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What sound card should I use?

shinkaide	Date: June 8, 2003 @ 11:50 PM Guys, I need your help here... Can you guys recommend a quality 1) budget sound card, and 2) expensive sound card... that I can use for recording... because my current soundcard starts emmitting a hiss on higher volume recordings and it can't produce much of a distortion effect.
Veracohr	Date: June 9, 2003 @ 6:27 AM You can get even better if you go with a separate converter, digital I/O and word clock generator, but I doubt you want to get into the $2000-3000 range. On the lower end, you can get an M-Audio Audiophile 2496. Gives you 4 channel analog I/O at 24 bit up to 96kHz. M-Audio converters are decent. I have their Delta 66 interface, and I notice the sound quality degrading ever so slightly when I have 30-40 tracks that are all going through it, but if you don't plan on using so many tracks from outboard sources, it shouldn't be too bad for you. About $150. I am not familiar with sound cards intended for the average computer user, so I can't comment on cheaper ones." id="48751">Hmmm... First, you shouldn't want your soundcard to produce distortion. Your audio interface should reproduce the original as faithfully as possible. Second, I don't understand why a hiss would appear only on HIGH level recordings. Good thing you're looking for a new interface! I'm going to assume you are looking for basically a "sound card", ie. a PCI audio interface with 2-channel analog input and output. In this case, the Lynx One is supposed to be great. It gives you 2 channels if input and output at 24 bit and up to 50kHz sample rate. About $450. The Lynx L22 is available for about $675 and has 2 channel analog I/O with up to 200kHz sample rate. Lynx is supposed to have very good converters. You can get even better if you go with a separate converter, digital I/O and word clock generator, but I doubt you want to get into the $2000-3000 range. On the lower end, you can get an M-Audio Audiophile 2496. Gives you 4 channel analog I/O at 24 bit up to 96kHz. M-Audio converters are decent. I have their Delta 66 interface, and I notice the sound quality degrading ever so slightly when I have 30-40 tracks that are all going through it, but if you don't plan on using so many tracks from outboard sources, it shouldn't be too bad for you. About $150. I am not familiar with sound cards intended for the average computer user, so I can't comment on cheaper ones.
Expose	Date: June 9, 2003 @ 6:57 AM newegg.com Anything but the soundblasters. :D They resample too much, and aren't as good as the hype says they are. You can get something twice as good for way cheaper from M-Audio anyway. :)" id="48752">I'd recommend an M-Audio from newegg.com Anything but the soundblasters. They resample too much, and aren't as good as the hype says they are. You can get something twice as good for way cheaper from M-Audio anyway.
milladrive	Date: June 9, 2003 @ 10:38 AM What do you base your recommendation on, Expose? I hope someone soon mentions the word, "latency," because no one should buy a sound card for recording on the pc without examining it.
PaBlikMM	Date: June 9, 2003 @ 11:38 AM i use SB LIVE 1028 and i´m happy with it i make on it recording, midi editing and evrything sounds good
JFF	Date: June 9, 2003 @ 11:42 AM http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info3-info.asp?&m=y&quicklinx= F9K&refererid=DT&refererid=DT" id="48786">If you are talking serious cards, what about the Yamaha cards? http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-info3-info.asp?&m=y&quicklinx= F9K&refererid=DT&refererid=DT
starseven	Date: June 9, 2003 @ 3:09 PM I am actually unloading a MOTU 24 i/o from my studio... it;s been opened.. but not used.. it;a abotu amonth old... i am selling it for $1,200 check motu for the specs.. but basicly you have 24 analog balanced inputs and ouputs .. with a sampling rate up to 96k... fuckign amazing peice of gear......let me know if you want it
shinkaide	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 2:49 AM Hooooookaaaay... I'm using Sound Blaster Live right now (and somehow the midi ports got busted)... and yes, I think it sucks. The audio keeps droppin' out on my cakewalk whenever I get up to 5 tracks or higher, and applying disto fx makes it suck ass...
