Hello, I am writing a List of my upcoming build specs. While writing the List I got confused 😕 , Do 2 Sound cards work on a single PC?
(Sound blaster AWE64 and Live! Value)
Yes.
Current Project: new GUS PnP compatible soundcard
[Z?]
Yes, they do. You only have to choose the default one on your Windows control panel to use it.
wrote:Yes.
wrote:Yes, they do. You only have to choose the default one on your Windows control panel to use it.
Thanks! 😀
Using more or less the same configuration in one of my retro boxes, an AWE64 Gold and a Live. Selected the Live card as default sound device in Windows, it happily coexists with the AWE64 there, and simply not loading any driver for it in DOS where the AWE64 is used.
No conflicts or other problems whatsoever 😀
Yep. FOUR sound cards! 😉
Never got this to work reliably, but apparently it works... Oh yeah, that's right, I never got a Live working reliably on its own, let alone next to another card. 😜
No, in all seriousness it should work, but don't be surprised if weird things happen somewhere down the line and their cause isn't immediately obvious. I have one machine which used AWE64G+SW1000XG+CMI8738+SCC1 and it was nothing but trouble, so I got rid of the SCC because I never used it and it was rubbish anyway. This fixed things for a while but then the SW1000XG started causing blue screens for no apparent reason, then the AWE stopped working in Windows all together and the CMI started throwing out errors in the device manager whilst not displaying its MIDI interfaces in Multimedia. The first problems manifested as much smaller issues like programs closing but staying visible on the taskbar, Direct3D applications crashing randomly and Cake 9 stopping randomly with hanging notes due to serious dropouts. The latter of which was what hinted me to bin the SCC-1 early on and made the other problems go away for a while before they were replaced with others. It's all irrelevant now really, given the machine is doing nothing today outside of waiting to be dismantled to be replaced with a faster model, the motherboard doesn't seem to work properly any more and I've no idea what happened to it - 'tis a cheap Athlon board, so it doesn't need a reason, I'm amazed it lasted that long with the levels of abuse it has received to be honest.
I suppose some combinations of cards work better than others, however, I have never gotten a multiple card setup to run under DOS - with older cards like GUS+SB16.
Yes, the trick (especially under DOS) is to ensure that both cards aren't using the same resources (DMA, IRQ).
But, it's sometimes "touch and go". It works for some and doesn't work for others.
I have a Live and an Audigy 2 in mine, i use the Live for the Gameport 🤣
