Am I going to need to replace my stock soundcard?

[SublimeKid]

Hello all. I'm just starting to get into this home recording stuff so don't poke at my newbieness too hard. I have a Panasonic Toughbook PIII-700mhz 512ram 20gig internal harddrive, a 120gig external and I am running A.A1.5. The stock sound card is an ESS Allegro which I have no clue about. It's probably not going to be good enough for this application but, I was looking at an Alesis MultiMix 12USB . Am I going to need to replace my sound card if I get that? If I have to replace my card any suggestions on a good card to get? Much thanks. - Landon

 

[Massive Master]

If you have a USB port, you're fine.

Keep in mind that it's likely only two-channels on the USB... The 8-channel mixer isn't going to give you 8 individual channels through the USB. It'll be the stereo mix (or perhaps it'll let you assign channels or what not - Didn't read it all).

 

[manning1]

search under my name for some detailed ideas.
i dont like on board sound or usb. both flakey imho.

 

[warble]

USB would be an option...guess it depends on what you hope to accomplish. Mixed opinions of just how good a USB sound interface will work, and which ones actually WORK. Echo audio has some decent products for laptop use - the Indigo series. Might be some info somewhere in the forums here, or check out their Web site.

The internal sound won't do much for you as they really aren't designed for pro-audio work.

 

[crankz1]

Hello all. I'm just starting to get into this home recording stuff so don't poke at my newbieness too hard. I have a Panasonic Toughbook PIII-700mhz 512ram 20gig internal harddrive, a 120gig external and I am running A.A1.5. The stock sound card is an ESS Allegro which I have no clue about. It's probably not going to be good enough for this application but, I was looking at an Alesis MultiMix 12USB . Am I going to need to replace my sound card if I get that? If I have to replace my card any suggestions on a good card to get? Much thanks. - Landon

First .... the ESS is an internal sound chip integrated into the mother board of your laptop ... physically replacing it is not really an option. However, if you decide to use some other option for an audio device, you can disable usage of the ESS within Windows Device Manager and/or possibly within the BIOS of the laptop.
Secondly .... That Alesis will act as a two channel (stereo) 16 bit soundcard with a mixer hung on the front of it. And wouldn't be much better than getting any other mixer to feed your ESS. You are still limited to only two channels of audio into the computer. The mixer end of it is just allowing you to mix however many input channels the mixer has down to the stereo output, which can sent to the computer via USB.
If you require more than just two simultaneous inputs to the laptop, you should look into something like a Echo Layla Laptop for your audio interface and a Yamaha MG 16/4 for your preamp/mixing needs.
This would put you closer to a pro level and would be a far cry better than any USB option.