I am considering adding a SoundBlaster card to my computer. How do I know if Slackware 14.2 recognizes it, and do I need to add special drivers for it (No, I haven't installed it just yet)?

Which specific model? See if your card is listed here.
https://alsa-project.org/wiki/Matrix...-Creative_Labs

It worked fine last time I used a Sound Blaster card 5 or 6 years ago. The card in question was an old SB Live with the emu10k1 chip.

I'm currently getting by with a Soundblaster Zx I inherited from my Son until I can get a proper audiophile card or external DAC. Creative leans toward gaming pretty heavily which commonly means substantial Bass Boost. Since my sound system is over 1000 Watts Tri Amped I have no need of a non-flat card, but it does work just fine with a bit of EQ. However it did require a newer kernel as only recently has that Zx family been supported in Linux.

My SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 has worked for as long as I've used Linux (2000 to present), and works *best* in Slackware 14.1...because 14.1 still uses ALSA. In 14.2, the sound works, but that's all I can say about it, as that Pulseaudio garbage took over and isn't even close to kissing the dirty feet of ALSA in producing as good a musical experience.

I consider myself a halfway decent audiophile and even to my (now) older and snow-noised ears, I can still hear the huge difference between 14.2 using Pulseaudio with my flac files and 14.1 using ALSA with the same files - ALSA simply kicks Pulseaudio's butt...with steel-toed logging boots. ALSA has a far, far better mixer too than Pulseaudio.

There *are* several methods that can be found here in the forums to sort of get ALSA back in charge, so to speak, in 14.2, but they're very difficult to do, in my opinion, and just not my cup of coffee since afterward you have a mess of 'things audio' and I think, if I remember right, some things stop working and have to be substituted (I believe one or more of the browsers, and other such things). I'll leave all that up to you and your own reading to see if you want to go down that path with 14.2.

I've definitely used Audigies with Slackware. Autodetected and plug-and-play.

Agreed re: SBLive. In fact, I recall a time when people even in Windows said the name SBLive was actually a trick and should be read in reverse but they worked so effortlessly good in Linux it changed my mind. It is a surprisingly good sound card even by today's standards

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My sound card (SoundBlaster Live 24-bit) is listed, but it doesn't say where to get the drivers for it, nor what version I need. If it's of any help, I have Slackware 14.2 64-bit (updated).

It should "just work." You shouldn't need to do anything to make it work.

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You should check for the snd-emu10k1 driver, which is built in to your kernel, by running

If you don't see snd-emu10k1, you could try

(might need to use snd_emu10k1... I regularly forget - vs/ _ )

but it is possible depending on what kernel config you're using that the checkbox is not ticked for either built-in or loadable module and is instead blank. Someone else will have to show you a command to view unchecked boxes in "/boot/config" as I just use a graphic text editor like KWrite and search for "emu10k" for example. If it isn't checked you will need to use a different kernel or rebuild the one you have with an updated config that has the correct boxes checked properly. If I know I will only ever use a specific sound card I sometimes check that box for "built-in" hardwired as it were but the loadable module format works great, too.

If OTOH the module IS loaded then you may need to set it as default if you are on a Pulseaudio system (many video cards have sound chips too for HDMI use) or simply turn off any you don't use and the remaining becomes default.

As per my original post. In other words I want to make sure it will actually function before I install it.

The huge.s kernel will almost certainly have it working on first boot.

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Yeah. See post #9.

With that said, nobody can give you a guarantee because nobody knows the condition of the card in question... and it's quite old now.

But the drivers are in the Linux kernel and the card should work in Slackware 14.2 with no change to default settings.

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Thank you.