Is the Realtek HD Audio Manager a Sound Card

[walterjohn]

Is the Realtek HD Audio Manager a sound card

 

[Hawkeye22]

No, it's software that controls motherboards that have onboard realtek sound chips.

This is the audo manager:

This is the actual audio chip:

 

[jrazor247]

Is the Realtek HD Audio Manager a sound card

No, it is an audio codec. By default windows installs HD audio drivers for the Reatek chip. It is a small chip with DACs offering minimal features. Audio processing is done in software on the CPU by the driver. I only install the Realtek software when I want to reassign jacks. It senses what you plug in and configures the audio jack for output instead of input- so for instance you could plug in an extra pair of speaks to the microphone jack, or plug in the rear speakers to the side speaker jack and remap it so rear audio comes out, or use the front panel audio as a second sound card. Some motherboard manufacturers include Soundblaster XFi drivers for realtek codecs: "This audio driver together with Creative Utility enableds X-Fi crystallizer, X-Fi CMSS-3D,EAX®ADVANCED HD4.0" from the Gigabyte website for my motherboard EP45-DS3R. I've found my realtek 889 to be fine for movies with multichannel sound and games.

 

[walterjohn]

Hello,
Thank you so much for your reply. I use Sonar software by Cakewalk to create and record music.In order to convert midi to audio i have to configure the sound cards mixer window, which i don't have with this set up. I also have an M audio Fast Track pro. I use this to plug in microphones and instruments. Could you direct on where to go to find out how I can convert midi to audio.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I'm not an audio buff, but can't most media players play midi files? I have winamp installed on my computer and it can play midi files.

 

[gamerk316]

^^ I know winamp can, but midi support has dropped off a bit, and I don't think theres a way to configure midi settings within the OS outside the registry anymore...

Also, as an aside, when you play a midi in winamp, does it take a few seconds to actually start playing the file? Mine locks up for about 10 seconds or so...

 

[Hawkeye22]

Winamp plays midi just fine on my computer, then again, I'm using really old version as I don't care for the newer versions much. I'm using v2.80 from 2002, lol!