Can I use two of the same type of PCI Sound Cards in one computer?

I recently purchased two Rocketfish 5.1 PCI Sound Cards from Best Buy. These are going to be used for audio production and radio broadcasting, so one card can handle live audio, the other can handle cue audio. After installing both cards, I get strange noises from the broadcasting program, and then the computer locks up solid. I have to hard restart to get it back up. This only happens when the two audio cards are installed on the computer. I have tried switching them around to different PCI slots, with the same result.

Eamon

Posted 2010-06-11T21:51:06.340

Reputation: 21

Answers

So are you mixing down two audio channels down to a single channel for broadcast? Why not get an inexpensive mixer (Really cheap, Kinda Cheap, Best low cost) to combine your signals and then push it into your sound card. The fact that you are using a sound card as your interface device hurts the audiophile in me. Use a usb interface like this instead.

You can then use some adapters to get the correct plug connections.

You should go this route because computers can only really use one audio device at a time. Technically, you can get multiple devices installed and working, but it's a real pain to do. I always like going with solutions that are designed to solve my problem instead of hacking stuff together to make something that kinda works.

Hope that helps

Doltknuckle

Posted 2010-06-11T21:51:06.340

Reputation: 5 813

I've never had a problem running more than one audio device. It all depends on the software. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams – 2010-06-11T22:49:13.050

That's why I suggested that sound mixing is done on hardware and then recorded/broadcast on the computer. As long as the hardware is not faulty, this works 100% of the time. From what I can tell(Google search), Microsoft support says you can only use one device at a time by design. You can swap the input/output devices as needed, but you can only have one. That of course doesn't mean it can't be done. There are reports that it is possible, but I have yet to see how they did it. If you can figure it out, post it as an answer so we all know how to do it. – Doltknuckle – 2010-06-14T17:52:44.133

If the driver supports it, sure. I don't necessarily think that anyone expected a consumer to put multiple RocketFish (Best Buy-rebranded, Taiwan-sourced chea... er, inexpensive components) cards in a single machine though.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

Posted 2010-06-11T21:51:06.340

Reputation: 100 516

Haha, fair enough. I know it's a cheap audio card solution, but I'm trying to turn an online radio station around on a budget. I'll see if I can find an audio card from a different vendor. Perhaps two different types of audio cards would solve the problem? – Eamon – 2010-06-11T22:12:06.667

Two different brands? Probably. A USB sound card might also work, and you can get them for about $15-20 at the right place, but the CPU usage might be a bit too high. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams – 2010-06-11T22:17:05.123