RustySpoon#,

Regarding your post and comment on Creative Labs sound cards. Yes they can color the sound or audio signal but they can be neutral also. Much depends on how you set the sound card up.

The main offender is the software package that ships with most of the cards. The software acts as a digital signal processor (DSP) to modify the sound output based on use mode settings like theater, noise cancelling, voice enhancement, podcasting and so on. These settings dynamically add effects like equalization, reverb, delay or fake surround sound to the audio signal. Even the audiophile software processes the audio signal.

All you really need is the card driver. The card driver is normally available bundled with software and as a standalone entity. Whenever possible install just the driver and ignore the software package. If you must install the software make sure all the software is disabled.

The other oddity of Creative sound cards is the Creative driver defaults to 48K sampling rate instead of 44.1K. Band-in-a-Box uses 44.1K since that is the audio standard while 48K is standard for audio used in video. BiaB automatically resamples the audio signal to 44.1K but the Creative Lab sound card driver doesn't automatically resample BiaB's 44.1K audio output to 48K which can cause conflict or crashes. Luckily MOST Creative Lab drivers can be set for a 44.1K sample rate. As an aside, Creative Labs is not the only audio developer that sets their driver to default at 48K. Every now and then you'll see a forum post where users report their audio interface defaulted to 48K.

While their drivers have always using the 48K sample rate, Creative Lab sound cards otherwise use to be a sensible choice for audio production. The inclusion on their sound cards of an onboard midi sound module, midi in and out ports, first midi sequencer and then DAW software introduced many people to the joys of "computer music".

Creative Lab successfully filled a niche created by IBM and Microsoft's decision to ignore audio. Now just about all pc motherboards include an onboard audio solution that satisfies the needs of most users so Creative Lab shifted to serving the gaming and audiophile market while, for the most part, ignoring audio production.

Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home