Rating: 
Summary: Reformat
Review: Junk, absolute junk. Don't even try to complain to Creative. Talk about a bunch of losers. If you have a soundblaster already installed, you might as well reformat to get the new one to work. I am a computer engineer for crying out loud. The soundblaster uninstall does not work, and you can spend forever trying to track down all the files that need to be deleted so that your new card will install correctly, but you will never find them all.
Rating:
Summary: Reformat
Review: Junk, absolute junk. Don't even try to complain to Creative. Talk about a bunch of losers. If you have a soundblaster already installed, you might as well reformat to get the new one to work. I am a computer engineer for crying out loud. The soundblaster uninstall does not work, and you can spend forever trying to track down all the files that need to be deleted so that your new card will install correctly, but you will never find them all.
Rating: 
Summary: Review HomeStudio 2002
Review: Sytem: Dell 4500, 1.8 GHz cpu, 256 M ram, 40G hard, windows xp.
Use: musical creation using voice, guitar, bass, and midi keyboard.
Unless u are experienced with this stuff (I am a newby) read the book 'getting started' and do the tutorials. right from tuturiol 1, could not get midi output setup using a dell 4500 with analog device soundmax integrated digital audio card. after reading manuals and faq on and off line got no answer. long wait to get tech support on phone. once there he stepped me thru quickly (it starts with options-audio-advanced-check mme) .found tutorials are good, but need more subjects covered, such as how to use the drum machine, etc. in covering subjects, had questions and emailed for tech support and after couple days, per inquiry, got good support for answers.
Wanted midi input which soundmax integrated card could not do, so upgraded to soundblaster live 5.1. somewhere along the way audio files were corrupted, evidenced by delays and then sort of echo pulses on the audio tracks. it took another call to tech support to have him talk me thru the fix. I think I have the bugs worked out now.
Recording capabilities of software are phenomenal when compared to the analog tape tascam porta 05 studio which has been only other recording experience. The speed of actually getting recordable material is a quantum leap above the tascam. Abilities to patch in a wide range of instruments, sounds and sound effects from a midi keyboard are a stand alone piece of equipment in themselves. Precision editing capabilities are superb.
Give it 5 for capabilities and 3 for tech backup for overall of 4. Highly recommended and as I see it, the best bang for the buck for someone like me who wants to record his own music, but be prepared for some startup pains.
Rating:
Summary: Okay with Intel but you can do better
Review: The SBLive works fine on my P4. Do get the latest drivers from the and don't use those on the CD. Things never worked out on the AMD machine, I finally went to a Turtle Beach card there, and it was very straightforward. Creative's tech support was not friendly, unhelpful ("Windows is corrupted, you need to reinstall your OS"). Okay if you don't have anything to do for two weekends (one waiting for tech support to respond (for want of a better word) to your question and another to reinstall the OS. Formatting and reinstalling does fix issues but life really shouldn't be this hard. The product *is* adequate if not stellar but tech support is unavailable, unfriendly, and unhelpful.
Rating:
Summary: Reminds me of old vinyl, needles, and dust
Review: The sounds are great between snaps, crackles, and pops. Since Creative Audio hasn't ever replied to my request for a solution, I went online and "searched" under "Soundblaster," "live," and "crackle." You'll be surprised at the number of hits you have to choose from and explanations ranging from "PCI bus noise" to "busy CPU." Creative Audio said they were working on it (June 2001). They still must be. Avoid this board, especially with XP or 2000. If you don't believe me, do the search on google.com yourself for the "crackle" problem. Otherwise, expect to get the old vinyl record sound, both on PCs and Macs, and on CDs, DVDs, and games.
Rating: 
Summary: An endless headache!
Review: This card has been nothing but an endless headache for me. I've had more problems than I can name with this card. First, the card's quality isn't very good at all. Second, the card has a bad hiss in the rear signal (it's not my speakers, I checked). Third, the card has useless onboard stuff that cause MORE headaches. The mixer they give you is completely useless. It has no equalizer or anthing of the sort. It simply affects volume levels. The "diagnostics agent" is annoying and useless and occasionally starts up with my computer on startup (randomly) and starts checking stuff. All programs and utilities are annoying and useless overall. Fourth, the drivers are bad. I have a brand new computer with XP on it and it doesn't work well. I'm a good computer user and can't figure this update thing out yet. For some reason, the updated drivers won't install because the program claims my drivers don't exist, which they do. This card has caused me MANY other problems, including severe distortion problems, but they just don't come to mind right now.Bottom line: Save your money and get one of the following: --Augidy 2
--Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
--M-audio Revolution
Rating:
Summary: Problems, problems
Review: Where do I begin...MIDI sound falls out of sync with my MIDI keyboards; meaning I hit a note, and 1 to 2 seconds later I hear it played through the computer. Once I reboot, its fine but then the cycle starts again. Second, getting some serious distortion when recording. The gain on the input signal seems to get jacked up to levels so high that everything sounds a like a drive-thru box. Again, reboot is needed. Third, it crashes my computer when I try to rip from audio CD's. Mixer settings are also randomly re-adjusted from the way I set them. (i.e. - I set to record from "line in", and for some reason it keeps switching back to "cd audio".) Downloaded all patches and updates, and am now sending the card back to Creative. Sound playback was fine, but if you plan on doing ANY sort of recording with this card I would recommend going elsewhere. Dont like it, and wouldnt recommend it as it is unreliable.
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