There are hundreds of soundcards available from dozens of manufacturers. While we cannot test all of them for compatibility with VoxPro PC, what we can do is list those that are most popular with our customers, and which, therefore, are known to work.
Audio Science
www.audioscience.com
We have tested VoxPro with the ASI 4215, 4342 and 5044 audio adapters. All are sophisticated cards with excellent audio quality. Users should download and install ASI's latest WDM driver.
Creative SoundBlaster and Audigy
www.soundblaster.com
The SB Live! and Audigy are probably the most common soundcards on the planet. Both are entirely compatible with VoxPro as long as you have their latest WDM (DirectSound compatible) driver installed, and you don't mind the comsumer-grade sound quality and unbalanced I/O.
The monitor control (used to prevent the jock's microphone input from being heard over the studio cue system) on the Audigy IIZS is well hidden: in the Windows recording mixer, click the Advanced button for the Analog Mix control. In the window that pops up, unselect the "record without monitoring" option. It does not work to mute the line-in (or mic) control in the playback mixer, because on the Audigy II this has the unfortunate effect of muting the input to the record destination as well.
Digigram VX222, VX222v2
www.digigram.com
Excellent audio quality. Some users have reported difficulties getting the AES/EBU interface configured properly, but Digigram's latest drivers have corrected most of these problems. Some users may need to disable their on-board sound device (i.e. the audio chipset on the motherboard) in the system BIOS setup before the VX222 will work properly in digital mode. Several users of VoxPro e2 and VoxPro PC 3.3 have also reported problems using the "VX222 Out#1" driver (issues include skipping while scrubbing, not playing to the end of a file, or not opening at all). These problems go away when the VX222 WDM driver is chosen instead. (Be sure to chose the WDM device for both playback and recording!) Users bothered by a certain "chunky" quality to the displayed waveform during recording can minimize the effect by opening the Digigram Control Center to the VXSetup tab and adjusting the card's latency down to its minimal setting.
Echo Mia
www.echoaudio.com
Earlier compatibility problems with DirectSound have been cleared up with the latest driver version, though there are still reports of spurious injection of noise when recording in monophonic format (stereo recording is quite clean). Several studios are using this card in an all-digital environment, though engineers should be prepared to handle connections through RCA jacks that double as a S/PDIF interface.
Another issue that you might encounter is an apparent inability to play back after recording. This is most likely due to a setting in the Echo Mia Console: the "synchronize wave devices" option should be unchecked. (To access this option, click on the "Settings" button on the front of the Echo Mia Console, and select the "Driver" tab.)
Henry Engineering USB Matchbox
www.henryeng.com
A brand-new product from the folks at Henry, this is the only USB soundcard we can recommend. Sounds and performs great. Balanced XLR inputs and outputs.
LynxTWO
www.lynxstudio.com
Lynx has recently introduced a DirectSound driver for the high-end LynxTWO soundcard, and it works quite well with VoxPro. The LynxONE card, unfortunately, does not have a WDM DirectSound driver, and does not support VoxPro's scrubbing and jog wheel functions.
M-Audio Delta44
www.midiman.com
A well-designed card with an external breakout box which places critical conversion hardware outside of the noisy environment of the computer case. Balanced analog input/output using 1/4" TRS. There is a critical software switch that must be set correctly for this card to function: open the M-Audio control panel, select the "Hardware Settings" tab, find the box labelled "Multitrack Driver Devices", and select the "Independent" option. If the default "Single and In-Sync" option is selected your computer may freeze after the card is used once.
SoundMax
www.soundmax.com
Not really a soundcard – SoundMax is the audio chipset found on the motherboard in roughly half the personal computers sold today. While the audio quality is not the highest, the drivers work just fine with VoxPro.
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
www.turtlebeach.com
A fine card for those on a budget, stable and well-behaved. Analog input/output is via unbalanced mini-phone jacks.
Sound Card Issues
