[ilovemac]

Has anyone used Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh on your Power Mac G4 computer?

If yes, please tell about your experience on using it on your Apple Power Mac G4 computer!

I am planing to buy and use it on my new Summer 2001 G4 computer.
That's because the new G4 computer doesn't have a sound input port.

Do you have any suggestion of other good sound input products for Apple Power Mac G4 computer??

Thanks!

Good question!

me too I would like to hear some experience using SBLive for Macintosh

[macndave]

Originally posted by ilovemac:
<STRONG>Has anyone used Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh on your Power Mac G4 computer?

If yes, please tell about your experience on using it on your Apple Power Mac G4 computer!

I am planing to buy and use it on my new Summer 2001 G4 computer.
That's because the new G4 computer doesn't have a sound input port.

Do you have any suggestion of other good sound input products for Apple Power Mac G4 computer??

Thanks! </STRONG>

Okay, this is my experience - Your's may vary:

I purchased the SBLive card ($149) this past weekend. The installation of the PCI card and the software was a breeze. I have a Winter 2001 G4 Dual 533mhz. My Mac recognized the card for Sound OUT but not for Sound IN. Of course, Sound IN was the only reason I purchased the card in the first place. I am very happy with my Apple Pro speaker and iSub. Fortunately, MicroCenter took return of the card and refunded my money.

Searching the xlr8yourmac forums (http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/audio/SBlive_comments.html#storytop), I found that ours are having the same problem. It seems to be some sort of conflict with Quicktime 5.0+ (which I have installed). Today, I purchased a iMic (www.griffintechnology.com), which is a small self-contained (no software drivers, it uses the Sound Manager) USB mic input device ($35), but had the same problem. Sound OUT was recognized by my G4 Tower and my G3 Firewire PowerBook, but no Sound IN.

So, I don't know if there are continued problems with the Sound Manager software and/or Quicktime 5.0+, but I wanted to at least give my experiences and point you to other forums where people have had similar problems.

- Dave

hello! Thanks! macndave
For your reply.

I have read an article about "Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh" on macaddict.com .

Based on the article, it tells "Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh" is a very good sound card for mac.

but in your experience, it was bad. :-(

so, I will wait until it comes with "software drivers" for Mac OS X.
And then, buy it.

[muttfree]

see 15+ pages of users feedback here:
http://bbs.xlr8yourmac.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/000182.html

very good card for me in my B&W, so far

HTH

$150 is a waste of money if you only want the card because you want a "sound input port." Most of the money going into the card is for its fancy multi-speaker surround sound and gaming enhancements. Sound input is just a bonus. It's not even as good at sound input as the more "professional" cards that cost about the same amount.

If you want simple sound input, use a USB sound input device. If you want a card for gaming, environmental 4-speaker audio, DVD watching, and the like, get the SoundBlaster.

[GreenMnM]

Well, if you'd like an even-more-expensive-not-the-first-reason-to-buy-it you could get a Sony Digital Media Converter (DMC-DA2) for somewhere between $299 & $399. It's a FireWire device so maybe your USB sound-in problems would not come up. My DMC appears in my Sound Control Panel as a sound-in and -out device (450MHz G4 Cube, 576MB RAM, OS 9.1). You'd get sound-in (RCA left and right plugs) AND as a bonus you'd get to do analog video importing and exporting!!!



Just a thought...

-Doug

[ 07-30-2001: Message edited by: GreenMnM ]

[Jay Bee]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Originally posted by ilovemac:
<strong>Has anyone used Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh on your Power Mac G4 computer?

If yes, please tell about your experience on using it on your Apple Power Mac G4 computer!

I am planing to buy and use it on my new Summer 2001 G4 computer.
That's because the new G4 computer doesn't have a sound input port.

Do you have any suggestion of other good sound input products for Apple Power Mac G4 computer??

Thanks! </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="1" face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">I just purchased the Soundblaster Live card for the Mac. I have had for the most part the same issues everyone here has stated.
Using a G4 450DP 1.3 GIG RAM and VM turned off VIA default.
After several installs and uninstalls of the software provided and also a couple of clean installs, there is nothing I can do that will allow me to open the sound control panel after this software is installed. Version 1.0 will allow it but for some unknown reason 1.1 will not. The new driver release will allow the computer to go to sleep and will eliminate most of the pops and clicks.
There really is no need to access the sound control panel after installing this software as it will only allow one to switch back to built in sound.
I am really getting very good sound from this card with four year old four point surround speakers that I purchased for around 40.00
This card also allows for a much better input sound from a old turntable that I have been using to input old vinyl records and turn them into cd's.
Overall I am very pleased with this sound card except for a few bugs that remain in it. They are minor bugs and I would rather Creative focus thier attention on OS X drivers as that is the future of this sound card. But the one thing to remember that I have a EXCELLENT sounding system for well under $100.00