sound card config

[GTS Jeff]

does anyone know how to make 2 sound cards work together in 7.1 surround? i noticed that windows xp supports 7.1 surround sound so i turned on the on-board sound card.

i have an audigy and an on-board creative pci128. how do i make them put out 7.1? or how do i even make them play different things at the same time?

[Davetronz]

Well esentially sound cards have their own IRQ (Interupt Request) which pretty much sends a request for the CPU to interupt what it is doing and do sound. As well they have their own I/O range, which is a hexadecimal number that assigns a memory location for the data that is inbound and outbound. Now, with XP, it sets the IRQ and the I/O automatically for each device. Devices usually have preset IRQ's and I/O's as well as DMA (Direct Memory Access). I have not seen this done before, however, if you were to get it working, you would have to make sure that you have enough PCI channels available, and make sure that both the I/O and the IRQ are different for each sound card. Now with that being said, it will involve tinkering as Windows XP will usually automatically set this to be the same for each sound card plugged in, plus, when it auto detects through PnP and has a IRQ or I/O conflict it may lock up your computer, or cause something else not to work....... Plus once they are both installed if possible, you would have to go through and set up each time in each program that uses sound what I/O to pickup input and output sound to use, and what card to use....

This is what I believe needs to be done in THEORY... However I have not attempted it.... WHY NOT JUST BRIDGE SOME F'ING SPEAKERS TOGETHER!!! :p
Thats what I am doing. I am running a Radeon AIW 8500DV, which has RCA outputs. I run the RCA outs to my home stereo system that has 6 speakers and 1 subwoofer. Ta da... Done....
My video and sound card are set up to work together so I can add another sub to my soundcard, but I wouldnt want more speakers....

[GTS Jeff]

well i already have my room hooked up in 5.1 using 8 speakers..but i want discrete 7.1 dolbyEX

[Davetronz]

Originally posted by Jeff TYPE R
well i already have my room hooked up in 5.1 using 8 speakers..but i want discrete 7.1 dolbyEX

Well I am not responsible for lock ups if I am not working on the comp myself, so go ahead if you can and play around with the settings and IRQ's and I/Os......

[GTS Jeff]

well right now, both sound cards are installed and working, but its a matter of getting them to play together

[bol]

You're not going to get two soundcards working together to support 7.1 audio. I could go deep into it, but bottom line, it's not going to work. You'll need a single device that supports 7.1 digital audio.

Cards that I know of... Turtle Beach Dominater 7.1

and the SB Audigy 2 does 6.1


another option is to use the digital output of the card and let your reciever do the processing.

[speedracer]

Could always write your own drivers (*cough* low level)