Can I keep my onboard audio intact?

[AlamedaTom]

A few weeks ago I recorded a song that I wrote, with me doing the vocal and a guitar part on a Taylor 710 and my long-time guitar teacher (a professional performing musician) on his Strato. We did it in a professional studio and it came out even better than I had hoped. Anyway, this inspired me to set up a bare-bones studio in my home office where I can record and mix guitar tracks, vocals,flute and blues harmonica tracks that I would be performing. I also might on occasion have another player.

I've ordered what I believe to be the necessary hardware and software and it should arrive on Wednesday. My computer is a Dell 8400 3ghz, 512 memory, with a fast 180gig hard drive. For an audio interface I have chosen the M-Audio Audiophile 192, which should be just fine for my limited purpose.

Here is my question: I have an expensive, kick-ass Klipsch THX desktop speaker set up with sub-woofer that is currently running from the OEM 1/8 inch miniplug that is plugged into the "line-in" female on the onboard Soundmax soundcard. I play a lot of MP3's, Rhapsody, and internet radio through these little guys and they sound really fabulous. What is going to happen when I install the M-Audio 192 PCI card?

1. Can I keep the current settings so that MP3, et. al. continue to play through the Klipsch's and just use the M-Audio 192 when doing recording studio work under Cakewalk Home Studio 2?

2. Or, should I try to bypass the onboard audio entirely and use the Klipsch's as monitors and redirct all my MP3 and system sounds to the 192 card? If so, how would I connect the 192 card to the 1/8" mini plug on the Klipsch system, and how would I redirect everything else to the 192 card?

I think if I had my 'druthers, I'd like to opt for choice 1. Ya' know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Your thoughts and guidance will be greatly appreciated. It seems to me that this is a dilemma that all newbies will face unless they are setting up a dedicated DAW, so maybe this would be a good "stickie topic."

Tom

[Sampler]

Originally Posted by AlamedaTom

1. Can I keep the current settings so that MP3, et. al. continue to play through the Klipsch's and just use the M-Audio 192 when doing recording studio work under Cakewalk Home Studio 2?

2. Or, should I try to bypass the onboard audio entirely and use the Klipsch's as monitors and redirct all my MP3 and system sounds to the 192 card? If so, how would I connect the 192 card to the 1/8" mini plug on the Klipsch system, and how would I redirect everything else to the 192 card?

You can do it either way. If you're using Windows, go to the Control Panel and then go to the "Speech and Audio Device Manager". You can select which card to be used for different tasks. You might consider getting a cheap pair of computer speakers to be used for your "computer sounds" so you can use the Klipsch as your monitoring system. Everything can be adjusted and selected in the Control Panel.

The 1/8" plug is a stereo cabel, so you will need an adapter to connect it to the output(s) of your sound card.

[AlamedaTom]

Thanks Sampler. My control panel (Windows XP professional) has "Sound and Audio Devices Properties" and one of the tabs is "Audio." Clicking on that shows Default device = SoundMAX Digital Audio (the only current option), Sound recording = AK5370 (the SoundMAX Card is another option), and Midi Music Playback = Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth (the only current option). I infer that after I install the M-Audio 192 card it will show up as another option for all of these choices, right?

[EdWonbass]

That is correct.

[Sampler]

Yes. The "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" simply routes the sound through your internal sound card. Once you have the M-Audio 192, you will be able to select that as your playback device.