Delta 1010LT Complete Newbie asking a LOT of questions.

[ArjenFortuin]

Hey guys!

I just got the sound card today. I installed the soundcard asthe manual guided me. It... IS... working, I guess. Just 3 problems, and a few questions.

Alright.. here we go. Problem one:
The OUTs are mono, I guess? While my surround system is half minijacket and half TULP. I guess I am forced to buy cables that split the stereo 3.5mm jackets into 2 mono's in order to get them to work?

Problem two:
I now have 2 side speakers (speakers I scavenged from an old stereo CD player/radio/tape recorder) with TULP plugs. I plugged them into OUT 1 and 2, and now serve as the left and right front speakers. Though since they aren't plugged into my surround box anymore, they don't get external power supply, so the sound is REALLY weak. What can I do about this? Just get stereo 3.5mm jack to 2 mono TULPS and then plug them in? That will result in: 2 Speakers with TULP's -> the power supply divider of my surround box which gives a 3.5mm stereo jack out -> split that one into TULP's again -> plug into soundcard.
The best solution is probably to buy a good studio monitor, but too bad I don't have money for that.

Problem three:
The M-Audio Delta 1010LT only has TULP IN/OUT's, while my guitar cable is a standard jacket cable, 6.35mm. Do I have to buy a cable that converts 6.35mm to TULP aswell?

Some additional questions from a not-so-umnipotent (meaning all-knowing) singer/songwriter:
-Will I be able to have 7.1 surround sound? Not as in, having my front, side, center/bass and rear speakers all playing the same stereo sound. I mean as in real surround sound usable in games and movies. So I'll be hearing the difference wether I was shot from the rear left or right in front of me while playing a shooter game.
-Will the 7.1 surround sound have bass management? I don't see anything that comes close to it. I wish the 1010LT had some consumer things aswell like my onboard SB600 soundcontroller has, with Realtek drivers. The control panel makes me able to fully tweak every single 7.1 surround speaker set component. Is this possible on the 1010LT? Or am I gonna be switching my cables between my motherboard's soundcard and the 1010LT?

Thanks in advance.

Greets, Arjen.
www.youtube.com/arjenfortuin

Edit: Corrected some measurements and cable/plug names, and made my problems easier to visualize/understand.

[Paul]

Problem one:
The OUTs are mono, I guess? While my surround system is half minijacket and half TULIP (mono). I guess I am forced to buy cables that split the stereo minijackets into 2 mono's in order to get them to work?

Yes, the outputs are mono and you will need the appropriate cable to connect to a stereo 3.5mm trs jack.

Problem two:
I now have 2 side speakers (speakers I scavenged from an old stereo CD player/radio/tape recorder) with TULIP plugs. (I'm not entirely sure if this is an international recognized name for this kind of plug, but let's continue) I plugged them into OUT 1 and 2, and now serve as the left and right front speakers. Though now they aren't plugged into my surround set box anymore, they don't get external power supply, so the sound is REALLY weak. What can I do about this? Just get those stereo minijack splitters and then plug them in? (Meaning they will get external power supply since they will be plugged into the surround set box first by mono TULIP's and then put together merging to a stereo minijacket) Or are there other ways to supply my speakers?
Probably the best solution is to buy studio monitors, but dang I spent all my money on that soundcard. :(

It sounds like these are passive speakers, which means they NEED to be connected to an amplifier of some kind. You will not get enough power from the Delta 1010LT alone.

Problem 3:
The M-Audio Delta 1010LT only has, by guess (I forgot the precise measurements) 3.1mm cables, while my guitar cable is a standard jacket cable, 5.0mm if I recall the measurements right. Am I going to have to buy a cable that converts 5.0mm(?) to 3.1mm(?) aswell? I am now using a stereo minijacket, male on both sides, with a 3.1->5.0mm plug on the guitar's side, with the side of the stereo minijacket in the IN 3.

The 1010LT only has RCA or XLR inputs. What are these 3.1mm inputs you are referring to?

-Will I be able to have 7.1 surround sound? Not as in, having my front, side, center/bass and rear speakers all playing the same stereo sound. I mean as in real surround sound usable in games and movies. So I'll be hearing the difference wether I was shot from the rear left or right in front of me while playing a shooter game.
-Will the 7.1 surround sound have bass management? I don't see anything that comes close to it.

You can achieve a 7.1 output. No it will not have any bass management features. You will need to use softwware for that.

[ArjenFortuin]

The 3.1mm ones i was referring to are the same as many people refer to as minijacks. As I said I'm not quite sure if thats the real measurement of those plugs in millimeters. They're just standard speaker plugs, 2 channeled, which you encounter in nearly every stereo speaker set for a desktop.
The 1010LT only has RCA or XLR inputs, you say. Are RCA's the same as line ins? Or those TULP or TULIPs I'm referring to?

And how am I going to achieve 7.1 surround? I haven't seen any options that make me able to choose what speaker is in what direction of me. So how will a game or movie player know what speaker is where?

And one more; those speakers are indeed passive. I guess I will have to buy a studio monitor? I think I can find loads of those on a secondhand occasion website. Are all monitors active? I don't want to end up having another passive set lol.

Thanks for the help Paul =).

[Paul]

The 3.1mm ones i was referring to are the same as many people refer to as minijacks. As I said I'm not quite sure if thats the real measurement of those plugs in millimeters. They're just standard speaker plugs, 2 channeled, which you encounter in nearly every stereo speaker set for a desktop.
The 1010LT only has RCA or XLR inputs, you say. Are RCA's the same as line ins? Or those TULP or TULIPs I'm referring to?

The RCA inputs are line in and I'm assuming they are the TULIP connections that you are referring to. These are the red and white jacks that are commonly found on audio equipment.


And how am I going to achieve 7.1 surround? I haven't seen any options that make me able to choose what speaker is in what direction of me. So how will a game or movie player know what speaker is where?

This would be configured in the Media player software.


And one more; those speakers are indeed passive. I guess I will have to buy a studio monitor? I think I can find loads of those on a secondhand occasion website. Are all monitors active? I don't want to end up having another passive set lol.

Just make sure that the speakers are labled as active or powered.

[ArjenFortuin]

You can achieve a 7.1 output. No it will not have any bass management features. You will need to use software for that.

And here I quote the advert of the M-Audio Delta 1010LT: "The Delta 1010LT delivers much of the same universal connectivity, high fidelity ... Directly drive up to 7.1 surround (bass management software included) "

Where's the software? And if it actually isn't included, no problem, but can you recommend any 3d party 7.1 / bass management software?

Edit: I have edited the first post, making it a little easier to understand.

[thomasabarnes]

And how am I going to achieve 7.1 surround? I haven't seen any options that make me able to choose what speaker is in what direction of me. So how will a game or movie player know what speaker is where?



Listed below are the surround speaker channels and the corresponding Delta 1010LT analog outputs (rca cables that are black) using 5.10.0.5069v3 driver and selecting Multichannel as the playback device in Windows Vista Audio control panel.

Analog Speaker outputs:
front left=out 1
front right=out 2
center=out 3
lfe=out 4
rear left=out 5
rear right=out 6
left surround=out 7
right surround=out 8

Hope this helps.

[Paul]

And here I quote the advert of the M-Audio Delta 1010LT: "The Delta 1010LT delivers much of the same universal connectivity, high fidelity ... Directly drive up to 7.1 surround (bass management software included) "


Bass Management is still supported and included with the XP driver, but due to changes made in the Vista audio engine this feature was not carried over into the Vista driver.