Sound Cards..Which is best...

Ok, I'm doing research and would like to know what type or make of sound cards the members like or use with their recording software on their computers man This High Tech stuff is mind blowing....
TR

I have tried and used many over the years from Creative to Turtle Beach to Hercules.
The ones that really stand out were:
Hercules Game Theater XP (for some reason during it's prime time it was the card to get) and SoundBlaster Audigy2 Platinum (the affordable 24-bit recording and somewhat decent inputs).

Right now I'm using a laptop based studio running E-MU 1616m and it's the best setup I've ever had. No fan noise, can take it anywhere and this is the best... edit my recordings outside on the deck enjoying a nice cold one (too bad it's winter now)


cheers,

ccdmax

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Yamaha PSR9000, PSR730, Korg PA1X Pro, Karma, X5D, Yamaha Tyros2 on it's way

That EMU SHOULD sound good, it's $500.! Does anyone know of a good laptop sound card that doesn't quite cost so much. I'm really only interesed in playing midi files sometimes, using just the laptop. I very seldom use a midi file, but have literally thousands of them, and it would really be easy to do obscure requests from the laptop.
Thanks,
DonM

Presonus Firebox($299). Ask Scott, I think he
has one.

I use an EMU 0404, cost: 100 euros
I am vy satisfied with it.
Ease to set up when you have understood the Asio send thing. And complete effects section.
Stam

Don,

I use my M-Audio USB Quattro live with the laptop. The sound quality is quite good. I think they were going for as low as 125 Usd at one point.

The big disadvantage of course is that it's an external box ( about 5 " wide, 1 1/4 " tall, 4 "deep ). This doesn't bother me at all, but I can see where it might be more desirable for a live performer to use an internal soundcard. I like that it has 4 inputs and outs though, because it also allows for me to make my laptop a portable 4 track DAW. I bring it when I go to my guitarist's place and we can record ourselves on seperate tracks.

AJ

Tony,

Most OEM sound cards are more than adequate for our purposes, especially when you're firing a midi file through your keyboard and using the keyboard's sound engine. The sound card has some bearing on audio recording and playback, but again, much of the audio quality will depend upon the software you're using to record with and not the sound card.

However, if you intend to play midi files directly from your PC, the sound card, and the associated software will have a significant bearing on the sound's overall quality. Of course, you will also need a relatively good speaker system to go with the better sound card or you will not gain anything.

The bottom line is there is only so much the human ear can hear, and more often than not the computer's onboard sound card will be more than adequate for most OMB needs. As for the audiences, they could care less--they just want to be entertained.

Good luck, and I hope everything is turning your way down there in sunny Cozumel.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Don, the soundcard that came with your laptop is fine for SMF playback...What you may want to do, is upgrade the wave table..If you are running XP, The Microsoft GS wavetable came with it, and it is useable...but there are a few more choices available..For example the Roland DX, Roland Hyper Canvas and M-Audio Key Rig..They will require a host program like Forte..
You can still select the songs from your explorer window using VanBasco as your player..

As far as recording goes, I have had good results even with the inexpensive cards that come with the computers...When I decided to try a high quality card for my laptop..I purchased the VX Pocket from Digigram...it worked excellent, spec wise by today's standards, the numbers seem low [48hz/24bit], but to the human ear..I don't hear it any better than this..

The convenience is it installs as a PCMCIA device..

[This message has been edited by Fran Carango (edited 11-24-2005).]

I think driver support is very important so I tend to stick with companies known for their support.

My home studio computer has the M-Audio 1010LT audio card which is rock-stable and does everything I need. I also have a Novation X-Station in my studio which can operate as a USB audio interface but it has problems with Intel 915 chipsets so I mostly use it with my laptop when I work with Reason and other softsynths.

My new laptop had really bad sound (hissy and low volume) so the first thing I did was get the Creative Labs Audigy 2 Z5 Sound Card for Laptops (PCMCIA) for it, which is fairly cheap: about $75. It's excellent (great SNR: 104db) and it comes with some great software. I haven't used it for recording though, only playback.

I also have a Tascam US-122 that I've used for recording and it's very stable. I've recommended this to friends who love it and use nothing else. Sells for $199.

Tony,
I'm using SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum and it sounds good to me ... BUT, I've got old ears ...


t.

Thanks for the great information. I will address my laptop midi playback with either a new soundfont or the CL Audigy card.
Thanks,
DonM

I use a Audigy 4 pro card ,and you can do so
many things with it,and a briliant sound quality.

Arno

The Saffire by Focusrite is an amazing piece of kit. I'm using it in my PC I have for recording.
http://www.focusrite.com/productdetails.asp?id=38&iRange=5

My gaming PC has the Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro card which is also very good for music and games sound amazing, if you like to play the odd one.

Shop around there's loads out there.

Hi,
I bought an audigy nx2 usb card so that I had a second slightly less complicated setup for using soundfonts with my laptop than using my software setup.
Software setup for fonts consists of
Forte/Live Synth Pro/Asio4all/ driver /midiyoke /soundfonts.
wheras soundcard setup required
Audigy NX2 /soundfonts.

It's obviously not the best soundcard around, and I've no experience with soundcards, but it works for me.
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=91 03

The software set up is far more professional, in that it enables you to use other soft synths as well as fonts, if it's only fonts you want to use, then audigy may be an option for you.

best wishes
Rikki
( disclaimer I'm a hobbyist not a musician haa haa)

[This message has been edited by rikkisbears (edited 11-23-2005).]

Hi Esh,
just out of interest, have you tried your card with "soundfonts". I was originally going to get one of these but I read somewhere that fonts might be a problem, so I got the usb one instead.

Be a bit disapointing if I bought the external one , and this one would have done the job just as well..

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Esh:
[B]

My new laptop had really bad sound (hissy and low volume) so the first thing I did was get the Creative Labs Audigy 2 Z5 Sound Card for Laptops (PCMCIA) for it, which is fairly cheap: about $75. It's excellent (great SNR: 104db) and it comes with some great software.

I'm using a "mk 1" Creative Audigy Platinum (with the external i/o unit) which does me fine for recording from my PSR 3k. The external box is at the end of a 1m+ length cable and so can be placed conveniently at the end of my work space.

Cautionary note: I am using the independant "KX Project" drivers (for EMU chipset soundcards) because the Creative drivers for this particular model are total rubbish running on XP.

I would hope that for the newer models the "proper" drivers work correctly.

I forgot - the KX drivers support soundfonts; in fact if you want to use the sythesiser on the soundcard you have to load a soundfont before the synthesiser appears as a valid midi output. This fooled me for a while!

Depending on your particular usage for a sound card, "latency" may be a concern, especially when using a software synth. Latency is a delay between the time the computer gets a message to play something and the time your sound card delivers it.

For just playing MIDI files, all that occurs is a practically unnoticeable additional pause before the piece starts playing. However, for live keyboard usage (including recording), it may become a significant issue. Here's a web page that explains latency: http://www.pcmus.com/latency.htm

A Google search on "sound card latency" will turn up quite a bit more.

--Barry