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On
this page we have provided information to help you choose the right
Audio and ISDN cards to use with Communictor - or check if
your existing hardware will work ok... most of it will!
You'll
also find here lists of both Audio and ISDN cards that we have tested
with Communicator and our comments.
We
are able to offer for sale a selection of both Audio and ISDN cards
- for these cards, a link to the product summary is shown in each
table. These can be ordered direct from this site and prices are
shown in the pricing section.
| Any
comments we make about specific products are drawn from our
experience and testing only. We do not make, and you should
not draw, any specific judgements (good or bad) or guarantees
about a product's quality or functionality other than from empirical
data gathered during our testing. |
Audio
Cards
Communicator
will work with almost any Windows compatible sound card that you
have installed in your machine. However, some cards will limit the
functionality of the program as follows:
- The
card must support full-duplex audio - i.e. be able to play and
record at the same time... most audio cards do this and you only
need to check this for really old models. Check that the card
operates at a decent sample rate - 44.1kHz is ok... 48kHz is ideal.
- The
card should be capable of decent quality recording and playback
- obviously if you hear a hiss or crackle when you record and
or playback audio, or if the sound quality of the card is poor,
then this will be reflected in Communicator's performance using
that card.
- Firewire,
USB, PCMCIA, PCI and ISA cards are all fine as long as they meet
these basic criterion above.
- We
have observed that using certain USB cards and only on some machines,
you need to fully boot the PC before plugging in the USB card
- this is generally true for the card, rather than being a specific
Communicator issue.
Tested Audio
cards:
(Additional product data is provided on the
cards that we are able to supply direct (top of list) - click the
card name for more. An explanation of our ratings and comments is
provided following the table.)
| Audio
Card |
Type |
Audio
Quality |
Recommended/
Comments |
Available
from us? |
| Marc
2 |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/BEST
choice for studio quality applications, voice-over etc. Digital
i/o. All Windows versions. |
Yes |
| Echo
Mia |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes,
Balanced i/o. Great choice for any studio quality
application. Digital i/o. All Windows versions. |
Yes |
| USB
One |
USB |
Very
Good
Mic
& Line input |
Yes/Good
option for a laptop if you have a USB facility.
All Windows versions. |
Yes |
| USB
Pre |
USB |
Excellent
Mic
& Line input |
Yes/Superb
audio quality USB sound card which incorporates two studio quality
mic pre-amps with phantom power, a headphone amp and mixer and
level meters. Suitable for professional broadcast use.
All Windows versions. |
No |
| Most reasonably
modern soundcards built into laptops or motherboards |
Built-in |
Varies
from
Average
to Acceptable
|
Generally
these work OK and are suitable for reporter level use but these
do not offer the same professional quality as one of our recommended
cards listed above. |
No |
| Digigram
VX Pocket |
PCMCIA |
Excellent |
No/High-quality
PCMCIA card. Balanced i/o. SPDIF digital i/o. Picky about driver
versions. |
|
| Digigram
VX222 |
PCI |
Excellent |
No/PCI
card with balanced i/o and digital i/o on SPDIF or AES. Picky
about driver versions. |
|
|
Digigram (other) |
|
|
No/All
VX-range cards are compatible... picky about driver versions.
PCX cards are NOT compatible with AudioTX products. |
|
| Echo
Darla & Gina |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/As
Echo Mia above. Multiple outputs (8). Gina has digital i/o.
Balanced i/o. |
No |
| M-Audio
range |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/All
excellent quality cards available in a number of combinations,
balanced and unbalanced audio with and without Mic preamps. |
|
MOTU cards
808, 2408, HD range, 24I/O |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/All
excellent quality cards available in a number of combinations,
balanced and unbalanced audio with and without Mic preamps. |
|
SoundBlaster
Live! range, Audigy ranges
(1024, value, player etc) |
PCI |
Good |
Yes/The
best of all the low cost cards - good audio quality and fine
for newsgathering level broadcast applications but not really
up to studio grade applications. |
No |
| SoundBlaster
Live 5.1 range (5.1, Platinum 5.1 etc) |
PCI |
Good |
Yes/The
best of all the low cost cards - good audio quality and fine
for newsgathering level broadcast applications but not really
up to studio grade applications. |
No |
SoundBlaster
PCI 128 |
PCI |
Acceptable |
Good
enough for reporter level use. Cannot properly mute audio input
on audio output... so not suitable for studio applications where
a clean feed is required. |
No |
| SoundBlaster
AWE32/64 |
PCI |
- |
No/Drops
to 8 bit operation in duplex mode. 44.1kHz max sample rate -
NOT SUITABLE. |
- |
| SoundBlaster
16 |
ISA |
- |
No/No
full-duplex mode - NOT SUITABLE. |
- |
|
Audio
quality
|
Ratings
|
|
|
Excellent
|
-
Mastering quality... as good as they come |
|
|
Very
Good
|
-
Broadcast (studio) quality |
|
|
Good
|
-
near studio quality |
|
|
Acceptable
|
-
semi-professional card but not studio quality - fine for reporting |
|
|
Average
|
-
useable for reporting... not brilliant though |
|
|
Poor
|
-
Sounds like a cheap PC soundcard. |
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ISDN Cards
Communicator
requires an ISDN card which fully meets the CAPI 2.0 specification.
