Creative Technology Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum

This past fall I was recording at a friends house using my old Sound Blaster Live! Platinum when I made the fateful mistake of using substandard adapters and one of them broke off into the microphone jack on the card itself. This was just the excuse I needed to upgrade my sound card to the next level. This was quite a step considering the old Sound Blaster Live! was the original version of the card and did not even have RCA stereo inputs on the Live! drive. So I took the dive and dropped the cash, and I am so glad I did.

The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum is a PCI sound card with a front panel interface allowing you to plug in devices like microphones, electric guitars, basses and mixers directly into the front of the computer. The front panel interface fits into a 5 ?" drive bay and takes power from the smaller floppy power cable. It comes with a power splitter that splits standard molex (CDROM and hard drive type power connector) to the smaller type to use with this drive along with another standard molex connector, so you don't lose a power lead. The front panel interface is connected to the sound card by a ribbon cable and proprietary internal 1394 cable.


Here is a short list of the features and accessories of the card:

* 24-bit ADVANCED HD™ Audio
* THX? Certified Sound Card for Cinematic Audio
* 24-bit DVD-Audio Playback (24-bit/192kHz stereo and 24-bit/96kHz in 5.1 surround)
* EAX? 4.0 ADVANCED HD™ Effects
* Creative CMSS? 3D Audio Technology
* Cinematic Surround Sound with DTS-ES and Dolby Digital? EX Movies
* Integrated 1394 FireWire? Port
* SPDIF in and out on the front panel
* RCA stereo inputs on the front panel
* Optical in and out on the front panel
* Mini DIN midi input and out put on the front panel
* Adapter cable for mini to standard DIN
* Infrared port on front panel for remote control
* Front panel standard size (1/4") headphone jack and microphone jack
* Stereo 1/8" to 1/4" adapter
* Driver & Applications CD
* Two games (included with mine were "Hitman2" and "Soldier of Fortune"
* Cubasis VST software
* DVD audio sampler disc
* Feature showcase demonstration CD

There are actually two Firewire or 1394 inputs, one is on the card itself and the other is on the front panel. The front panel is where I do most of my work since everything you need is right there.

The card is capable of 6.1 surround but I have been using it in quadraphonic for music recording purposes. I have used the DVD audio feature once but I would rather "watch" a DVD than simply "listen" to one. However, in the near future we may be purchasing DVD audio discs of our favorite recording artists as the DVD audio offers 5 times the audio detail of a normal audio CD and could one day replace audio CD as the standard.

Installation
Installation is only slightly longer than a standard audio card considering the front panel and cables to attach it. You simply put the PCI card in an available slot and screw it in place, then install the front panel into an empty 5 1/4" drive bay. Run the ribbon cable and the 1394 cable from the front panel to the sound card and plug in the power to the front panel.

Then you start up the computer and install the software. I have not used the Cubasis VST software because I already use a mixing software called Sonar 2.0 for recording and mixing. I also use Frooty Loops for creating some background percussion tracks. Both Sonar 2.0 and Frooty Loops work very well with the card.

First Impression
Wow. That was my first impression after installing the drivers and rebooting to my personalized "Windows Logon" wav file. It is a stereo recording I created for the logon sound done with drums, electric guitar, bass and acoustic. It sounded better than the old card but I couldn't put my finger on why at first. It wasn't louder and wasn't any clearer that I could tell. I finally figured out what it was. Somehow the software CMSS was set to "Stadium" for music and that's exactly what it sounded like. It sounded like the music was being performed in a large stadium with very light almost undetectable echo effect. I was impressed but turned off the effect so it wouldn't interfere with my recordings.

First recording session
The first thing I did with the card after setting the defaults to all flat was fire up Sonar and break out the guitar and bass. I decided to record a short two minute blues track to test the abilities of the card.

After the first record with the guitar I noticed there was less of a draw on the CPU than with the previous Sound Blaster Live! card so I tried to shortening the latency. The latency for those unfamiliar is how long it takes the card to actually record a sound to hard drive after it has been made. My old card was set for 100milliseconds which isn't bad but less latency is always better when recording tracks. I set the card to 50ms with no trouble and got it as low as 30ms before I had any stutter. I decided to keep it on 50ms to be as fast as possible and retain integrity.

