Everybody's got a plan

I have been having technological issues for a few months now. As a matter of fact, this has been going on since I upgraded to the desktop from the lap top, specifically for hardware and graphic performance. With all the bells and whistles, one thing that computer makers have been conveniently ignoring is sound over graphics.

It makes sense, when you get right down to it; after all, once that you've got 3D Surround, that shit is covered, right? Time to make the picture pop out! Fine if you play games (which I do,) but a bit of a hassle if you also play with sounds (which I also do.) There are features beyond "I can hear the world around me" that can be pretty important.

Like being able to record sounds that your computer generate without resorting to external cables.

I found that tech forums are useless on the subject, since that it does't feature into their numbers and performance fetish. I had to go to the source, that is, sound card makers to get the answer I needed. See, its a weird thing, but the on-board sound card on the laptop is capable of pulling that little trick off, but my performance-superior desktop isn't.

Thankfully, the folks over at Creative Labs quickly came to my assistance, not only telling me the name of that feature (What U Hear) on their tech software, but the list of products that carried that feature. A quick trip to Tiger Direct, and by the end of the week (UPS willing) I'll have that little snag fixed.

It sounds like a small thing; after all, I do own several computers, and I could well have the wires set up to do this. But it's wasteful, a pain in the ass, and is not only impeding my podcasting, it's preventing me from doing music. It's something of a pain if both your recording prog, sequence, synth and guitar amp are the same machine, but can't share the same card to blend it all together.

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a lame excuse to justify not doing something, but hey, one less excuse, is a win... right?