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how do i tell if you have a good sound card?

LightSkinboy	Date: February 12, 2006 @ 10:30 PM i can record music on my computer and it sounds clear and everything but how can i tell if i have a good sound card?? do you need and is there a specific sound card for vocal recording?
mattbanx	Date: February 12, 2006 @ 10:45 PM I just moved up with my last 3 recordings from the sound cards from my computers to installing new sound cards. Sound Blaster Audigy and Turtle Beach. Oh boy! I record between 2 computers. But I have noticed that I can have an increased volume without the distortion. I also figured out that more expensive does not always mean beter. I record everything with 44,000 kb, 16 bit stereo wave. Most that I have noticed are at least at 32 bit. If I tried to do a higher bit with my little rig, it would sound all the more nasty. I think you have to go with the technology you have. But I don't know about the more expensive x hundreds of dollar sound cards. You will find members here that definately know.
GeneHilbert	Date: February 12, 2006 @ 11:15 PM Short answer; 1. If you have to ask then it probably doesn't matter. 2. Mid-grade to high-end analog to digital converters can be very expensive ranging from a couple hundred to a couple thousand. 3. If you are a novelist and like what you hear presently and have the gear to make it work, you probably don't need to buy something more than you have already. 4. On the other hand if you are someone that wants to, has the resources to, or would eventually require mid to high end upgrade. Here are some options. http://www.bizrate.com/buy/products__cat_id--463,keyword--sound%20blaster.html http://www.zzounds.com/item--THKMIMD662 http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOD1010E http://www.zzounds.com/item--MTU896HD http://www.zzounds.com/item--MTUHD192 http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Ensemble/ http://www.zzounds.com/item--AVAVT737SP
shadowself	Date: February 12, 2006 @ 11:55 PM Step 1 - Look at card Step 2 - Does it say "Creative"? Step 3 - If yes, you don't have a good card /Creative user
GeneHilbert	Date: February 13, 2006 @ 1:08 AM I have an old SB card I still use it for a midi 1 set and as a default player for crap media separate from my pro-audio stuff..... No conflicts and still works like the day I bought it..... I probably spent 50 or 60 bucks for it 8 years ago. I'll use it until it dies....
LightSkinboy	Date: February 13, 2006 @ 5:57 PM ok... well i just want to mkae my music sounds good, it sounds good now so i think i must have a allright soundcard..
FebruaryBattles	Date: February 13, 2006 @ 5:59 PM my sound card is crappy and raw vocals that were once good sound all hissy on my comp and i cant record on it with dynamic just usb
leedsquietman	Date: March 11, 2006 @ 11:48 AM mostly audio cards integrated onto the motherboard (ie crystal audio, sigmatel, generic "AC'97 sound", some creative soundblaster products etc.) are good for audio playback but less so for recording - they don't have good S/N ratios, have poorly written drivers and suffer from long latency (sound delays) issues. Some do not even support ASIO drivers natively (a problem if you're a PC user wanting to run Cubase etc) and 'wrappers' add mucho latency. Creative's cards are good for gaming as most gaming hardware supports their drivers, the Audigy can do a reasonable job for you at recording but is not regarded as an excellent performer. It depends what you need and whether or not it's for desktop or laptop PC. On my laptop I use an Echo Indigo I/O PCMCIA which is an excellent card but only has one stereo recording input - it has great sound quality and very low latency and works great at 16/44.1 or 24/96 and everything in between but if you needed to record more. It cost me 175 US dollars. The only drawback is only being able to record one imput deviceat a time - as I am a solo musician who is only recording home demos that's fine, but if I was part of a band and/or looking to record other people semi-professionally I would need a card with more inputs. You really need to spend at least 150 dollars on anything half decent and if you need a lot of inputs (4 or more) then upwards of 500 dollars.
Elu	Date: May 16, 2006 @ 11:10 AM If you get a Roland PC-1 card..."used of course cuz they no longer make them" you will pay about $250.00. Then you get a roland SI-24 for another $250.00 and then you will have a sweet set up that can record up to 8 instruments simultaneously at 24 bit. But then you gotta have a great processor and memory. And you would need a program that supports it, like cakewalk sonar 4 or 5 or qbase or protools...But it will probably set you up for a while.
Veracohr	Date: May 16, 2006 @ 10:02 PM Do you have one of these? http://www.lavryengineering.com/product_headers/ad122.jpg If so, then yes, you have a good one.
pog	Date: May 17, 2006 @ 2:45 AM I don't care what anyone says ... I love my audigy... I can record music, watch movies and play games with 7.1 sound... that can't be all that bad. I found that even some of the recordings I made on my old onboard soundcard did a really adequate job. Of course if we could all have 2000watt top shelf p.a's with dedicated hardware to record, then it would be just lovely, but IMHO a great producer should be able to work with a commodore 64 running soundtracker. OMG I feel old all of a sudden.
BasicBoy	Date: May 17, 2006 @ 10:19 AM you can find out what kind of sound card you have by (if u use windows) click on the start menu and go to accessorios then go onto system tools then click on system info.when it has loaded up click on components and go to sound device and you can see what type of sound card you have.
leedsquietman	Date: May 17, 2006 @ 4:59 PM Well compared to most onboard audio solutions, the audigy does a reasonable job, although it's strengths really lie in DVD/surrround sound playback and gaming. The audigy zs pro is certainly a decent card, offering 24/192 sound (as opposed to 16/48 on the non pro editions which have the old asio drivers, not the newer asio 2.0 standard), asio 2.o low latency drivers capable of 2ms latency on low samples settings and a sn ratio of 108 db, still for 200 bucks you can get a decent m-audio, echo, e-mu card which may not do the gaming or dvd playback as well but are still considered to be slightly superior products for recording.
pog	Date: May 17, 2006 @ 11:57 PM Yep... that's the one