pete psingpy Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 My computer has a Soundblaster Platinum live soundcard. I'm using it for midi now, but eventually I'd like to try some digital audio recording. I've heard this card is bad for audio recording, does anyone have any experience with it? I wondering if I should get another card instead. Just for the heck of it, I ran the output of one of my synths through the analog aux input of the card, and routed the cards output back to my monitors. The sound quality was quite bad. Is it a function only of the souncard? I'm planning to get a small analog mixer eventually, but I'm hoping the sound is better. The synth plugged straight into the monitors sounds fine. thanks, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan O Posted October 21, 2001 Share Posted October 21, 2001 Soundcards ???? Soundblaster is fine for midi . When it comes to Audio than you definately will want to upgrade . M Audio ( midiman) make a nice line of sound cards , Echo ( gina,darla etc..) as well . M audio has come out with a card called the Quatro ( currently MAC only , PC soon to release) . This one card will give you midi as well as 4 inputs and outputs ( 1/4inch) for under $260.00 . You may want to go to midimans web site to check out . Dano www.esnips.com/web/SongsfromDanO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Originally posted by pete psingpy: I've heard this card is bad for audio recording, does anyone have any experience with it? I wondering if I should get another card instead. Just for the heck of it, I ran the output of one of my synths through the analog aux input of the card, and routed the cards output back to my monitors. The sound quality was quite bad. Is it a function only of the souncard? I'm planning to get a small analog mixer eventually, but I'm hoping the sound is better. The synth plugged straight into the monitors sounds fine. thanks, Peter "Bad for audio recording". Well, it is a cheap card... however it has good convertes. It can only record at 16 bits @ 48KHz maximum. I guess you must be doing something wrong. Make sure you're using the LINE IN and not the MIC inputs; set the FX off for the "LINE IN" bus and adjust volumes to avoid clipping. My home studio Desktop is SB Live! based and I have never had a problem with it. My NS10's and M2 sound pretty god. Consider the SB Live!'s output is a little amplified therefore you could get distortion. It is a good card for starters. Squeeze its juice... has a lot to offer. Wanna get "pro"?... pay "pro" http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif Músico, Productor, Ingeniero, Tecnólogo Senior Product Manager, América Latina y Caribe - PreSonus at Fender Musical Instruments Company Instagram: guslozada Facebook: Lozada - Música y Tecnología www.guslozada.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krakit Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Since the SB Live has digital inputs, why not just get a digital to analog converter break out box? Carl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete psingpy Posted October 22, 2001 Author Share Posted October 22, 2001 Can you give me a bit more info on the digital to analog breakout box? Would there be a simple (and cheap) way for me to use the SPDIF in and out on the card for the input from a mixer and the output back to the mixer? thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 Originally posted by pete psingpy: Can you give me a bit more info on the digital to analog breakout box? Would there be a simple (and cheap) way for me to use the SPDIF in and out on the card for the input from a mixer and the output back to the mixer? thanks Hello Pete ! You're sooo lucky. Just click on HERE to visit Sound Blaster's page with info about the xpansion digital I/O card and where to buy it... ------------------ Gus Lozada Moderador de: MusicPlayer.com/NuestroForo "La voz en Español en Música y Tecnología" Gus TraX @musicplayer.com Músico, Productor, Ingeniero, Tecnólogo Senior Product Manager, América Latina y Caribe - PreSonus at Fender Musical Instruments Company Instagram: guslozada Facebook: Lozada - Música y Tecnología www.guslozada.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 DANG !! I guess I did not understand you... You already have the digital I/O interface... right? Now... a breakout box... mmmm.... Let try to find some... sorry... this "business english" of mine does not help a lot sometimes... Músico, Productor, Ingeniero, Tecnólogo Senior Product Manager, América Latina y Caribe - PreSonus at Fender Musical Instruments Company Instagram: guslozada Facebook: Lozada - Música y Tecnología www.guslozada.