VampireMoon1369	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 2:03 PM Im using 3 SB16s I dug out of the trashbin behind the PC shoppe. I use 'em in a "lite" way tho', I dont use "on the fly" effects while recording. My distortion (and wah) comes from live pedals (Marshall ShredMaster and Morley Wah, on the song I have posted it was the Boss and it doesnt record well), echo, flange, reverb and what nots are added digitally after the indivisual track is laid with Cool Edit 2000. During recording the soundcards have one job, Analog to digital instead of two, adding effects. No latency problems ever. Having three soundcards lets me lay down three separate stereo tracks at the same time (guitar, bass and drums recorded "live" on their own card and their own track) works for me
ChillinBuzz	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 2:16 PM I love how ppl bash SB's and i have only used one non-Creative card since owning PCs, and i have had no issues with them at all got a budget (budget is $50 to me, not $500 ) SB Live at the mo, records at 96KHz, does a great job on sound and although the machine it's in isnt great, it copes well enough
Apertome	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 3:43 PM ChillinBuzz, I believe the SB Live resamples to 48KHz, so you probably aren't really recording at 96KHz. The M-Audio cards don't do this. The SB Audigy2 does NOT resample (based on what I've read), and will genuinely record at 96KHz. If you're going SB, I'd get an Audigy2." id="48989">shinkaide: if you are having problems with stuff dropping out when you have too many tracks or use effects, try increasing your buffer size. Your latency will increase, but you should be able to play more complicated things at once. Since I'm just using a crappy onboard soundcard, I can't really say from experience what kind of card you can get. I'm looking at M-Audio cards, personally. They have a no-latency monitoring feature, which sounds useful. Basically it can rout the sound directly from the input to the output AND into the system for processing -- end result, realtime monitoring. Also they have balanced inputs/outputs, take that, soundblaster! Or at least some of them do, not sure about that Audiophile 2496. I think that one is unbalanced RCA. The delta 44, for example, has balanced 1/4". ChillinBuzz, I believe the SB Live resamples to 48KHz, so you probably aren't really recording at 96KHz. The M-Audio cards don't do this. The SB Audigy2 does NOT resample (based on what I've read), and will genuinely record at 96KHz. If you're going SB, I'd get an Audigy2.
Apertome	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 6:25 PM http://multimedian.com/pcm/school/sblive48.html To make a long story short, if you use an SB Live, ALWAYS record at 48KHz!" id="49015">OK, I did a little research. The SB Live does indeed resample. In fact, it resamples EVERYTHING to 48KHz -- even if you set your recording samplerate to 44, for example. This can have devastating effects. Check out this page for an explanation: http://multimedian.com/pcm/school/sblive48.html To make a long story short, if you use an SB Live, ALWAYS record at 48KHz!
ChillinBuzz	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 8:47 PM bollox i knew it was too good to be true. ok, i need a replacement hang on, resamples to 48KHz everytime, then i would get much larger samples would i not? and i have not noticed that, i get the size i expect of 44KHz. i gotta debate that one, i cannot see anywhere that any of my material has resampled to 48. weird
Apertome	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 9:40 PM It will still show up AS IF it was truly recorded at whatever rate you set, but the true effective sampling rate of the card is 48KHz. That is, internally, it works at 48KHz, but it will resample to whatever rate you choose. So, for example say you choose 96KHz. Your file will still show up as 96KHz -- but each sample will be repeated twice, in keeping with the 48KHz resolution. The resampling algorithm may not be exactly as I've described (doubling up each sample), but rest assured you are really getting 48KHz. For 44KHz, it will probably sound worse, because it's coming in at 48KHz, and to get to 44, it has to drop samples, and at irregular intervals, because 48 is not an integer multiple of 44. Make sense? Also note that (for example) if you play a CD, which would be at 44.1KHz, the card internally upsamples to 48KHz -- so it has to add samples (about 4,000 per second) to play it back. It's also worth mentioning that based on what I've read, almost every consumer sound card does this. It looks to me like sound card manufacturers have been misrepresenting the capabilities of their products pretty severely. My onboard sound card (AC97-based) does this, too, I've discovered. 48KHz for me, until I get a new card.
Apertome	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 9:42 PM http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=sound blaster+live+resample&btnG=Google+Search It's disturbing." id="49038">If you still don't believe it, google "soundblaster live resample" (without quotes) or check this link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=sound blaster+live+resample&btnG=Google+Search It's disturbing.
shinkaide	Date: June 10, 2003 @ 11:52 PM Ah no wonder the sound card conks out... it can't handle too much of that resampling thing, right? That was a stupid feature. Anyway, thanks a lot mux, I'm gonna go do my stuff at 48 from now on...
SinchyldBeats	Date: June 11, 2003 @ 12:55 AM I use a delta44 sound card. 60g hard drive. 512mb ram. Monsoon surround. 12 n' subwoofer. Shure sm58 Mic. Mic Stand. Pop Fliter. Cool Edit Pro v2.0 Reasons 1.0 full. Cake Walk 7.0 full.
Apertome	Date: June 11, 2003 @ 4:18 AM shinkaide: resampling and/or buffer size might be involved

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