I'm inexperienced with home recording and production so I rarely use the Audio Creation Mode. The stripped down versions of Cubuse, Amplitude and Wavelab that Creative bundles with the X-Fi are incredibly powerful, but to the complete novice, diving into them without a manual is difficult. Help files are included in the programs and seem comprehensive and useful at first glance, but I would have preferred a small printed manual at least.

Other than the quick install guide, which was helpful in getting the sound card and breakout box set up, there was no manual and the help file on the driver CD was lacking. Creative should consider including a cheat sheet that highlights the main features of each audio mode.

Plugging in my guitar was a snap. It worked right away along with the Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal I hooked up. Recording is accomplished by clicking the record button, but I never could figure out how to include sound effects like chorus or delay. I also had trouble figuring out how to increase the volume, which was very low. I increased the sound via the taskbar applet and also turned up the speaker volume. While the guitar was loud, the sound remained distant and muffled.

This is the mode that the Breakout box was really made for. The back side has connections for MIDI-in, Mic-in, optical-in/out and coaxial-in/out. The front of the box is where the primary line-in is for instruments, as well as control knobs for volume, 3DMIDI, EAX, CMSS-3D and the Crystallizer and level controls for Line-in 2 and 3.

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