Motherboard / Sound Card Issues

[Jotaru]

Cross referencing from my LS forums to hopefully get some more informations. Thanks in advance for any help provided:

So, been having these issues since I built this PC in November, and it was annoying before, but then kinda forgot about it.. now its starting to annoy me again, so I'ma try and rectify the situation.

Long story short, I have no sound card, but have onboard sound with my mobo.. Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, uses RealTek HD Audio drivers...

Anyhow, the most annoying thing is there's like five places to adjust sound settings, and if you have one thing set in one place and something else set somewhere different, it doesn't work. For example, it took me three months to figure out why I couldn't talk on Vent or anything; I had my mic enabled everywhere but one hidden obscure location ~_~ Anyhow...

The problem I'm having now is that I want to be able to mix audio, namely to play WAV files (or whatever) over Ventrilo- normally you'd go to setup, set a mixer, a mux, and a line - set volume, and boom, you're set. Worked like a charm on last PC. On this one, I can't do it- I have four options in the mixer column (Realtek HD Audio Input, Realtek HD Digital Input, Realtek HDA(sic) Primary Input, and Realtek HD Audio 2nd Input). Only the HDA Primary Input even gives me a Line option; the rest have no options at all in the drop downs. However, the only option is CD Volume, not Line In, Stereo, any of that jazz. So, I cant mix, I can't do it.

I've googled around, checked forums (Both realtek and gigabyte) and random troubleshooting forums and I constantly see this question asked, but not answered... was hoping someone could help me solve this issue, or recommend something else.. like I was considering buying a sound card to get rid of this realtek stuff (Hate having to change settings in fifteen places)... what are some good cards, if this issue can't be solved?

Blahhhh. Part of the problem is I start trying to 'solve' this, and I turn on 'Stereo' mixing, where it just plays everything I'm hearing back through my input, but blares it so loud you can't hear anything - in my regular sound options I can turn down my mic line-in, but nothing else; so I can't adjust Stereo Mix to make it at least semi-usable.

Halp? Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

[Cephius]

If you're serious about mixing, which it seems that you are, you should really buy a sound card. Onboard sound isn't known for being great at all, so you should really go out and get something. Creative cards aren't bad, something in the fatality series or x-fi prelude would be ok. Someone who's more into sound cards could give you a better recommendation though.

[Octavious]

As mentioned above, if you're looking at mixing sounds (playing music or other audio over vent) you'll most likely need a Sound Card. I know for a fact that once I got my SOUNDBLASTER Xpress Port Card for my laptop (or whatever its called, stupid express card slot that took them 3 yrs to make a sound card ... ) to do it on Ventrilo. In summary, look into a cheap sound card would be my best suggestion, sound blaster makes $39.99 $49.99 sound cards that wouldgive you the ability to mix once you've installed and set them up.

(Make sure it will be compatible with your system as well, IE: don't buy non-vista cards if you run vistap etc)

[Shuemue]

(Make sure it will be compatible with your system as well, IE: don't buy non-vista cards if you run xp etc)

eh?

[Octavious]

eh?

Sorry lol, it seems I got ahead of my hands when i was typing. I meant don't buy a card thats not compatible with Vista if you run Vista etc. I had trouble with my old card being compatible with Vista, but it works fine in an XP box. I think SoundBlaster has a new X-Fi Card or they've updated their drivers for Vista, but my older card is still broken.

[GSDragoon]

Just don't get the Audigy SE/value or X-FI Extreme Audio cards. They are basicly the Live! 24 bit cards that do ALL the work using your CPU. They just give you the features and the card laughs at your processor...