Installation
Before you can hear the great sound that the Sonic Vortex2 has to offer, you must first install the sound card. Installation shouldn’t be complicated no matter what you product you are installing. Unfortunately that is not always the case. Ok I will stop rambling and get on with the review. Installation was a snap as the card fit snugly in its PCI Slot, which sometimes is a problem. I booted the computer up and installed the drivers and included software without a hitch. Sound Card’s are normally one of the easiest components to install and the Sonic Vortex2 didn’t defy that trend. VideoLogic has started this card off on the right foot. But, of course there are many more important things, like, just maybe, sound quality. BTW, I was being sarcastic, no really I was. It might just be me but I value Sound Quality and Effects over easy installation any day.

Bundle
One of the most important things of a Sound Card is its bundle. Also known as the software it comes with, and the programs that allow for configuration. By that I mean how much and what it can do with music, and how well it can adjust to your speaker setup. The Sonic Vortex2 comes with the following software bundle. Full versions of Future Beat 3D for 3D music creation and the Jet-Audio multimedia suite (with amazing MP3 playback capabilities). It also comes with the Yamaha XG software synthesizer, as well as trial MIDI applications and shareware for copying and compressing LP and CD tracks. Future Beat 3D can play back pre-recorded songs, along with allowing you to create your own through the provided tools. The Jet-Audio Multimedia can play almost any music format, along with having some special features. This is definitely for you if you are caught up in the later MP3 craze. With the Jet-Audio Multimedia program you can compress and decompress MP3s. This if the first and only sound card that I know of to come with software capable of that. Apparently VideoLogic has done their homework, and hopefully in the future other manufacturers will follow their lead. In the following paragraph I will talk about what each part of the software bundle does.

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