Which Soundcard?, new soundcard Options

[.::MetallicA::.]

Hi rockers,

Just recently registered on this site - enjoying a lot.

Now to my question.

I have a crappy built-in soundcard in my PC.
When I plug my guitar in through the AMP (and sometimes through V-amp2) my sound get more or less destroyed. My distortion sounds like CRAP (litterly put).
Im quite into Cubase at the moment, and Im able to tweak the sound abit. But not nearly enough.

So I figured, I probably need a new soundcard. So, any recomendations? Nothing superexpensive
Ive heard Creative Audgity is pretty decent and cost only around a 100 bucks.

Im owning a LTD/ESP kh2-202, practice amp (Micro Cube).

So, please help me to choose a new Soundcard.

Cheers!

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[JCJXXL]

Thanks for the help guys. I don't need anything fancy right now, just something that'll handle the distortion and not die.

We've got a few soundcards in our inventory here. I'll see what we have and maybe save myself a few dollars

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[Kaneda]

Thanks for the help guys. I don't need anything fancy right now, just something that'll handle the distortion and not die.

We've got a few soundcards in our inventory here. I'll see what we have and maybe save myself a few dollars

I'd go for one of the midpriced or higher X-Fi's (and I probably will get the X-Fi Elite Pro at some point myself).

My "soundcard history" goes from SoundBlaster 16 over SoundBlaster 32 AWE and SoundBlaster Live to dedicated cards - some M-Audio card and my current (by now ancient) Terratec DMX 6Fire - at that time the alternative was SoundBlaster Audigy, which I really didn't like (especially not its illegitimate claim of 24 bit recording).

And, as mentioned, for my next one, I'll return to Creative. I got the dedicated cards because I wanted something "good for recording". What I gained in sound quality, I lost in versatility and productivity. I quite like the Terratec, but if I wanted to have a "quick and dirty" listen to a MIDI file on the AWE or Live, I just played it through a soundbank. With the Terratec, I have to set up a software synth (which usually sounds inferior to the simple soundbank), set up GigaStudio with all the samples needed, or go through an external synth. Meaning I rarely get it done. I'm the kind of person who wants things to "just work".

Creative has impressed me with ease of use and setting up - and third party (users, mainly) support. The X-Fi line has better recording and playback quality by now than my Terratec - which is already as much as I need. In addition to that, it takes a burden off the CPU - the Terratec doesn't.

All it lacks is GigaStudio GSIF drivers, which I expect users will provide at some point, if they haven't already.

To me it seems that these days, a lot of "dedicated" sound cards are bought without even checking if the "mainstream" card is good enough - or even better. Skipping a good choice - "since it's mainstream, it can't be good"

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This post has been edited by Kaneda: Jun 18 2007, 06:34 PM

[Andrew Cockburn]

I'd go for one of the midpriced or higher X-Fi's (and I probably will get the X-Fi Elite Pro at some point myself).

My "soundcard history" goes from SoundBlaster 16 over SoundBlaster 32 AWE and SoundBlaster Live to dedicated cards - some M-Audio card and my current (by now ancient) Terratec DMX 6Fire - at that time the alternative was SoundBlaster Audigy, which I really didn't like (especially not its illegitimate claim of 24 bit recording).

And, as mentioned, for my next one, I'll return to Creative. I got the dedicated cards because I wanted something "good for recording". What I gained in sound quality, I lost in versatility and productivity. I quite like the Terratec, but if I wanted to have a "quick and dirty" listen to a MIDI file on the AWE or Live, I just played it through a soundbank. With the Terratec, I have to set up a software synth (which usually sounds inferior to the simple soundbank), set up GigaStudio with all the samples needed, or go through an external synth. Meaning I rarely get it done. I'm the kind of person who wants things to "just work".

Creative has impressed me with ease of use and setting up - and third party (users, mainly) support. The X-Fi line has better recording and playback quality by now than my Terratec - which is already as much as I need. In addition to that, it takes a burden off the CPU - the Terratec doesn't.

All it lacks is GigaStudio GSIF drivers, which I expect users will provide at some point, if they haven't already.

To me it seems that these days, a lot of "dedicated" sound cards are bought without even checking if the "mainstream" card is good enough - or even better. Skipping a good choice - "since it's mainstream, it can't be good"

The biggest problem with mainstream cards is latency - higher end cards have lower latency hence work better. This can become an issueif you are working with many tracks and lots of software effects, especially important if you are playing soft synths, probably not so imprtant if you are recording Drums bass and rythm guitar to solo over.

I wouldn't consider a mainstream card for the reaons above, since I do a lot of recording. Dedicated recording cards are not super expensive for the entry level ones, but of corse there is no sense in spending money of you don't have to.

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