Hi All,

Im about to record a christmas album and so was thinking about investing in a sound card- M-AUDIO Audiophile. I want to know whether it makes a significant difference in the recording quality when using a motherboard built-in soundcard and a card like the M-Audio Audiophile. In what way does it do so? Other than that Im using a PSR2100, PA-50, Behringer Condensor MIC, Studiomaster Mixer and P4 Computer with Cakewalk, Sound Forge and Fruity Loops.

Thanks
SUNNY

Hi Sunny
Onboard sound cards are usually adequate for 'adequate' quality but not too snappy for quality voice recordings.
I use Creative Live!5.1 which is OK for me .I also use Cakewalk and Sound Forge.
Incidentally, onboard (motherboard, that is)features are often adequate for other applications but need to be upgraded for more acceptable quality.
For example, I am about to discontinue using my onboard graphics and wondering what to go to. But that should be another thread!!!
cheers
Eddie Johnson

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Eddie from Rotherham
Skype:eddiefromrotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

Hi Sunny
If there was no difference in sound quality then recording studios would use the onboard sound chips.
To look at it another way, the onboard chip has to be a Jack of All Trades (Sound, Game, and Cinema etc) whereas the M Audio you mention has the main dedication to producing quality sound.
Hope this helps

Bill

i've used the audiophile 2496 for about two years now and i tell you, it makes a great difference, not only compared with onboard sound cards, but also with some other manufacturers products. of course, has it's disadvantages, but even now, i would make the same choise.

reasons to use it: (or any other non-onboard)
1. m-audio has very good converters digital-analog and analog-digital. among the best in this category of price, bellow 500$.
2. it has very good drivers, asio we're talking. stabile and fast, up to 2 miliseconds latency. very important if you use something else then only audio files.
3. good support.
4. well build cards. phisically speaking - strong connectors, good alignment.
5. finally, we're talking about a different aproach here. without being a real professional card, is much more then a consumer cards, as onboards are. different everything, meant for use in making music in the first place.

good luck!

Sunny,

Much of the sound quality coming from your recordings will depend on the equipment between you and the PC, and very little of it will be determined by the PC's sound card. Most of today's onboard sound cards range from good to excellent in quality, and over just the past two years they have improved dramatically.

If you are using a high quality mic, mixer, cables, and working in a noise-free environment, you should have no trouble achieving excellent results using the equipment you described. Keep in mind those CDs will lilkely be played by individuals driving along in their cars, or at best, sitting at home doing something else while listening to your music. You are using excellent software, therefore, there is no reason that you will not end up with a great final product.

Good Luck,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

There is an alternative solution.........
Bear in mind that the inside of a PC is a very hostile place for Audio signals, particularly for low level signals such as Microphone inputs. There is a terrific amount of electrical noise generated within a PC - both radiated (airborne) and conducted via the power supply connections to either the onboard audio system or any Plug-In cards.

In the past, I used an external Analog to Digital module - Creative Soundblaster 24bit - which connects to a PC via the USB port and also is powered via the USB port. This unit produced superb results during conversion of Tapes and LPs to CD. I could not detect any background noise on the CDs, even during quiet passages within the music, unlike the results I achieved when using an Internal Plug-in Audio card of good quality.

The unit is not expensive - Currently around $45 US and you can read more about it here :
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Labs-SoundBlaster-24-Bit-External/dp/B00030099O

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Willum

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is Music.
Aldous Huxley

I agree that on-board sound processing has improved remarkably over recent time but Bill is right, the inside of a PC is a hostile environment in which to convert analag to digital signal; an external converter system of decent quality is the way to go for best results.

I use a midimen delta1010 since years(I think 6 years now) which has a 19" inch rack with the converters built in.
It's connected trough a midimen pci card.

The main reason I bought it six years ago was that the external converters took the load from the pc processor, which were not that fast those days.
But indeed the bonus is also it's very silent and has 8 ins and 8 outs suitable for any direct instrument input.

So far the cards works with all software I use.

Fred

Hi,
sorry to butt in on Sunny's post, but I'm wondering, would you get less latency with a firewire soundcard than you would with a USB soundcard??

I've been thinking of upgrading my Audiophile ( usb) http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/AudiophileUSB-main.html
to http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Ozonic-main.html
or could my latency get worse??

best wishes
Rikki

Assuming you are using USB2, then the latency differences between FireWire and USB2 are more likely to be down to the external hardware and driver software used at each end rather than the differing connection technology, the speeds are fairly similar.

If you are on USB1 I would expect a siginifant improvement if you moved to USB2 or Firewire. I'd be liable to stick to USB2, there's more kit out there.

My understanding is that the only time Firewire has an absolute advantage over USB2 is when streaming synchronised Audio and Video; the Firewire data transmission specfication guarantees that synchronisation is maintained.