[massappeal85]

I'm building a DAW for music production but will also play counterstrike on it. I was considering the e-mu 0404 because it seems to be the best thing going for an inexpensive DAW card, however I don't think it (or most DAW cards) supports EAX. I never played CS with EAX so I wanted to ask; what is it like? Is it better sound positioning then without and by how much? What would I be missing NOT playing with EAX?

 

[injinuiti]

EAX helps positioning better in CS 1.6. For example you can hear a guy on the other side of the wall running and shoot at him with a rifle... but you could do that with almost any headphone setup. As I recall, I believe the game uses eax 2.0 You could always run a dual setup and grab an audigy card and run it next to your 0404.

So in short, it does benefit you to have eax in CS but its not a MUST have.

 

[j0j081]

well I play a lot of cs:source and I love the way EAX sounds with my Audigy 2 ZS. I know there is a difference because I used to run on Nvidia Soundstorm. Positioning is much more precise and everything sounds realistic with EAX enabled. I use EAX in all games that support it and they still sounds as fresh to me as the first time I heard them so I would say depending on how much you play it's definitely worth it. Of course Creative cards (minus the X-fi) aren't known for playing music back all that great but movies sound sweet to.

 

[injinuiti]

Quote:

Originally Posted by j0j081 well I play a lot of cs:source and I love the way EAX sounds with my Audigy 2 ZS. I know there is a difference because I used to run on Nvidia Soundstorm. Positioning is much more precise and everything sounds realistic with EAX enabled. I use EAX in all games that support it and they still sounds as fresh to me as the first time I heard them so I would say depending on how much you play it's definitely worth it. Of course Creative cards (minus the X-fi) aren't known for playing music back all that great but movies sound sweet to.

Correct me if I'm wrong... but I don't think CS:S uses EAX. Some clues I've used to come to this conclusion is that there are no options in the GUI or audio options like there are in 1.6. Additionally, sifting through the config there aren't any EAX enabling script commands either. But I do agree with you that EAX does make games better by immersing you into their environments.

 

[massappeal85]

Thanks! What about A3D? How is that compared to EAX?

 

[j0j081]

Quote:

Originally Posted by injinuiti Correct me if I'm wrong... but I don't think CS:S uses EAX. Some clues I've used to come to this conclusion is that there are no options in the GUI or audio options like there are in 1.6. Additionally, sifting through the config there aren't any EAX enabling script commands either. But I do agree with you that EAX does make games better by immersing you into their environments.

Are you serious? I always figured it was on by default lol. Oh well CS:S sounds pretty good whatever it uses, comparible to my actual EAX games.

 

[Twombly]

I thought the Half-life Engine used its own software-based surround-sound. Doom 3 tried to do the same, but then Creative, like the evil babykilling fiends they are, decided to sue in order to put EAX in instead.

 

[maarek99]

Sue? You serious? There was no sueing as far as I know.

 

[Behemot]

There is no pro music production card with EAX support out there. The card closest to pro level with EAX support is, love it or hate it, X-Fi. I have seen number of people running X-Fi Xtreme Music together with 0404 and that seems to be the best value combo for music and games. Or, you can use X-Fi for music production too, on its own.

 

[Dave_M]

CS source uses its own sound engine that is purely software. DOOM3 is the same but creative made a doom3 patch that shiped with the x-fi so that their hardware can do the effects. I dont know if it makes it sound better or not.

I play CS source alot with my ESI Juli@ and it works flawlessly. I play with headphones so stereo works fine for me. I have played a few games and they all seem to work fine with the Juli@. If i ever want to play a game that really needs direct sound/EAX support to run, i will just use my onboard audio. Quite frankly, it's good enough.

 

[luukas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by maarek99 Sue? You serious? There was no sueing as far as I know.

Didn't Carmack agree to Creative's terms to avoid any further hassle? Meh, stupid software patents. Even worse though that a huge company like CL uses them to strongarm those who don't give a damn about EAX etc.

 

[Asmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by massappeal85 I'm building a DAW for music production but will also play counterstrike on it. I was considering the e-mu 0404 because it seems to be the best thing going for an inexpensive DAW card, however I don't think it (or most DAW cards) supports EAX. I never played CS with EAX so I wanted to ask; what is it like? Is it better sound positioning then without and by how much? What would I be missing NOT playing with EAX?

Just to sum things up, go with the E-MU card, 1212m is better if you want to do music production however.

If you only care about CS, 1.6 works fine, and is not a huge diff in EAX, and source does not use EAX, so you lose nothing. I play source all the time too.

 

[legcramp]

yah.. I dont see any signs of EAX in CS:S.... BUT vs my onboard AC-97 and my Audigy 2 zs... the positioning on the audigy is WAY WAY WAY better.. the ac97 is jsut boomy and positioning is like left and right only.. weird.

 

[massappeal85]

Sweet. Thanks for the help guys. Are the inputs and outputs of the 0404 balanced/unbalanced switchable? If they are, would that mean I'm able to have 2 unbalanced line outputs since the jacks have L,R, and a ground?

Is it the same for the 1212? If I were to get an external DAC, would the only worthwhile improvement the 1212 would offer be the better a/d conversion and extra ins/outs? Would there be an external A/D converter for a similar price that would sound better?

 

[j0j081]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luukas Didn't Carmack agree to Creative's terms to avoid any further hassle? Meh, stupid software patents. Even worse though that a huge company like CL uses them to strongarm those who don't give a damn about EAX etc.

Quake 4 has EAX builtin and that uses the Doom 3 engine, not sure if it means anything.