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Sound card and cpu load
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TeDer
Started Topics :
7
Posts :
32
Posted : Apr 18, 2004 22:34
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I realy hope this isn't posted somewhere else ( tried the search option ) .
Is it true to say that a pro sound card reduce the load of the cpu ?
Friend of mine told me that with a good sound card ( profesional one ) you see much less cpu usage when working with vst's .
If someone can tell how it is possible ? maybe the heavy calculations are transferd to the sound cards dsp chips ???
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Mike A
Subra
Started Topics :
185
Posts :
3954
Posted : Apr 18, 2004 22:35
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Pro audio cards use ASIO. That's why.
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TeDer
Started Topics :
7
Posts :
32
Posted : Apr 18, 2004 22:37
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So if you had a choise to make between sound card upgrade or computer upgrade what it will be ? |
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Lithium
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
33
Posts :
646
Posted : Apr 19, 2004 01:16
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it depends on how old your computer is, but for sure that a pro sound card really makes a difference. anyway if you have a very very good computer and a shit soundcard you won´t be able to do much with it
stay well  |
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Kaz
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
90
Posts :
2268
Posted : Apr 19, 2004 11:46
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When you try to do a lot of complex mixer tricks (3-4 mixer tracks attached serially) in software, work with audio and a tad of sidechaining for a good measure, and voila, you finally see why creative (even their top of the line Audigy 2 line) suck. Midi Clock starts going out of sync with the audio, pops, clicks, peaks in CPU usage, things start crashing... very annoying stuff. I've searched all kinds of music forums for a way to solve this, but other than optimizing your PC, the only solution is to buy a better soundcard.
There is also the shit ADDA conversion problem in some cards (RME have very good ADDAs in their cards, as do Motu in their newer ones, as opposed to Creative which cut corners here), amounts of inputs and outputs (MIDI, optical, etc), which should be tailored for your studio (depending on how many synths you want to use, how many external effects you want to use - OTT uses 40 outputs, but that is a rather extreme case).
Proffesional soundcards at times save you the need for a mixer (if you don't have a big studio with loads of gadgets), and the software controls for the soundcard's mixer range from shit (again, Creative) to great (RME, just look at the website).
And of course the ultra-low latencies that don't effect the CPU usage available with a good soundcard make automations and midi work a lot simpler.
Some soundcards even have DSP effects/generators with software that knows how to use them, and thus saving a lot of CPU power and giving (usually) high quality effects.
These are major advantages for proffesional soundcards - the moment you want to work with something external, or even to emulate some external tricks (feedback on effects via mixer wiring instead of emulation like most VSTs use), you quickly find out that yes, this is a serious issue.
Of course, Monitors are probably more important than that - you don't have them, you can't work. Then you need a minimum of 512MB RAM, then a soundcard, and only then a CPU. Remember, it's easy to overcome CPU problems by working with audio, and with a proffesional soundcard and a lot of RAM, that is NOT a problem.
This should be the basic way to build a studio. After this stuff, you can start adding synths, effects and all kinds of stuff to your studio and integrate them into your music creation (something which is somewhat problematic on low end cards, if just because of the latency issue)... But the soundcard comes before expanding the studio unless you already have a good one already.
There are quite a few more issues on this subject, but this is the basic idea if you want to make your music sound as good as it can.
 http://www.myspace.com/Hooloovoo222 |
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medir
Inactive User
Started Topics :
113
Posts :
1193
Posted : Apr 19, 2004 12:41
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Quote:
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On 2004-04-18 22:37, TeDer wrote:
So if you had a choise to make between sound card upgrade or computer upgrade what it will be ?
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if u got a faster pc than xp2700/p4 get a new soundcard.
BooM
experiment !
make it your motto day and night.
experiment,
and it will lead you to the light.
the apple on the top of the tree
is never too high to achieve,
so take an example from eve...
experiment ! |
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sidx
Mungusid
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
8
Posted : Apr 19, 2004 16:16
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is it big difference with work in 96\24 samplerate and lower
what u think? |
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medir
Inactive User
Started Topics :
113
Posts :
1193
Posted : Apr 19, 2004 16:48
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EDIT:
naturally, i meant
if u got a equivalent or faster pc than xp2700/p4 get a new soundcard. 
...don t know about 96/24...
experiment !
make it your motto day and night.
experiment,
and it will lead you to the light.
the apple on the top of the tree
is never too high to achieve,
so take an example from eve...
experiment ! |
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