sound card recommendations?

[Rockitman]

I am building a new Windows 7 pc. I have a Roland Rd700sx that I would like to be able to record to the pc.

 

Can somebody recommend what I would need in order to do this?

 

Do I need a special sound card? The motherboard of this pc I'm building has integrated sound, but of course, the inputs are with those tiny plugs while my output from my roland is XLR and 1/4".

 

I assume I could use the free program Audacity to do the recording?

 

[mul]

it really depends on your budget. if you really want to cut the corners then just get an adapter for 1/4" to the tinny one and that will get the sound into your pc It can cost anything from a couple of hundred up to ....goodness knows for a dedicated sound card which you prob dont want to buy yet.the problems with not having one come if you want to record midi....but this can be achieved with a usb - midi adapter. there will prob be tons of guys posting the follies of what i've just advised but i beleive this is what you need to know.

[DanS]

I've been using an M-Audio Delta66 (PCI) for around 10 years now, with no probs. Has drivers for Win7. I use a MOTU UltraLite for the midi.

[JeffLearman]

I highly recommend you begin using the built-in soundcard. Be sure to record at 48kHz (not 44.1kHz) because most built-ins are designed to run at 48kHz and suffer badly from cheap on-the-fly conversion to 44.1 on input. (This is based on direct experience, not just theory. Not only does the sound suffer, but the timing shifts! A Soundblaster is this way too -- or at least, they used to be back in 2005 or so.)

 

If you're at all serious, you will want a 24-bit soundcard. The sound is a bit better, but the big advantage of 24-bit soundcards is that you aren't forced to set the recording level just perfectly, to peak out over -6dBFS but without any clipping. With a 24-bit card, you can leave headroom and not worry about the results suffering (either from not playing loud enough or from playing too loud). This helps me relax considerably when recording, and I'm already stressed enough when the red light is blinking!

 

But before you pick out a soundcard, I suggest you focus on what's far more important, if you'll be doing any mixing. Monitors! You can't mix what you can't hear. The differences between decent low-cost soundcards and great expensive soundcards are fairly subtle. The differences between any two types of monitors is significant. Plan to spend your time and money on this FIRST, and then think about soundcards. (If you're just recording your own keyboard parts and letting others mix, then never mind on this.)

 

The built-in soundcards in most computers are better (in many but not all ways) than expensive pro-am tape gear we used in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Way better, frankly, except for what they do when overdriven, which can sound good on tape and always sucks for digital.

 

To quote a friend: "If you can't make a hit recording with a stick mike and a soundblaster, you probably can't make a hit recording with anything."

 

Here is my rough guide on what's important for a good recording, in decreasing order of importance:

 

1 - composition

2 - performance

3 - quality of instruments

4 - engineering

5 - mic quality (not applicable for recording electronic keyboards)

6 - monitor quality

7 - soundcard quality

8 - software quality

 

Of course, it's a very rough guide, and assumes each item is at least "half-decent". But I'm very serious at putting soundcard quality right near the bottom.

 

It's been a long time since I've used Audacity, but I don't recommend it for multitrack mixing. Yes, you can use it to start out, and it's fine for recording solos. But it was a wave editor first and multitrack DAW a very long lagging second. Furthermore, every time I compared the results for audio algorithms like pitch shifting or noise filtering, the free CoolEdit96 blew it away (even though I had to reduce tracks to 16 bits to use CE96). I'm not talking subtle differences, but major obvious elephant-in-the-room differences. Maybe it's better now.

 

Instead, I highly recommend the following:

 

Multitrack Studio

Reaper

n-Track (if it works well on your hardware: try it first and check for recording dropouts)

 

These are all $100 and less. There are lots of other options in the higher money range. Summing is summing, so the differences are:

 

1) quality of FX that come with them

2) the GUI: whether you find it easy and convenient or maddening

 

But sure, start out with free stuff; join a few home recording forums and learn as you go.

 

Good luck and HTH