Big Bark, No Bite
Written: Mar 16 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good Sound, Decent Price, Great For Midi's
Cons: Shoddy Workmanship OR Bad Manual
The Bottom Line: MIDI Playback yes, recording or audio-chat, no.
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| moregon's Full Review: AOpen AW 744 Pro |
The AOPEN AW744 Pro 4-Channel board I picked up included a software bundle of programs including Music Center 32 (CD, Wav, Midi Player), AOPEN Music Recorder, MIDI Keyboard, XG-Studio, Y-Station, Soft Karaoke, and Free Talk.
I bought this card to replace an old Turtle Beach ISA card during a recent upgrade. To be truthfully honest, it stayed in my system a total of 3 days when I replaced it with the old ISA card, until I was able to grab a Sound Blaster Live Value card. When I first installed it and it's software, I re-booted the computer and no sound. The first thing I checked was the audio mixer software to make sure all the volume levels were up, then checked to make sure nothing was muted. Still no luck, no sound from the speakers, which are amplified so do not depend on too much amplification from the sound card itself. I then checked, and double checked all my connections, according to the manual and everything checked out fine. I then attempted to record sound, using my microphone and Windows Sound Recorder, and did not see any change in the audio level when set to record, in other words, nothing I was saying into the microphone was reaching the program. Out of curiosity, I unplugged the microphone cable, and speaker cables, the moved the speaker cable from where the manual said it was suppose to plug in, into what the manual said was the microphone input. Guess what, I GOT SOUND! I then moved the microphone into the hole for the speakers, and I was able to record. Since the inputs are color co-ordinated, I'm not sure if someone wired the wrong colored inputs to the wrong part of the sound card, or if the manual was just printed wrong. I was able to figure it out, but, I feel sorry for someone who is doing this on their own, don't get any sound, maybe panic and take it to a computer tech, and pay $50 for them to figure out. What should have been a simple matter of plugging in card, plugging in cables became totally confusing.
When I finally got things wired up correctly I was impressed by the quality of the sound it produced. The board, based on a Yamaha Synthesizer Chip probably produces about the best MIDI playback you will find. I've been impressed by what Yamaha has done with computer generated music especially in the XG format for some time. The playback of wav files was of good quality as well. All in all the fullness and richness of the sound was a vast improvement over the old Turtle Beach ISA card I had. So, why did I pull it and replace it?
In addition to listening to music, I also rely on my sound card to support an Audio Chat program called Paltalk. I could NOT get this card to work correctly with this program. I could hear fine, but when I tried to talk, even with all volume levels turned to the highest setting, everyone else had to strain to hear what I was saying. I found the same to be true when I was using the Windows Sound Recorder, I couldn't get much volume out of the microphone, but did fine recording and on Paltalk with the ISA card.
Shortly after this I found a Sound Blaster Live Value on eBAY for sale for about $8 more than I had paid for the AOPEN card, and purchased that. I've been far happier with the Live card, all the way around then I was with the AOPEN card so would recommend that first. If you are mainly interested in playback, especially MIDI type files, the AOPEN card does shine in that field. It's your choice.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 40
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Epinions.com ID:
moregon
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Location: South Beloit, IL USA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Eternally Inquisitive, I like to know what makes things tick.
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