Does the soundcard matter?

J

Joza

New member
Hi!

Let's say I'm mixing audio tracks in my DAW (cubase studio 5). Just mixing, not recording anything. I surely need a powerfull CPU, probably also a good deal of ram and a fast harddrive. All of those I got, but I am wondering that does the soundcard have any importance? Does the quality of the soundcard affect the overal performance at all?

My monitors are connected to the computer trough a usb audio interface, so only my headphones (AKG K-271 - I suppose I can connect them straight to the computer without any headphone amp, right?) are connected to the soundcard. And cubase of course uses it's own asio drivers.

So does the soundcard actually do anything? Does it have to be good or not?
 
To give a little clarification:

When you add an external soundcard to your computer, it REPLACES the internal soundcard.

That cuts it out of the loop completely so yes, the internal POS no longer matters.
 
Well that didn't clarify anything. Unless you call my audio interface a soundcard, I do not have an external soundcard.
 
Uhhhhhh.....yea.... ok, lets get REAL basic. An interface IS a soundcard. A soundcard IS an interface.

A soundcard takes audio information and converts it to digital or digital info from your drive and converts it to audio on the way out.
An external interface takes audio information and converts it to digital or digital info from your drive and converts it to audio on the way out.
Same thing.... get it?

Your usb interface REPLACES your internal soundcard (with, hopefully, better components.)

Don't get confused by words/terms or, better yet, get a real basic recording book to help you through it....
Spend $20 before spending hundred$/thousand$ to show you what you need to get started and how to hook everything up in your studio:
Home Recording for Musicians by Jeff Strong - $16
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Recordin...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273169612&sr=1-1

PC Recording Studios for Dummies - $16
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Stu...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273169612&sr=1-2
You can also pick up this book in most any Borders or Barnes&Noble in the Music Books section!

Another good one is: Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Gui...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215734124&sr=1-1
I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6!!

(Wish I'd had those when I started; would have saved me lots of money and time and grief)
 
There is a lot of confusion with the label 'soundcard'. Anything that converts analog to digital (AD), digital to analog (DA), or analog to digital to analog (ADA) can rightfully claim the label of 'soundcard'. If all of your work is entirely in the digital domain then a 'soundcard' plays no role whatsoever.

It's just a paperweight until you need to hear something.
 
wheelema said:
There is a lot of confusion with the label 'soundcard'. Anything that converts analog to digital (AD), digital to analog (DA), or analog to digital to analog (ADA) can rightfully claim the label of 'soundcard'. If all of your work is entirely in the digital domain then a 'soundcard' plays no role whatsoever.

It's just a paperweight until you need to hear something.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is what I wanted to know. I was just wondering if the sound card would do some of the processing of audio or something like that (in the same way as video card does some of the processing concerning graphics) and therefore affect the performance, but if its just a digital to analog converter then there is no problem. Surely it affects the quality of the sound coming out, but probably not so much that I could really hear it.
 
Everything affects the quality of the sound coming out. The quality of your soundcard/ad/da converter/interface/ cables used to hook up interface to monitors/ quality of your usb cable/ quality of your monitors/speakers etc....
Surely it affects the quality of the sound coming out, but probably not so much that I could really hear it.
Click to expand...
Go listen to an m-audio audiophile, etc. interface, then go listen to an Apogee or a Lavry.
 
Doesn't a better sound card take some of the load of the CPU? You can use more effects, higher track count with a better sound card.? I seem to remember my laptop puking on some sessions that my far less powerfull desktop handled with no problem. Only thing I could put it down to was the pos onboard soundcard on the laptop.
 
Soundcards do not handle any effects processing etc, that's all CPU. Desktops resources are generally better allocated (sharing of IRQs, what is on the same Bus as what else etc) which can often make them handle audio better than laptops even if on paper they don't look as good

As to does the soundcard matter.

YES (to a degree)... although it doesn't handle the processing or manipulation of the audio, it does effect what you hear coming out of the speakers since it's job is converting a digital signal to an analog one that your loudspeakers can play back.

the sound card needs to be good enough that you can trust it to playback sufficiently for you to make an accurate, translatable mix that will sound good on many other systems (Assuming room treatment and everything else is adequately covered off).
If it is good enough then forget about it, no need to worry. if it is not good enough then replace it.
 