Firewire
I have used the Firewire ports on the front panel and on the card both to record digital video from my camcorder and both have worked flawlessly. The front panel gets all my attention now and the only reason I used the Firewire port on the card was to make sure it worked and it did. The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum did not come with any software for recording video from the Firewire port but I use the "ShowBiz" software from Arcsoft and "ULead Video Studio" for this task.

RCA input
These are so awesome to have. My old card had a front panel interface but did not have these RCA inputs. This feature makes recording from a tape deck or an old turn table extremely easy to do. I have tons (literally) of records from 1950', 60's, 70's, 80's and even a few from the early 1990's that one day will fail to play. I have recorded some of the oldest and most decrepit of them into the computer and burned them to CD so I don't have to wear out my old vinyl discs anymore.

All you have to do is plug in the red and white stereo cable from the device (Tape deck or Phonograph) into the corresponding red and white jacks on the front panel and make sure the recording properties in the control panel applet have "Auxillary 2" checked for recording. Start the wav maker software or whatever recording software you use (I use Sonar 2.0 for this also) and start recording. Hit "play" on your tape deck or drop the arm on your turn table and you are recording.

Headphone Jack
The headphone jack is the one of the most used plugs on the front panel for me. I always use headphones when recording open air tracks so the previous tracks are not recorded back through the microphone. This is especially useful when recording vocals and acoustic instruments without pickups.

I also use the headphones on my first and last mix down after recording is done. They obliterate all other sound so I can focus on the music I am trying to mix. I usually will make a few passes on the mix with the sound going through the speakers so I can hear what it will sound like in real life also.

The headphone jack on the front panel makes it easy to switch back and forth from headphone to speakers. All I have to do is turn down the speakers and leave the headphones at the desired volume. Their volume is independent of each other. This is a really nice feature and a must for anyone even somewhat serious about recording music.

Remote
The remote is a nice feature that enables you to play any recorded music on your computer with the push of a button. The original software that comes with the Audigy 2 Platinum also allows you to use the remote control to start Internet Explorer and browse the web by moving the highlighted link with the arrow keys on the remote. This is a cool feature but I rarely use it because I am always close enough to point and click my way to the web. This feature does not work with other browsers, only Internet Explorer (Sorry Netscape/Mozilla fans).
You can browse folders on your computer for media files to play but you can't launch programs with the remote. You can even create custom playlists with the remote. You have control over CMSS effects as well as balance, fade, bass, treble and even brightness/contrast of your display all from the remote.

What about all the negative reviews?
All I can say about the negative reviews is this. They all seem to have the same problem, popping and scratching sounds, which leads me to believe some or all of the following are possible answers.

A) They did not install the card properly whether it be a conflict of some sort with other devices (like not disabling any on-board sound) or not installing the software correctly.

B) They bought the card from the same defective batch (not probable but possible).

C) They may not know how to use the CMSS controls and have the effects set to some strange setting.

D) They didn't plug in the power cable.

E) Their power supply is not powerful enough to power all the devices including the sound card – NOTE: I recommend using a 300W power supply if you have two CD devices and a hard drive used with this card and at least 50W more for each additional CD device or hard drive. I would recommend no less than a 400W power supply if you are using this sound card with a Radeon 9800 video card as both require power from the power supply in order to work.

F) They are making false statements… which I would rather not believe but it could be true never-the-less.

It is possible to get a bad card, it happens all the time. It is very easy to RMA a card to Creative or simply take it back to the store you got it from. The best thing to do if you have a bad card is to take it back where you bought it. If they won't exchange it, call Creative at 1-405-742-6655 for help with installation issues or to get an RMA authorization.

Note:
The Creative Labs Customer Support Center will be closed to observe the following holidays:

New Years Day
Wednesday, January 1, 2004
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Monday, January 19, 2004
President's Day
Monday, February 16, 2004
Good Friday
Friday, April 9, 2004
Memorial Day
Monday, May 31, 2004
Independence Day
Monday, July 5, 2004
Labor Day
Monday, September 6, 2004
Thanksgiving Day
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Christmas Eve
Friday, December 24, 2004
New Year's Eve
Friday, December 31, 2004

Final Thoughts
The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum is a fantastic card for gaming, DVD audio (not bad with movies either :-), analog to digital recording (tape and phonograph) and makes recording live tracks easy and fun. I recommend this card to any avid gamer, audiophile or techo-junkie but if you're not familiar with installing peripherals you may want to have it installed by a qualified tech.

Thanks for reading,
Gr8ful :-)