Show Cue System

Reading these forums, I saw someone mention that only two outputs of the Audigy 2 PCMCIA card show up in SCS. Are there any other inexpensive cards surround sound cards that work correctly with this program? Either USB, firewire, or PCMCIA, but something under the ~$300 that the m-audio fireware 410 costs would be great for those of us in less professional settings that can't afford to spend that much money on the sound playback.

So no one has ever tried to use a standard 5.1 sound card with this program? I find it hard to believe that no one has tried that. What drivers, etc, does the card need to have for it to work with this program?

As far as a standard 5.1 card is concerned I can tell you that my on-board C-Media AC97 works perfectly with SCS and I can output to any speaker. Some users have reported incompatibilities between SCS and Creative Labs cards.

Even though the C-Media card works OK, I wouldn't use it for a production as my M-Audio Delta 44 provides far superior quality and balanced outputs.

I use an emagic 2/6 USB sound card with my laptop which has never let me down. It has 6 outputs. It also has digital I/O on coaxial connections, which is handy if you are working in stereo and using a digital mixing desk. This sound card doesn't appear to be available new any more, but in the UK they regularly come up on eBay for around £100 ($200-ish, I think!).

It is a little bulky to carry around - bigger than the breakout box on the Delta 44 - but it does also double as a 2 port USB hub, and the Digital I/O can be converted to act as MIDI I/O, which can be useful sometimes.

I've never actually tried to use this card to create surround sound with SCS - I've always worked in good old fashioned stereo, and it works fine for that - perhaps Mike can confirm whether the multiple outputs on this card are supprted?

I can't confirm if multiple outputs on the emagic are supported by SCS as I would need one to test it with. However, I would be surprised if SCS could not at least support directing sound to any output or output pair.

I use the Griffin iMic USB audio device as the line-out from my laptop at the theater. It works great. You can even use two of them, and run the line-outs to different amplifiers for, say, onstage vs. offstage effects. I think the iMics run about $40 or less, so they're easy to use and very inexpensive.