The Audigy Drive
The Audigy Drive is a direct offspring of the Live!Drive IR and the Firewire Live!Drive sold only in Japan because of the popularity of digital video cameras there. There are now two versions of the Audigy Drive - a white-colored internal version bundled with the Platinum and a black external version included with the Platinum eX.
The internal Audigy
Drive bundled with the Platinum.
(It looks suspiciously like the Live!Drive IR doesn't it?)
You will find these connectors on both the internal and external Audigy Drives:
- coaxial input & output
- optical input & output
- RCA input
- shared Line In 2/Mic In 2 phono jack with microphone gain control
- headphone output with volume control
- MIDI input & output
- IR receiver
- SB1394 connector
Like the Live!Drive II and Live!Drive IR, the Audigy Drives use a Mini-DIN connector due to space constraints and therefore need adapter cables to work with the common DIN-sized MIDI cables. (Only the first Live!Drive came with full-sized DIN connectors.) Fortunately, Creative always provide these cables whenever an Audigy Drive is in the package.
The Audigy Drive also adds a SB1394 port to the right of the MIDI connectors, making it easy to connect a Firewire device that need not be permanently hooked up to the PC, for instance, a DV video camera.
Besides the SB1394 connector, the other connectors are also carried over from the Live!Drive IR but they are now gold-plated. The connectors and knobs are located in the same position as the Live!Drives and work the same way, but some of the label markings on the Audigy Drives are changed.
Like the Live!Drive, using the headphone jack will mute the speakers. (If yours does not, you probably are using the very first version of the Audigy drivers included in retail packages. Download the latest driver update for this functionality.) The digital inputs and outputs will support the 24-bit 96 kHz functionality of the Audigy.
AudioHQ lets you configure how the Audigy reacts when the heapdhone jack is used
Due to the differences between dynamic and condenser microphones, a jumper on the internal Audigy Drive allows you to switch between the two. Its a little troublesome if you often switch between the two. Creative does it better with the external Audigy Drive by making it detect and work with both types of microphones without any configuration.
The IR receiver on the Audigy Drive works in tandem with the provided remote control. The remote control is rated to work within a 4 metre range. It also has one of those directional arrow controllers like DVD players. The most often-used buttons would probably be the volume and mute controls.
The included RemoteCenter software provides on-screen display (OSD) and integrated playback of various media types, like CD audio discs, Video CDs and other popular formats. It also works with PlayCenter.
The software it works with is Creative-specific, but you can use some of the third party editors created for the Live!Drive IR to edit the key maps to work with other software like Winamp.
The remote control is same as the one in the Live! 5.1 Platinum, just that it is black for the Platinum eX. The IR codes are the same as well so if you have a Live! 5.1 Platinum, you can use that remote.
The same Audigy Drives will be made available worldwide, and you can choose between the internal Platinum version or the external Platinum eX version depending on one or more of the following factors:
- External Audigy Drive: Requires that you sacrifice a PCI/ISA expansion slot space on your motherboard for the Audigy Extension Card. You will also need a place for the external Audigy Drive where the dangling cables will not interfere or mess up your work place.
- Internal Audigy Drive: You will need an extra 5.25" drive bay in your PC casing for the internal Audigy Drive but no additional slot space is required.
Audigy Drives and Live!Drives
Fortunately, Creative did not use the cost-saving strategy in the 2nd generaion Live! where there was two different Live!Drives - a stripped down Live!Drive that did not have optical and RCA inputs, and a Live!Drive II that had the additional optical and RCA connectors. To make things worse, the Live!Drive II was only available in some parts of the world, while the rest who wanted optical connectors had to look elsewhere. Creative did try to alleviate the situation later on by offering a trade-in program, but the boxes were already on retail shelves - something not easy to fix when such a marketing decision is made.
Creative did not use this strategy for the Live!Drive IR introduced together with the Live! 5.1 cards, and fortunately not with the Audigy Drives. The Live!Drive IR had optical and RCA connectors, and also added an IR receiver for the remote control capability. This was available in all Live! 5.1 Platinum products worldwide.
The AUD_EXT connector on the Audigy is pin-compatible with the Live! cards, so existing Live!Drive owners can purchase an Audigy card and connect it to the Live!Drive without any modification. You can avoid paying more for the Platinum versions (unless the SB1394 connector on the drive is absolutely needed). The official word from Creative is that they do not support this configuration. Oh well, less tech support headaches for them I guess.
The Live!Drives have a header that connects to another digital I/O card for more digital output connectors. For some reason, Creative removed the cascading connector on the internal Audigy Drive.
Like the Live!Drives, the Audigy Drives are great for those who need more connections, especially digital ones for audio editing and also recording to digital devices like MiniDisc recorders.
With the external version available, users who do not have large casings will still be able to get this functionality. You can also purchase one of the budget Audigy packages and upgrade to the Audigy Drive in future by purchasing it direct from Creative.
|
Back To Top 
Remote Control