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete psingpy Posted October 22, 2001 Author Share Posted October 22, 2001 That's ok. The card I have has the "Live Drive" which has an optical in and out and a SPDIF in and out. It also has a L/R aux analog input (RCA jacks). How much benefit, if any, would there be going with an external DAC/ADC box of some kind? My synth's outputs are both 1/4" stereo analog and I plan to buy a small analog mixer (I can't afford a digital mixer). Based on one of my other posts here I plan to buy a small mackie 1202 or similar analog starter mixer. The analog output of the soundcard is a small (1/8" inch?) jack. So there must be some trade off between using the analog in and out on the card with the card's internal ADC versus using analog in's and out's on an external box of some sort with it's own DAC/ADC. thanks, Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete psingpy Posted October 30, 2001 Author Share Posted October 30, 2001 Originally posted by GusTraX: "Bad for audio recording". Well, it is a cheap card... however it has good convertes. It can only record at 16 bits @ 48KHz maximum. I guess you must be doing something wrong. Make sure you're using the LINE IN and not the MIC inputs; set the FX off for the "LINE IN" bus and adjust volumes to avoid clipping. My home studio Desktop is SB Live! based and I have never had a problem with it. My NS10's and M2 sound pretty god. Consider the SB Live!'s output is a little amplified therefore you could get distortion. Could it be my cables/adapters? I'm using 10 year old cables and a bunch of various adapters that I scrounged up. I'm using the aux input on the Livedrive (2 RCA plugs) and the 1/8" output on the card itself. I did try the mic input and it was horrible. -Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete psingpy Posted October 30, 2001 Author Share Posted October 30, 2001 Originally posted by GusTraX: "Bad for audio recording". Well, it is a cheap card... however it has good convertes. It can only record at 16 bits @ 48KHz maximum. I guess you must be doing something wrong. Make sure you're using the LINE IN and not the MIC inputs; set the FX off for the "LINE IN" bus and adjust volumes to avoid clipping. My home studio Desktop is SB Live! based and I have never had a problem with it. My NS10's and M2 sound pretty god. Consider the SB Live!'s output is a little amplified therefore you could get distortion. Could it be my cables/adapters? I'm using 10 year old cables and a bunch of various adapters that I scrounged up. I'm using the aux input on the Livedrive (2 RCA plugs) and the 1/8" output on the card itself. I did try the mic input and it was horrible. -Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougP Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 The Soundblaster Audio card that came with my computer was utterly worthless for recording analog audio. The noise floor was something like -30dB on the line inputs! That's worse than cassette. For around $150, I replaced it with an M-Audio "Audiophile" model, which can record at up to 24-bit/96kHz (although if you're making CD's, it all comes out to 16-bit/44.1kHz in the end), and has both digital & MIDI I/O. Short of a "pro" multitrack interface, I'd say the M-Audio is the way to go ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WFTurner Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 If you got some cash go for a better soundcard. If you don't, a SB can give you a start to learning and if your resourceful and creative you can even learn to make a pretty decent recording while your saving for a better card someday. I use a SB Awe32 and Awe64. The 64 I use for recording, the line in has a noise floor of -57. I improve that drastically using CoolEdit 96 noise reduction. The midi/sampler functions on the 64 are clean and close to noiseless. Good Luck William F. Turner Songwriter turnersongs Sometimes the truth is rude... tough shit... get used to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete psingpy Posted October 30, 2001 Author Share Posted October 30, 2001 My actual card is a Soundblaster Platinum 5.1 with LiveDrive. Hopefully this is a little better than the generic Soundblaster cards that come with a lot of computers. How can I find out the noise floor of the inputs...(I have pratically no documentation)? I'm using analog inputs on the Livedrive. Now I'll show my ignorance again; so the lower the noise floor (i.e. the bigger the negative number), the better? What's a "good" noise floor for analog inputs? -Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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