I have seen that many people around here recommend the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 for Linux users using Ardour. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience using the Sound Blaster Audigy 2? What else would I need to record guitar, vocals, bass, et cetera?
I was looking to get an M-Box 2 with Pro Tools LE, but I’ve realized that will have to wait until I buy a Mac. I know I won’t get the same quality from the Audigy 2, but will it suffice? Thanks!
The Audigy 2 is an amazing sound card. I used it to record a cut on my album. It is one of the best sounding tracks on the album. The Audigy has some very impressive DSP specs, not to mention one of the best wavetables of any sound card I have ever used.
Listen to this.
Everything in this song was done on the Audigy 2.
Synths, recorded guitars, drums, etc.
Would love to hear your feedback.
Thanks for the input! I’ve decided to go with this solution, but I am having major problems from the beginning.
I bought a mixer to plug my guitar and mic into, and I am trying to go into the audigy using a cable that goes from RCA cables to the input on the soundcard, but I am getting no sound. I’ve tried google and going to ubuntuforums.org to find a solution, but I can’t find anything that simply lays out how to get the sound into the card/computer, into Ubuntu Linux, and then be able to hear it through my speakers. At this point, since I can’t hear anything coming out of my speakers, I have no idea what the problem is. I do know that my mixer is getting something from the guitar, but that’s it. After that, I don’t see/hear any results. I’ve downloaded Jack and Ardour, but I can’t get anything. Can anyone guide me or point me to a guide for this? Thanks!
Okay, I got sound from my Mic input, but it has terrible noise - everything is distorted and there is a fuzzy noise over everything. I still can’t hear anything when I’m plugged into the regular input though…
Hi,
I assume you have the drivers installed properly. As for the Mic noise, the input signal seems to be boosted on too high a level - please note that many sound cards include a hardware amplifier (for mic +15 dB) so if there is already pre-amplified signal fed into that mic input it may result in an overwhelmed signal. Also check your software mixer (kmix on KDE or gmix in gnome, or alsamixer in console) if the values are set right (in kmix, you might “+15dB boost” want to uncheck). As for no signal/sound from the RCA inputs you might want to check if the signal is strong enough.
Audigy 2 works good if you want just dat recordings, (48khz @ 16bit). For some reason creative labs and working with the alsa project isn’t happening. In fact, I’m currently looking into finding a 192khz @ 24bit card for recording on Ardour (I like it that much!) 
In fact, the quality sounds pretty good as long as you don’t over-drive the input.
Cheers
You probably need to set your switches in you mixer
make sure you have “Audigy Analog/Digital” turned on if you want to hear any thing out the analog outputs of the card