Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?

Subject: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 12:01 PM

At some time soon I'm going to have to upgrade my PC at home and say goodbye to my beloved old (pre PCI) AWE32 soundcard.

I've been looking around for a replacement and the two front runners are an Audigy 2 or Hercules Digifire 7.1.

The features that I mainly require are Digital (IR) in/out and a reasonable MIDI wavetable.

Has anyone got the Hercules or tried it ? - how does it rate ?

Subject: RE: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 12:36 AM

All I know is that tomshardware.com seems to think it's a hot item. It appears to be designed more for home cinema, though.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 07:08 PM

It might be worth noting that I ran into a rather unexpected glitch with my last new machine. Many of the newer sound cards are aimed at "home theater" use, and give you 5 to 7 speaker channels on the output panel for your "surround sound theater" - but omit the MIDI connector. There just isn't room on one slot plate for all the ins and outs. The machine came with a pretty good sound card, but with no way to connect my MIDI keyboard (that I use mostly for score input.)

Looking for fixes, I found it very difficult to find specific enough information about several of the "very best" sound cards to be able to tell whether they would solve my hookup problem. The info is there, but you have to know that you need to dig it out, and you may have to dig pretty deep.

Most cards that have this problem give you a "piggy back" connector - sometimes special order at extra cost, but that uses another card slot (wasting a slot, with nothing plugged into it) which wasn't satisfactory for my situation.

I went with the Creative Audigy2 external unit, just to get the connector(s). It was best suited to my "mechanical" setup. The specs are excellent; but since I'm not really into audio to any extent, I can't give you much in the way of comparative info.

It's very easy to find all the "new features," but disgustingly difficult to find out about it if they decided to leave out something you expect - like that MIDI connector.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 04 Dec 03 - 05:14 AM

The standard MIDI connector plugs into the "Games" (joystick) port on most soundcards (or on the modern on-board equivalents) which is a 15-pin "D" socket. The actual MIDI connections are on pins 12 (MIDI TRANSMIT) and 15 (MIDI RECEIVE), pins 4 or 5 will provide a ground.

All the very cheapest soundcards have this feature, although it may sometimes need to be enabled via the set-up program.

My main interest in the Digifire 7.1 is the provision of the digital in/out connectors, I'm unlikely to need the multi-speaker capacity. I would like to have a good (sampled) MIDI Wavetable, the one on my AWE32 is superb and allows editing and input of alternate samplings.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 02:06 AM

Dave -

I sort of thought it was standard too, but my new machine (admittedly a "business" configuration) didn't have either joystick or MIDI connectors - because they used all the available space on the slot plate for those #$@! super-speaker jacks. Maybe I'd have been better off with "one of the cheapest," but their sound card was part of the package, and it did have good specs - for the things they listed. Not a big deal, it was just one of life's little surprises.

They did give me extra USB ports, so I presume they expected I'd use one of the USB joysticks and/or USB mouse if I needed any such stuff. The joystick conn probably also went away to make room for something else that got added, although I can't say just what pushed it off the panel.

I've got way more connections than I'm likely ever to use with the Audigy2 external, and they're all right out front - if I could get enough loose papers cleaned up to find the unit again. (I'm pretty sure it's somewhere next to the external HD, a little to the left of the LAN bridge, and somewhere close to the USB switch. I can tell where all of it is from the multiple "accessory" transformers sticking up where they're plugged into the surge sticks.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 04:59 AM

As far as I can see, the Digifire has a second output socket strip to fix into an adjacent empty slot at the back - it definitely has a midi port.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 09:43 AM

The card my PC came with had a connector on the board, and a plate with a piggyback MIDI (and a couple of other) connectors was available as a special order item. My problem was not wanting to "waste" another card slot. There are very few cards that can be plugged in if the plate hole isn't available.

The internal Audity2 equivalent had plenty of connectors, but also required two slots. The external one uses only one slot, and has a couple of more choices for how you can plug in (the same connections, but front and back options on a couple).

I don't recall that I looked at the Digifire, but a couple of other mid- to top-line cards did have layouts similar to my OEM card (requiring two slots, for example) that were not described in the specs. Once I was aware that newer cards might need two slots, I was usually able to tell what a given setup had, or didn't, but only by carefuly examining the pictures, and in some cases user manuals posted at the manufacturer's web pages. The "specs" were on some seller's sites, but didn't necessarily show good enough pics to let you really know what you were about to buy.

If you have the extra slot available, virtually all that I looked at included, or had available, piggyback connectors on second plates,and all the "normal" connections if you used both plate positions. A few newer PCs that I've seen actually have plate holes that don't have an adjacent connector - maybe on purpose for just such needs, or maybe just because they got a deal on the box(?).

I'd like to be able to comment on how good the Digifire is, or how it compares to the Audity2; but frankly I don't do enough audio to offer anything very pertinent.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 09:59 AM

Most cases seem to have more slots than the motherboard has - so I usually find I can use one of them.

Subject: RE: Tech: Hercules Digifire 7.1 - any users ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 10:25 AM

That's what I get for buying from a "sophisticated" builder. Their boxes only have slots to match the boards. No spares on mine.

John