 1 + Windows playback device 2 > Physical out 2 >>> both go to a (physical, analog) mixer console

- Microphone added to the console

- Console mix > Soundcard physical in

- Physical in > ASIO in > audio processing suite (e.g. Breakaway) > Asio Out

- Asio out > physical out 3 + normal windows recording, with no delay (real-time monitoring)

 

Ideally, I would like to be able to implement alternative workflows and switch from one to the next by loading config files, such as :

- All Windows playback devices > Physical out 1 >>> mixer console

- Console to physical in

- ASIO magic

- ASIO out > physical out 2 & physical out 3, with different gains depending on the physical out + windows recording

 

For those familiar with it: basically I want to be able to do similar stuff I used to do with the kX DSP.

 

Any solution that doesn't cost like $600?

 

Thanks in advance.

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The Audigy 2 ZS is a legacy 32-bits PCI card, not a PCI Express one. Despite many efforts, trying different PCIE-to-PCI adapters with different bridge chips, I was not able to get any useable result on an X670E motherboard. Namely:

 

- Pericom PI7C9X111SL bridges are not detected at all, not enumerated. From the motherboard standpoint, neither the bridge nor the card plugged in the adapter exist at all.

- I have had better results with a PXL PEX8112 bridge: both the bridge and the sound card are detected, and drivers do install and see the card, but the sound comes out corrupted and various features show erratic behaviors.

 

It used to work fine on my previous, X570-based motherboard, but it seems AM5 is one generation too new for this kind of legacy hardware.

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is there a reason you're trying to make the older card work on a newer machine instead of just using an older machine?

In the music industry it's quite normal to use legacy equipment , and sometimes even preferred. Such as your situation where an older device already does the task you need it to do. There's plenty of professionals that use 50-60 year old equipment to achieve their tasks.

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2 hours ago, emosun said:

is there a reason you're trying to make the older card work on a newer machine instead of just using an older machine?

In the music industry it's quite normal to use legacy equipment , and sometimes even preferred. Such as your situation where an older device already does the task you need it to do. There's plenty of professionals that use 50-60 year old equipment to achieve their tasks.

I'm not a professional, more of a hobbyist, and unfortunately I don't really have the space for several gears at once, especially not two fully-fledged desktop computers. It would also not be very practical.

 

If I were a professional, I'd probably buy one or two RME Fireface UFX III and it'd do the trick and then some, but as a hobbyist I don't have that kind of budget at all.

 

2 hours ago, johnt said:

You could look into a mini dsp. That will solve your mixing and routing, but it won’t let you create multiple output devices. I’m not sure CL ever let you create virtual devices??

 

 

Well, kX drivers do create several playback devices (albeit only one functional recording device). On my Audigy 2, I had 5 distinct stereo playback devices I could assign various software to, and route them however I wanted toward physical outs, ASIO ins and the Recording device. It seems that feature is very unique and even high-end cards don't typically do that (they're more tailored toward DAW software that will just use ASIO instead). Official drivers wouldn't let you of course, but kX was a very specific set of drivers for emu10k-based cards, implemented from scratch based on Creative's hardware documentation at the time (~2002ish, but it was maintained long enough to still be compatible with Windows 10/11-x64).

 

I guess I could do without that feature if it's really that uncommon... I could use the only playback device of the new card as my "main" playback device, the motherboard audio chipset as a secondary device, and mix stuff with my mixer console. It wouldn't be quite as flexible but worst case scenario, it could do the trick, probably.

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