Sound Blaster Live! - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Blankfore12 · 06-03-2003, 04:21 PM

Hey all I just ordered a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 card for my PC. (been playing a lot of pc games lately, have to keep up with the times i guess) Just wondering if anyone else uses one of these and what you think of it? Any bugs to worry about?

shakran · 06-03-2003, 08:54 PM

SB makes some great hardware. The Live! series was an amazing card - the Audigy and Audigy 2 now eclipse it but IMHO the Live! is still a VERY viable card for any application other than audio production.

You will hit a snag, however, with drivers. Creative sucks at writing drivers, and they suck worse at supporting legacy products. Since the live is now considered a legacy product by Creative, you may have trouble in a year or so getting it to work with new hardware (dvd decoders, etc). It probably won't be an issue before you upgrade anyway though.

oblar · 06-03-2003, 09:35 PM

I personally like the Live! series. If I buy another then I will get the 5.1 version, but I bought mine right about when it came out.

Personally the audigy and audigy2 seem like a waste of money for what I do. Listen to music and play the occassional game. If this is basically all you are doing and as long as you arent a crazy music person then you probably wouldnt even be able to tell the difference.

to me though I stopped really getting new cards after the Live! it has been through so many different machines.. I might get a new one so i can have two machines with it, but since I usually only play music on one the other make do with my "extras"

darkure · 06-04-2003, 07:01 AM

I have an audigy and I am dissapointed in Creative's driver support. It took them quite sometime for them to release drivers for XP and even then I had problems listening to heaphones on the card (the sound would reset to the highest level whenever I rebooted).

My friend has a Hercules Fortisssimo card and I am impressed with the level of control the drivers/software give you. You can change the volume for individual speakers (front-right, back-left, etc.) if you have a 4.1 or above set up. Creative as far as I can find only can change the volume for each channel (right or left). If I needed a new card right now, that is what I would go with.

Blankfore12 · 06-04-2003, 12:51 PM

Ah yeah I'd heard about the bad Creative drivers but hopefully I'll have my next major upgrade before it becomes a problem. Thanks for the feedback!

06-03-2003, 04:21 PM	#1 (permalink)
Blankfore12 Upright	Sound Blaster Live! Hey all I just ordered a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 card for my PC. (been playing a lot of pc games lately, have to keep up with the times i guess) Just wondering if anyone else uses one of these and what you think of it? Any bugs to worry about?

06-03-2003, 09:35 PM	#3 (permalink)
oblar Über-Rookie Location: No longer, D.C	I personally like the Live! series. If I buy another then I will get the 5.1 version, but I bought mine right about when it came out. Personally the audigy and audigy2 seem like a waste of money for what I do. Listen to music and play the occassional game. If this is basically all you are doing and as long as you arent a crazy music person then you probably wouldnt even be able to tell the difference. to me though I stopped really getting new cards after the Live! it has been through so many different machines.. I might get a new one so i can have two machines with it, but since I usually only play music on one the other make do with my "extras" __________________ "All that we can do is just survive. .All that we can do to help ourselves is stay alive." - Rush

06-04-2003, 07:01 AM	#4 (permalink)
darkure Addict Location: Dodging the ice pick	I have an audigy and I am dissapointed in Creative's driver support. It took them quite sometime for them to release drivers for XP and even then I had problems listening to heaphones on the card (the sound would reset to the highest level whenever I rebooted). My friend has a Hercules Fortisssimo card and I am impressed with the level of control the drivers/software give you. You can change the volume for individual speakers (front-right, back-left, etc.) if you have a 4.1 or above set up. Creative as far as I can find only can change the volume for each channel (right or left). If I needed a new card right now, that is what I would go with. __________________ COYW

06-03-2003, 08:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
shakran Tone.	SB makes some great hardware. The Live! series was an amazing card - the Audigy and Audigy 2 now eclipse it but IMHO the Live! is still a VERY viable card for any application other than audio production. You will hit a snag, however, with drivers. Creative sucks at writing drivers, and they suck worse at supporting legacy products. Since the live is now considered a legacy product by Creative, you may have trouble in a year or so getting it to work with new hardware (dvd decoders, etc). It probably won't be an issue before you upgrade anyway though.

06-04-2003, 12:51 PM	#5 (permalink)
Blankfore12 Upright	Ah yeah I'd heard about the bad Creative drivers but hopefully I'll have my next major upgrade before it becomes a problem. Thanks for the feedback!