is it possible to have two sound cards on one XP machine?

[Niteowl]

Hi,

My purpose is to run old win95/98/dos games under winxp. the games seem to
install okay and run the video, but the onboard sound setting won't/don't
match up with these old legacy game settings. (i.e. duke nukem, age of
empires, half life, winroids(actually a 3.1 game), etc.

So I was wondering if it's possible to simply install an older sound card
without disabling the newer or an onboard sound function. Seems like I
would just need a separate pair of speakers if this will work. ??

I currently have one win98 machine just so I can still run these games, but
it won't last forever.

thanks for any suggestions. (be nice)

niteowl

 

[M.Hockings]

Hi,

My purpose is to run old win95/98/dos games under winxp. the games seem to
install okay and run the video, but the onboard sound setting won't/don't
match up with these old legacy game settings. (i.e. duke nukem, age of
empires, half life, winroids(actually a 3.1 game), etc.

So I was wondering if it's possible to simply install an older sound card
without disabling the newer or an onboard sound function. Seems like I
would just need a separate pair of speakers if this will work. ??

I currently have one win98 machine just so I can still run these games, but
it won't last forever.

thanks for any suggestions. (be nice)

niteowl

Yes, you can have several sound devices on XP. For me Duke Nukem and
Half Life seem to work fine on XP, I don't have the others. This is
using a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 so maybe it's drivers have good original
Sound Blaster emulation which is probably what those games are looking
for. It could be too they are just looking for the Sound Blaster
environment string that was used to configure other cards (or alternate
SB interrupt/dma settings)?

Using multiple sound devices is not without it's frustrations in XP
though...

Mike

 

[Bob I]

You may have 2 sound cards, but only one can be the default, AND you
need XP compatible drivers, so if the card is too old it won't work.

 

[matt1544]

If you have two cards, can you direct that specific applications use
one card, and other applications use another? I'd like to have Winamp
port sound to one card (for use with a home stereo system), while all
other windows sounds use another card for local sounds.

Thanks
Matt

 

[V Green]

If you have two cards, can you direct that specific applications use
one card, and other applications use another? I'd like to have Winamp
port sound to one card (for use with a home stereo system), while all
other windows sounds use another card for local sounds.

Thanks
Matt

That has to be supported by the app. Some do,
most don't.

In my install of Winamp, it's using DirectSound for
output, which means it's using the "default" sound card
(I have two installed) and the only way I can direct it
to use the other is to re-specify which is my "default"
in Control Panel.

 

[matt1544]

OK, thanks.

Any idea if other MP3 players would support playing to a specific
sound card? I'm not married to Winamp, but would like something that'd
support playlists.

I'll google for this, but I'm just not really sure what to look for.

Matt

 

[V Green]

OK, thanks.

Any idea if other MP3 players would support playing to a specific
sound card? I'm not married to Winamp, but would like something that'd
support playlists.

I'll google for this, but I'm just not really sure what to look for.

Matt

I would just try them for yourself. I haven't gone
beyond Winamp as it does what I need to do.

The applications that I have seen that allowed you to
specify which device to use WITHIN the app were
CoolEdit and Audacity, both audio editors which I
would expect to support this. Not the same thing
for players, apparently.