do I need a preamp, or a better soundcard

[rumpus]

Ok so I WAS trying to use an mbox with cubase on my new PIII laptop...but major crackle and fallout made m crazy.

so now I'm going direct into my Crystal WDM sound card with the mic/guitar...and it work but the signal is really low and has a considerable hum.

now, please tell me like I'm a 3 year old...I don't mind being patronised

do I:
need a preamp to boos the signal
need a better soundcard like SB audigy
need a dedicated HD for my cubase work (using the mbox again)

...or all the above

I gather there are no clear answers on the mbox problem.
If you were me and you wanted a quick solution to this, what would you do?

alls I axe lord is is a clear mic recording signal.


p.s. - this is a cool messg board and I'm glad I found it

 

[xstatic]

How about keeping the MBox, and buying the new hard drive to start. Try changing the buffer settings on the mbox. If this still doesn't work, than go get a cheap PRO level sound card (Maudio or something similar) that has a built in preamp. I would recommend the hard rive first becuase it will solve the most problems later and the Mbox may not actually be the culprit.

 

[JoeNovice]

I would recommend using the M-Box with the protools software that came with it. That is how it was designed to work.

Aside from that, everyone who takes CPU recording seriously should have at least two hard drives. One for system and one for audio files only.

Other preamps would also be good, but from my experiece you are wasting your money unless you go ahead and buy top-notch pre's. (ie Avalon, Focurite, Manley, etc.)

Good luck!