Audiophile delta 2496...need help &am...

If you want to earn your place in the Musical Walhalla, this is your chance! Please grab yourself a seat and a very large cold drink before you continue reading, as it may take a while…

Let me first tell you a little about what I do from a musical point of view:

- I record music or jam along using N-Track Studio, for which I only use WAV files
- I follow online lessons, for which I need to play along with WAV and MIDI files
- I practice my speed and accuracy, for which I need to play along with MIDI files
- I use a program for chord an scale reference, which only uses MIDI files

I should also mention that I practice a lot in the evening, when my children are asleep, so I frequently make use of headphones.

Now, this all worked fine with my SoundBlaster PCI128 soundcard , which I recently replaced with an Audiophile 2496 soundcard. I decided to go for the ‘2496’ for a couple of reasons: 1) achieving a better overall recording sound quality, 2) controlling my guitar effects processor through MIDI.

However, what was intended to be an upgrade turns out to be a very confusing little nightmare. Before I start to describe the problems that I now deal with, I assume that I should give you some more details about my setup:

Hardware:
Ibanez EDR470 EX
Boss GT-6 guitar effects processor
Roland E14 keyboard
Compaq Deskpro 4000 (Win 98 SE)
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
WaveMaster 240 Active Speakers

Other available hardware (currently not in use):
ES 1868 on-board soundcard (disabled in the Windows Device Manager)
SoundBlaster PCI 128 soundcard (which I used before installing the Audiophile 2496)

Connections
S/PDIF Out (Boss GT-6) » S/PDIF In (Audiophile 2496)
MIDI In/Out (Boss GT-6) » MIDI In/Out (Audiophile 2496)
Analog Outs (Roland E14) » Analog Ins (Audiophile 2496)
Analog Outs (Audiophile 2496) » Active Speakers

Software
N-Track Studio v3.3
(for recording; I only use WAV files)
Guitar Speed Trainer
(need I say more…, only MIDI files, I need to be able to play along)
Exploring Guitar
(Chords & Scales, only MIDI files, I need to be able to play along)
Riff Interactive
(Online guitar lessons, WAV and MIDI files, I need to be able to play along)
GT- Manager
(full patch librarian and editor for GT-6)

Basically, the only thing that still works fine, after replacing the SoundBlaster PCI128 with the Audiophile 2496, is recording and jamming along with the N-Track Studio software, provided that I synchronize the Master Clock with the S/PDIF in the M-Audio Delta Control Panel.

Here’s what doesn’t work:

- I can’t play along with WAV and MIDI files in the Riff Interactive online lessons anymore. There’s no sound at all from the MIDI files, and I can only play the WAV files when I synchronize the Master Clock with the ‘Internal Extal’ setting in the M-Audio Delta Control Panel (which automatically mutes the S/PDIF signal coming from the GT-6). Setting the Master Clock to ‘S/PDIF In’ generates a ‘Multimedia Error’ message (MMSYSTEM32) when I try to play a WAV file in this program.

- I can’t play along with the MIDI files in the Guitar Speed Trainer software anymore. There’s no sound at all from the MIDI files, and I assume that I would encounter the same Master Clock problem when trying to play along.

- There’s no sound at all from when using the Exploring Guitar software (also MIDI).

- And, on top of that all, … there’s no way to connect my headphones??

Now, I could ask a million detailed questions about every single aspect, but I’m pretty sure that the problem is clear and I hope that you guys can come up with some neat advice on how to get this all working again.

I guess that the main question is if it is possible to combine the Audiophile 2496 with one of the other available soundcards (on-board ES1868 or SoundBlaster PCI128). This would enable me to play along through the S/PDIF on the Audiophile 2496 with WAV or MIDI files generated through another soundcard. Or is that simply not possible? What alternatives do I have?

1000 thanks in advance.

Audiophile delta 2496...need help & advice