questions regarding various creative cards

[alien_brain]

hi.

im a soundblaster newb, nice to meet you all.  my intentions are not to use them to play legacy games, but to use the sampling and effects technology to make my own music.  i might have more questions as i get further into this game...  its nice to see a place where there is still so much knowledge circulating about obsolete stuff.

currently i own an AWE32 card with 32MB, a CT1920 Wavetable  card with 32MB, and a Soundblaster AWE64 Gold with standard memory (i would love to find a memory upgrade daughterboard, if anyone has an extra, or an idea where i can get one), and a PIII with 2 ISA slots running 98SE.  i just started collecting the cards, so havent had a chance to install any of them.  im still collecting drivers and such, reading and learning.

a few newb questions if anyone cares to field one:

can i use an spdif out of sorts with my AWE32 card, and does it eliminate the noise floor?  is it worth it?

can i use my CT1920 as an expander for the AWE32 card or the AWE64 Gold card?

can the card(s) be used like a hardware midi sampler via the midi input cable attachment for the joystick port?

ok ill think of more later,  thanks everybody for now!

john

[Cloudschatze]

This may answer some of your questions:

AWE32 - The Pages Of Naked Truth

[Locutus]

Hello!

I wouldn't recommend any Creative products to compose music. For DOS gaming they might not be expendable because auf their compatibility, but when it comes to making music, there fortunately are far better and professional alteratives IMO. Keep in mind that Creative's AWE cards where primarily aimed at gamers and the consumer market.

In your place, I'd be looking for some Turtle Beach card (Maybe the Turtle Beach Multisound Pinnacle) or the Terratec EWS64XL. They have "soundfonts" of their own and come with a decent synthesizer that doesn't sound like it was designed to sound good on little plastic speakers out of the box.

Regards,
locutus

[alien_brain]

thank you very much for the info jumping off point...

i must say that i am already committed to these cards for a sampling solution.  i am aware there are better alternatives, and wish to push forward with my decision.  i already have a studio full of professional samplers and such.  what i want is a period sound--circa 94-2000 to be precise.  i know that a lot of sample based music was made using these cards (hard to believe?), so id like to at least give them a try.

so, your concerns are noted.  but please humor me!  i will read through the cool FAQ that Cloudschatze gave, but if you have any infos regarding my intentions, please do come forward!

thanks guys,

john