Sound Cards

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bobober

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I've been using my normal computer for recording, it's just not working and I get epic latency and it's so annoying, I've tried changing buffer size, it's just not happening

Fortunatly we're getting a new computer and with a new sound card, specifically, The creative Sound Blaster x-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express Sound CArd - 96kHx - 24-bit

I was wondering if I would be able to get good quality latency free recordings of this

By the way the audio interface I use is an Alesis 16USB (http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?ref=gbase&Track=MMIX16USB) which records into two stereo tracks

If you need any more information to answer my question, please ask :)
and I'm new to the forum, hello :)
Thanks
 
If you're connecting to the computer via USB then you are using the Alesis as an external sound card and the SB X-FI isn't doing anything, the sound has already been converted to digital by the Alesis unit to be streamed over usb. In this case, you should turn off the SB card when recording to avoid driver conflicts.

If you are connecting analog outs of the Alesis to the Soundblaster card then the soundblaster is handling the conversion from Analog to Digital.

While Soundblaster claims they do this well, they don't do it as well as a dedicated outboard audio production soundcard. SB adds some distortion in the mid range (which is unfortunately where it is most noticable). Whether o not this is a problem in your set up is really dependant on the overall quality of the finished product you are looking for. An SB card will allow you to make recordings of a fair quality and if that's all you need then that is enough.
 
ok first of all.... (i am new to this)
SB is standing for... im guessing basically a sound card

and how do I go about turning the sound card of ?
Its fairly weird... the sound that normally goes through the speakers goes through the mixer by defualt when you plug it in... is that because when you plug it in... it effectivly becomes the prominant sound card

ok thanks for all the input so far.
 
bobober said:
ok first of all.... (i am new to this)
SB is standing for... im guessing basically a sound card

and how do I go about turning the sound card of ?
Its fairly weird... the sound that normally goes through the speakers goes through the mixer by defualt when you plug it in... is that because when you plug it in... it effectivly becomes the prominant sound card

ok thanks for all the input so far.
Click to expand...


SB = Soundblaster
If you are plugging the mixer in via USB then the Alesis Mixer becomes the soundcard. Data is streamed back and forth over the USB Connection

In this case you can turn off the Soundbaster card in the device manager (right click my computer, go to properties and then the hardware tab and just set the SB Card to disabled)
 
ok thanks very much :)
no doubt i will be asking alot more questions in times to come

so it looks like theres no need for me to buy a new soundcard now.
 
As others have noted, the interface becomes the soundcard, so it is from this that you would hook up your speakers, headphones etc. You don't necessarily need to turn off the internal soundcard . . . in your music software you just select the interface as the audio device.
 
I'd like to add to be sure you are using the Alesis ASIO driver. If you haven't done so, install it and be sure to select THAT driver in your audio software.
If you're not using it, you can expect high latency issues.
 
If possible, I'd physically take the SB out of the computer. If it's integrated on the mobo, then disable it in bios so it's not even available to the OS.
 
i would take the sound card out but the computer is shared and having the mixer around constantly would annoy, espicailly as they use it for work, I will just change the relevent settings when I use it

Just trying to find the right driver.... could I use ASIOforall?
I just looked at the manual as it recommened getting ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Driver if we had latency
I cant seem to find it. No drivers are on the disk.
 
ASIO4all is a band-aid and great little hack, but not a cure.

You REALLY want to get another soundcard (and you can add one externally using USB) to keep from using the gamer or on-board card.
 
I thought i could use the mixer as the sound card so why would I need an additional one ?
 
bobober said:
Just trying to find the right driver.... could I use ASIOforall?
I just looked at the manual as it recommened getting ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Driver if we had latency
I cant seem to find it. No drivers are on the disk.
Click to expand...


You don't want ASIO4ALL, nor the DirectX driver. I think you read the manual wrong if it's recommending the DirectX driver. DirectX is for applications that don't support ASIO. Most, if not all, audio recording software like Cubase support ASIO. You want the ASIO driver. If you don't have a copy, you can get it here.

http://www.alesis.com/multimix16usb20

After installing the driver, be sure to select it in your audio program. The multimix ships with Cubase LE, that's the program you should use to take advantage of the ASIO benefits.
 
sorry that wasnt clear

not my mixer but the mixer to which you provided the link to
 
That's weird they would use a windows driver to run the Multimix, but it does say ASIO and that's what you want. Using DirectX is adding another layer of processing to your signal. Most other companies write their own driver for their interfaces instead of using a windows generic driver.

I dont know if the driver for the USB 2.0 is the same or not, wouldn't hurt to try it. If it doesn't work, you can uninstall or just not select in Cubase.
 
ok today is the first opertunity ive had to try and have a play with this, ive fiddled with drivers an im still getting ridiculous latency, and help would be greatly apreciated
i just dont know what to try doing
thanks
 
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