Why does my Primary Sound Driver sound different than ASIO4ALL on my laptop?

H

Haiko

New member
So it's been a couple months that I've started recording and producing music using FL Studio 12. I've already made 6 songs and they all sound good. However, whenever I try to mix with my Primary Sound Driver (I'll be referring to it from now as PSD for ease of explaining) is sounds pretty different then when I use ASIO4ALL. With my PSD the music sounds more compressed, more kind of bassy, and overall everything close together, but with ASIO4ALL the music sounds less compressed, more far away, and just more detail overall; there is more dynamic range I guess.

So my question is: why is it that they sound different? And which one should I be using?

I've looked online and some have said to turn off audio enhancements on the PSD on windows, and I've done that... but nothing has changed.

My first couple of songs, when I was starting out, I mixed using ASIO4ALL, because that's all the tutorials online, on YouTube told me to do. But when I realized that ASIO4ALL didn't sound like my PSD, I just switched back to my Primary Sound Driver, because that's the driver with which I will always be listening to my songs and everybody else, so I might as well just use that to mix my songs in the first place!

Just a last thing. To test what I was talking about, I also tried bringing in a mainstream professional song into FL Studio and listened to it using my PSD and ASIO4ALL, and it did sound different. Could it be that all my life I've just been using these crappy sound cards on my computer to listen to songs and have just never know what these songs really should sound like...? :(

Thanks in advance for all the feedback. Really appreciated! ;)
 
Does your stock sound card have an audio control panel with different EQ or reverb settings (effects)? If it does - disable them. :)
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Don't use the stock sound card, get a proper audio interface and use the driver that comes with it.
Click to expand...

+1 ^ and make sure the interface has PROPER ASIO drivers! You say you imported a "professional" track to compare? Bet you a USB cable that was an MP3 and they can be nearly perfect 320kbps to total crap at sub 75kbps. The only constant in the world of computer audio is .wav (and the thing that macs use) .

Do you have access to a hi fi system? If so compare an ACTUAL CD to a rip of same.

Dave.
 
No one answered the question - why do they sound different? My guess is that each driver processes sound differently, and thus will be sending different outbound signals.

Indeed there was a lack of hardware info in the OP, but it really isn't very edifying when people simply say things like "get a proper interface and disable your stock sound card." The best interpretation I have of those remarks is that you don't have an answer to the 'why they're different' question, but wish for the OP to ignore that question and simply develop a preference for ASIO driver sound.
 
danhedonia said:
No one answered the question - why do they sound different? My guess is that each driver processes sound differently, and thus will be sending different outbound signals.

Indeed there was a lack of hardware info in the OP, but it really isn't very edifying when people simply say things like "get a proper interface and disable your stock sound card." The best interpretation I have of those remarks is that you don't have an answer to the 'why they're different' question, but wish for the OP to ignore that question and simply develop a preference for ASIO driver sound.
Click to expand...

The only thing that can be suggested without having actual sample to listen to and compare is what has already been suggested, i.e. make sure that the PSD controls are not themselves adding artifacts.

It would be helpful to know what system you are using, what DAW, what you are monitoring with and so on. If you are getting different results using different drivers, then we might be able to hear a difference in the rendered mixes. SO maybe you could post 30 seconds of each.
 
danhedonia said:
No one answered the question - why do they sound different? My guess is that each driver processes sound differently, and thus will be sending different outbound signals.

Indeed there was a lack of hardware info in the OP, but it really isn't very edifying when people simply say things like "get a proper interface and disable your stock sound card." The best interpretation I have of those remarks is that you don't have an answer to the 'why they're different' question, but wish for the OP to ignore that question and simply develop a preference for ASIO driver sound.
Click to expand...

No one can answer the question "why do they sound differently" because there is no objective evidence that they do.

Everyone here is doing the best they can, often with limited information and for people that either don't want to spend $100+ on a "proper" interface or cannot.

THE best and most useful advice IS to get an audio interface and to run ASIO drivers. A very few times the best answer might be "get a USB microphone".

Dave.
 
danhedonia said:
No one answered the question - why do they sound different? My guess is that each driver processes sound differently, and thus will be sending different outbound signals.

Indeed there was a lack of hardware info in the OP, but it really isn't very edifying when people simply say things like "get a proper interface and disable your stock sound card." The best interpretation I have of those remarks is that you don't have an answer to the 'why they're different' question, but wish for the OP to ignore that question and simply develop a preference for ASIO driver sound.
Click to expand...

You criticized the other answers, and yet offered none of your own?
 
As to the question of why they sound different. ....often times internal sound cards are just shit. It's a cost effective device in a computer, a jack of all trades. A dedicated audio device will almost always outperform a stock soundcard.
 
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