If you are not interested in the bundle then you might as well just go ahead and skip this section. But I’m telling you, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Anyway, the first program that we will talk about is the Sound Recorder. By using a microphone plugged into the sound card you can record your homemade voice or any other thing that makes noise. The nice feature about this is that after you record it, you can add effects in such as reverb and echo. You can also convert audio formats for example convert a .wave file into an MP-3 file. This is very helpful for someone who wants to convert music files to MP-3 for easy uploading to the web.

The next option in the control panel for the Sonic Vortex2 is the Multimedia Properties. In this program you can choose microphone’s volume and recording quality and format. Then we have the Graphic Equaliser from which you can finely tune volume for each frequency in a band. Then for downloading the latest drivers through VideoLogic’s control panel there is Sonic Max Web Download. Sonic Max Web Support give you the support’s email, fax, and phone numbers. After that there is the Volume Control where you can adjust the volume, like the program states. Last but certainly not least is the Sonic Max Properties. This program allows you to configure your speaker setup with the following settings: Quad, Monitor, Satellite, and Headphones. You can also lower the number of voices from 320 to 128 to 64 voices. This is good if you have a low-end computer or want to test CPU utilization for different number of voices. Besides this you can even change the sampling Rate for digital recording. Your options are with highest quality first and lowest last, 48khz, 44.1khz, and 32khz.

3D Sound Quality
To test the sound quality of the Sonic Vortex2 I did the following. I listened to the A3D Sound Demos that were provided, listened to half-life(while playing), and various games and CD’s. I chose half-life as an example for the A3D Extension Effects, as it uses A3D 2.0 better than any other game currently on the market. Before you email me telling me that I’m some kind of idiot, remember that everyone’s ears are different, so if all possible, always listen to a sound card before buying it. Now I know that we can’t all do that and that is what this are for. But I’m saying that if you get the chance to listen to a sound card and you think its good but someone wrote a bad review of it, go ahead and buy it. After all you are the one that is going to be listening to it, not the person that wrote the review. The sound card is one of the few things that you can do that for, so if at all possible take advantage of that. Anyway, back to the ice-cream lovin' review.

This sound card was also compatible with the DOS games that I through at it. Not that anyone plays DOS games anymore, but just in case you are that rare person that does, this card will work with most of your DOS games. The sound quality of the cd’s that I tested was on par with every other sound card.

When listening to sound in a game don’t forget how important the speakers are. Their impact on your sound system is just as big as the sound card's. What I’m saying is that if you have a good sound card and crappy speakers or vice versa then your sound system will just plain suck period. Its better to get an average of both then just have one good one and one bad one. This is my personal experience with what I just talked about so if you are not interested then just skip to the ratings. I went from some 16-bit ISA sound card with 2 small speakers to a SB Live!Value with those same speakers. I thought the difference in sound between those 2 sound cards was awesome! I had never heard anything so realistic in my life. It was the most realistic computer gaming experience that I had ever had. Then I decided I need some new speakers. The ones that I settled on were Altec Lansing’s ACS 45.1 3 piece surround system. Nothing great, but a lot better than my old ones. Once I hooked up those speakers, OH BABY! I then realized that the sound I had been hearing sucked. Despite the sound card’s great power, without good speakers, its true sound power was not displayed.

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