The standard software of the sb live has no compressors or limiters, so yes you need other software to achieve this.
I would not do this in realtime anyway unless you use hardware.
So just record the track on max volume before clipping and later do the final mix.
The creative software is not suitable for this by the way.
Your best bet is professional wave recording /editing software.
As the sb live is a consumer/game card it is no professional audio card.
The input's are pretty noisy so this is another good reason to get yourselve good wave/editing software.
Best value for money and everything you need, plus ton's of extra's I would recommand
Cooledit pro.
It will f.i. allow 64 mono tracks in real time, if your pc can handle it.
You can de-noise each track.
It has lot's of pre-sets with dsp's/compressors/limiters etc...and you can built and save your own.
64 band equalizer etc...
while other software developers were trying to achieve only a fraction (soundforge f.i.) Cooledit is on the market since years!
The latest version is version 2.x which says a lot how good the software is in fact.
(other simular software is on version 10+)
oeps..
http://www.syntrillium.com/ take care,
Fred
[This message has been edited by freddynl (edited 08-28-2002).]