Sound Blaster PCI 128. How Compatable is it?

Sarlok · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 98

Hey Folks...

I tried this sound card quite some time ago, and was at the time using Windows ME. I discovered the sound card was quite the POS, and can't remember if I gave it away, or sent it back to the sod I bought it off.

Right now I'm using a Herculese MuseXL, running off some set of drivers that it works with (can't remember which, but anyway).
But, the drivers aren't the best, and I don't have full-duplex sound, and my system has a lot of problems playing some MP3's (skipping, and such, almost like the MP3's are corrupt - which they arent, I checked.

)

So, I'm thinking of investing in a few new parts to make things a little more snappy with Gentoo... One of them's the Sound Blaster 128. I want to know how compatable it is, if anyone knows.
And, if it is, is it full-duplex? (It goes by a lot of other names... but, in short, can more than one thing use it at once?).

And, just in case someone tries suggesting other soundcards, I could honestly care less about an extra .5ms system speed for spending another 100 bucks on an Audigy, or a Live!. I just want something that works.

Also, is there a hardware compatability list around for Gentoo? I couldn't find one on the main site, but I am exceptionally good at missing things like that.

Thanks.

Edit:
Die typos!!
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ChopChopMasterOnion · n00b Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 70 Location: North Texas

as i recall, my wife is using one. but as i also recall, there are like three iterations of the card, each with its own whacktastic information (or so i am told; i only have one SB PCI128). But my wife's first iteration one works fine
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Malakin · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:32 am Post subject:

An SB live supports hardware mixing with Alsa and is one of the best supported cards in Linux, can be found for dirt cheap these days(about $30usd).

Soundblaster 128 has been well supported for a long time but it doesn't support hardware mixing so you'll have to use something like arts with it.

FormerSlacker · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2003 4:24 am Post subject:

I'm using an SB 128 which is actually an Ensoniq 1371. I've had no problems with this card, works like a charm. Interesting thing about this card is it has two dsp's. So you can set xmms to use /dev/dsp1, and play, lets say, counter strike

while your mp3s happiliy play in the background without software mixing. For a dirt cheap card, does the job well if you ask me.

Sarlok · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 98

Yeah, I'm using the ALSA driver (C-Media CMI8338). It's compiled right into my Kernel.
I know the MP3's are fine, they play fine from anyone elses PC, or from my Wind'oh's partition.
But it's more the single channel that annoys me most.
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Four-thousand, six-hundred and ninety-one Irradiated haggis.