The Mother of all SOUNDCARDS thread

On 2005-12-12 00:40, nolightatend wrote:
My thoughts
Now for any who seek sound card, please read this, if someone wants to correct me please do it in gentle manner since some of my words will be subjective, thou i will clearly show it.

There are many sound cards available on market today, some are called professional audio cards, some not professional. We tend as musician to stick with professional audio interfaces so i will cover these cards only.

Glossary before we start:

A/D Converter or Convertor (depends area you live in) - Is device which convert Analogue (constant waves) to Digital (numbers) forward and backwards. It translates signal so digital analogue systems could understand each other, this is very important part of sound card and it is probably the most expensive part of it, since precision of that device can make large difference on input and output signal

DSP - Digital Signal Proccesing, this device available on most of cards today, this is chipset which handle software on it to help our sound cards to process data faster. DSP can be basic, which contain mixer with virtual channels and analyzing tools or handle synthesizers, effects etc..
Chipset abilities are limited, so this card can only help but it has limitation if you use too much of is power, although it could ease on CPU.

Inputs/Outputs - this is basically things you need to connect external audio devices to computer for recording and out signal to mixing panel or monitor. this is where A/D converter comes to main role, since it's the main feature along with quality of cables.

Midi Interface - Device which connect MIDI to your sound card, most of today's synthesizer are digital and even analogue ones have boxes which convert soignal for flexible usage with MIDI in our sequencers.

Latency/DMA Buffer - This is time (latency) how fast your sound card respond to action made whether it is internal or external. DMA Buffer is an opposite, how much buffer you give to process. Professional cards try to beat the time with low latency (1+ms) while in reality we can't hear that difference and it almost can't be spotted so most of us work on 18-30ms latency, why? Because faster processing requires more resources if you understood what DMA buffer means.

Bit Depth and Sample Rate - This are restriction for your sound card ability to record and sometime to process data. For example if your card specified as 96/24, means it can record at 96khz with 24bit resolution. Quite neat, right? most of the studios use this setup these days. It doesn't mean you can't listen or process 32bit data on your computer, just outputs and inputs limited to 24bit.

Ok once i've explaned basic stuff in basic language, let's try to understand what we seek for so we won't ask "Which card to buy question".

Answer these questions to yourself before you buy:

Q.How much inputs and outputs i need?
A. Depends how much hardware you gonna plugin,
way of you mixing becasue you can send specific channel to mixing console so more outputs will be needed to make this faster. Also decide if you want clean in/out in hardware rack or just as cables.

Q.Do i need MIDI interface?
A.Yes, probably if you already own synthesizer or prepare to get once in near future, if not do not waste your money on card with MIDI Inteface since you can always buy it seperated with more in/outs probably.

Q.Do i need card with Zero latency?
A.There is no Zero latency, even best cards have some latency. With modern technology VST/DX and rest of units we have today require alot of system resources so we translate system resources and use higher latency to cover CPU everload, since we can't hear that latency unless it is higher that XXms it is doesn't matter if latency is "zero" or 13ms.

Q.Do i need complex DSP?
A.DSP can ease on CPU but the same time not many cards with DSP allow reprogramming so you can add instruments and effect to them. So it's limited sometimes to use these DSP components over and over, although expensive cards like "Creamware" have enough tools to work with and ability to be reprogrammed. Another DSP feature is virtual channel, like RME cards offer. These channels can be used to direct link audio channels inside of your Pc or to other Pc with single cable. Although this feature requires system resources as much more channels you have more your Pc will be loaded.


New Era Scientist,
I've thought about this idea today once you started to answer to some guy here and he was asking pretty amateur question "What card to buy? I've heard XXX cards are good without saying why!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_to_digital_converter

e-motion,
I would go for EMu 0404, bit more money 30$ or so but it has DSP effects which can reduce CPU usage, moreover i have bad experience with Audiophile 24/96 and some friends of mine too, Cracks and Clicks at record, alot of IRQ conflicts with everything. Just not that good M-Audio card.

Anyway there are ESI cards at the same price range, thou never tried any.

On 2005-12-12 08:55, Terrafractyl wrote:
Its also probably worth noting the different speeds of the different standards, as far as I know it is something like this
1. pci/pcimia cards(fastest)
2. Firewire 800
3. Usb 2
4. Firewire 400
5. Usb 1(slowest)

Also worth casting your eye over in the tech specs of a card, THD(total harmonic distortion) and dynamic range.

On 2005-12-12 08:55, Terrafractyl wrote:
Its also probably worth noting the different speeds of the different standards, as far as I know it is something like this
1. pci/pcimia cards(fastest)
2. Firewire 800
3. Usb 2
4. Firewire 400
5. Usb 1(slowest)

Also worth casting your eye over in the tech specs of a card, THD(total harmonic distortion) and dynamic range.

On 2005-12-15 06:05, Terrafractyl wrote:
The drivers that come with the card are also pretty important in relation to the performance of the card
the reason I say this is that ive been doin some research into sound cards while saving up to buy one, and came VERy close to buying a Emu card, but discovered this thread
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=82303
which gave many doubts as I was buying it for a laptop and with live performance in mind...

oh and emu's owned by creative which gave me a shock too

On 2005-12-14 06:12, texmex wrote:

I only have experience with TerraTec's Phase 88 Firewire Rack, and so far it's been good. It has 8 balanced inputs and outputs, spdif and 2 x midi io. The midi latency is a bit much, but otherwise it's a good soundcard.

On 2005-12-18 23:44, UnderTow wrote:

Quote:

On 2005-12-14 06:12, texmex wrote: I only have experience with TerraTec's Phase 88 Firewire Rack, and so far it's been good. It has 8 balanced inputs and outputs, spdif and 2 x midi io. The midi latency is a bit much, but otherwise it's a good soundcard.

I still have an old Terratec EWS88MT in my home studio. (Same PCI card as the Phase88 but different breakout box). I am happy with the drivers of this card. That isn't really astonishing as this card (The PCI section) is 4 or 5 years old (Maybe even more). They have had plenty of time to iron out any bugs ... Also, because Terratec have a large consumer department, they have a huge testlab with practically any motherboard available to test their drivers with.

UnderTow