Bristol Posse said:
Soundcards do not handle any effects processing etc, that's all CPU. Desktops resources are generally better allocated (sharing of IRQs, what is on the same Bus as what else etc) which can often make them handle audio better than laptops even if on paper they don't look as good.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'm pretty familiar with computer stuff, I'm a hardware support tech by trade. I've always assumed that a better sound card meant better audio processing. But you are right it could be any one component in the laptop that didn't handle audio well. Could it have to do with onboard audio on the laptop vs PCI audio in the desktop?


Thanks for the info, that's pretty helpful. I'm actually dealing with a sound card issue on my desktop that is only going to be used for playback and mixing. I won't be doing any recording with it. If I can use the onboard soundcard that could save me some serious hassles and some cash. I'm gonna give it a shot. I'll let you guys know how it goes.
 
Yonce N Mild said:
Interesting. I'm pretty familiar with computer stuff, I'm a hardware support tech by trade. I've always assumed that a better sound card meant better audio processing. But you are right it could be any one component in the laptop that didn't handle audio well. Could it have to do with onboard audio on the laptop vs PCI audio in the desktop?
Click to expand...

It's not necessarilly onboard vs PCI sound card. More often it's that laptops are usually cramming a lot more on to the same busses and things get in the way of each other and the BIOS is less than great. Sharing IRQs with FW, GPU and sound A/D/a conversion means there are a lot of potential interupts for the last link in the chain for example.

It's far more common in laptops (non mac at least as mac do a better job on the bios since their macbooks are essentially the same as imacs) but is does happen on desktop boards too. A couple of years ago ABIT made a beutiful P35 board but they placed the TI Firewire chips on the same buss and after the ethernet ports which meant that FW had a propensity to throw up audio issues when used with FW interfaces even though they were using the highly regarded TI Chipset

If you know your stuff and have time to play around with re allocating IRQs and turning off uneccessary peripherals and processes you can get around some of the inherent problems in a laptop (if it's giving you problems some just work but it's a crapshoot)
 
I did read the entire post. He is recording through a USB audio interface, which *is not* the soundcard. The soundcard is bypassed , both for recording and playback. He could remove the soundcard from the CPU entirely, and continue recording as he is right now, with no difference. For all practical purposes, a USB interface replaces all functions of the installed soundcard, for the stated purposes.-Richie
 
Well, as I said I do use my headphones trough sound card. This is because I want to be able to switch the output trough windows. Now I can do it by choosing either output trough sound card or trough the usb interface.

But as you said that it actually could make a difference, I will test how my headphones sound trough the interface and see if there is a significant difference.

**testing**

Didn't hear any difference.
 
Richard Monroe said:
I did read the entire post. He is recording through a USB audio interface, which *is not* the soundcard. The soundcard is bypassed , both for recording and playback. He could remove the soundcard from the CPU entirely, and continue recording as he is right now, with no difference. For all practical purposes, a USB interface replaces all functions of the installed soundcard, for the stated purposes.-Richie
Click to expand...

Apologies for miscommunicating, but that post was aimed at Mike. I shouldn't be so touchy. My understanding was that the OP wanted to know if his 'soundcard' contributed any 'horsepower' to the audio manipulation process which... of course... it doesn't. Naturally ADA conversion is necessary if you actually want to hear anything.
 
Yo Joza- I confess I missed that. I wouldn't even plug my headphones into that thing. as long as you can track without latency issues. Plug the cans into the interface. If you want to keep using your soundcard for a monitor section, upgrade the soundcard.-Richie
 
Richard Monroe said:
Yo Joza- I confess I missed that. I wouldn't even plug my headphones into that thing. as long as you can track without latency issues. Plug the cans into the interface. If you want to keep using your soundcard for a monitor section, upgrade the soundcard.-Richie
Click to expand...

Yeah well.. If I plug my headphones to my interface, it playes sound trough both speakers and headphones unless I turn my monitors off from power switches which aren't in the most easiest spot, so I would like to have my headphones on different place.

But well hmm, why couldn't I have two usb audio interfaces. My current one is Edirol UA-1EX so if it doesn't have to be better, then it wouldnt cost much. For my monitors the quality doesnt matter even that much because the room treatment.. just doesn't exist and the acoustics are probably horrible anyway. But those studio headphones are quite good so they might benefit from better interface.

Have you any idea is that kind of ~30€ interface any good (I could buy for example this http://www.thomann.de/index.html?partner_id=97926&page=fi/behringer_ucontrol_uca_202.htm) or what is the prize range of a reasonably good interface for an amateur mixer who doesn't record anything?

Or maybe it should be something like this? http://www.thomann.de/index.html?partner_id=97926&page=fi/esi_dr_dac_nano.htm
 
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