Unfortunately, our testing reveals that not all cards which claim
to meet this specification actually do. The following is a list
of cards that we have tested and know to work without any problems.
If you discover other widely available cards that work reliably,
we'd love to hear from you!
In
choosing an ISDN card for use in your own country, you should check
what 'switch protocol' your ISDN line provider uses. Here are a
list with current country indications:
It's
easier than it looks - basically, European countries mainly use
DSS1 as do most of Asia, Middle East, South America, Australia.
In the USA, NI-1 or 5ESS are most often found. The others in the
list are rarely used but included for completeness.
- DSS1
Euro-ISDN (Europe, Asia, S. America, Middle East, Australia OnRamp)
- NI-1
(North America National ISDN1)
- 5ESS
(North America AT&T)
- 1TR6
(Germany, where not DSS1 - only really some older PBX's)
- INS
Net 64 (Japan)
- VN3
(France, which is mostly DSS1)
- CTI
(Belgium, which is mostly DSS1)
- TPH
1962 (Australia MicroLink)
Tested ISDN
cards:
(Additional
product data is provided on the cards that we are able to supply
direct - click the card name for more.)
NOTE: We STRONGLY recommend that you order your
ISDN card from us (at the same time as you purchase the AudioTX
Communicator software) as our stock is guaranteed to be the correct
(and compatible) versions of the cards!
Note
for users in US/Canada: All
of the above cards have a standard S/T ISDN interface and so will
require an external NT1 device to function in the US/Canada. These
are easy and cheap to obtain - the best starting point is to ask
the provider of your ISDN line if they can sell/give you an NT1.
| ISDN
Card |
Type |
Recommended/Comments
& switch protocols |
Available
from us? |
| AVM
Fritz PCI |
PCI |
Yes.
BEST choice - our best selling card for Desktop PCs with a PCI
slot available.
Windows 7, 8, 10, Vista: Euro-ISDN (DSS1) only.
Other Windows versions: Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS. |
Yes |
| AVM
Fritz USB |
USB |
No.
We recommend that most users go for the PCI or PCMCIA version
of this card. |
No
|
| AVM
Fritz PCMCIA |
PCMCIA |
Yes.
The standard recommended card for laptops that still have
a PCMCIA slot.
Windows 7, 8, 10, Vista: Euro-ISDN (DSS1) only.
Other Windows versions: Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS. |
Yes |
| AVM
A1, A1 PCMCIA, B1, B1 PCMCIA |
PCI/
PCMCIA |
Yes.
All other AVM cards also compatible but more expensive
Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, 1TR6 |
No |
| Eicon
Diva PCI |
PCI |
Yes
All current Windows versions:
Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, INS-Net 64, TPH
1962 |
Yes
|
| Eicon
Diva USB |
USB |
Yes.
BEST option if you have to have a USB device - e.g. you have
no free PCI slots on a desktop, or a Laptop without PCMCIA slot.
All current Windows versions: Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, INS-Net 64, TPH 1962 |
Yes |
| Eicon
Diva Pro PCMCIa/Diva PC card |
PCMCIA |
Yes.
More expensive than AVM Fritz PCMCIA option, but still an excellent
choice.
All current Windows versions: Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, INS-Net 64, TPH 1962 |
No |
| Eicon
Diva Pro PCI |
PCI |
Yes.
Expensive but works fine.
All current Windows versions: Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, INS-Net 64, TPH 1962 |
No |
** Please note that our guidance on compatibility/available protocols, driver support etc (and our support on such matters) applies ONLY to cards purchased directly from us. We cannot offer guidance or help with cards that you source independently elsewhere.
Network Hardware:
Private &
local area networks, ATM, leased lines etc:
There are no
specific recommendations on choosing your
network hardware. This is because communicator simply uses the networking
system on your PC. Any Ethernet, Fast Ethernet or larger scale networking
hardware are all fine as long as they are a part of the standard
Windows networking or office/broadcast network installed on your
PC.
Communicator
simply attempts to make a network connection via TCP (the standard
IP protocol) to the computer you specify. You can enter this as
an IP address directly, or if you specify a name, the program will
use the DNS setup on your own PC or network to attempt to resolve
the name.
Internet
and public networks:
Communicator
uses a simple IP connection as above to establish contact with the
remote PC - so for most ADSL, DSL or Cable Modem connections running
on your PC, all you need to do is supply an IP address to connect
to. If you use a proxy server, router or firewall on your network,
you may have to configure this device to work with Communicator.
There's more on this in the User Manual which is built into the
Communicator software - under the Help menu.
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