how many sound cards can 1 have on there pc?

i would like to know if i could have 2 sound cards on 1 computer?
"lets say i have 2 rooms and i want to have the music playing deferant typs of music, one room clasical and the other punk at the same time.) is this possable to do with 1 pc? or is there a program out there that will do this?

sory for the dbl post

 

I dunno if this would work to be honest, but I think it could with certain software. You could try installing soemthing like an external usb audio interface (you can get them for about 40 pounds) aswell as your normal soundcard whatever that is in your pc. I know this works fine because I've done it many times, then it's usually a matter of setting which device will play, you do this in control panel> sounds and audio devices> audio>. After installing the second soundcard (the external usb one) now you will have two options (2 drivers). Now your problem lies in getting whatever software you are using to playback the two different types of music to work with independent sound drivers. You can't just load up 2 instances of windows media player and get one to work with the soundcard (and its outouts to speakers in one room) and the other to the usb device (and its outputs to speakers in another room). They would normally both play using the same driver, so only to one soundcard, there may be a way to hack this or something but I don't know. You could try other playback software, or software where you specifically set which sound card you want to utilise, such as sound production suites that let you choose, for instance cubase. You could install cubase, choose the new usb (or whatever) soundcard you have installed, create a new audio track, load the mp3's or whatever you want into that audio track (you could even mix them, drop in effects or whatever this way) and play, making sure you have the metronome turned off so it doesn't click. Then just try playing something else in windows media player (this relies on the device in sound settings in control panel not changing to whatever you changed the device to in cubase, this is what you have to get around). Like I say, I don't know if this will work, and that's why I suggest the external usb interface because if it doesn't you can just unplug it, or even bring it back and get a refund. But I think there can be some way you can achieve this, might even be specific software for it already available, might have to play with irq settings. Good luck, and please let me know if you get this to work.

EDIT: Ok, I just thought of something else, if you have one sound card or audio interface with seperate stereo outs (two sockets L and R to go out to the speakers, or sub then to the speakers) you can put your music into two MONO audio tracks in cubase or whatever and make sure both stereo tracks are in that mono track. Then just play and one will come out of one side, L, and one out of the other, R. Then you need two sound systems to play them from there, amp speakers whatever. But probably the best way I can think of is just a sound card with 2 stereo outs, just load your tracks into cubase, the tracks designated for two seperate rooms into two seperate STEREO tracks (I'm only saying cubase because that's what I use) and route them from the mixer to the different stereo outs on your sound card/audio interface. Downside with this is you would have to mute one of the tracks to stop it playing without stopping the other, and changing the order of what you are playing would be annoying. There must be software to do this though, for PA purposes, just software that lets you play and independently control two sets and output to two seperate stereo outs. Check out ableton live, this might be what you need. You can get a soundcard with 2 stereo outs (4 mono outs) for pretty cheap too, around 60-70 pounds I think, perhaps cheaper now.

 

wow, thats great, thank-you. i'll see what i can do with this and keep you up to date.

 

yes you can have more than one audio card installed on the same computer, as long as they are different. I used this technique for many years as a DJ. I had two separate winamps running to two separate sound cards, and then mixed the two outputs with and external mixer. windows isn't very happy if they are they same though (such as two SB Audigy cards) so as long as they aren't the same make and model you should have not problem using two cards.

 

Can be done easily, many DJ programs I use allow for multiple sound cards.
eg one for playing back your DJ mix on the main speakers and the other for listening in on the headphones to your next mp3.

 

ok, thx, im gona go and get another sound card next week(pay day) and i'll let you know how it works out