External audio interface - scam, or necessity? (intel mac)

  • Thread starter Thread starter pazu
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ecc83 said:
Actually when I did the noise floor tests on the KA6 it was sitting ON TOP of the computer that hoses the 2496 and was working!

My point is, external AIs CAN be quieter because they are better designed. I have pointed out at least twice, AIs ARE computers with pre amps! The guitar analogy fails because there is no CPU inside an electric guitar!

Dave.
Click to expand...

Well...not all interfaces have preamps...and the ones that do were designed with audio in mind.
Computers were/are NOT designed with audio in mind...and the real point here is that computers DO generate lots of EMI.

So regardless of what kind of external interface you have...minimizing that EMI is as simple as moving your audio gear further away from the computer. You wanna buck that approach and look for ways not to move audio gear away from the know EMI generating devices...it's your choice.

I mean...it's common practice to not run audio lines parallel and on top of power lines. That's the best-practice scenario.
Does that mean you will always have issues if you do?
No...but again, running them together is bucking that known common sense and best-practice approach.

It's like the DI/Reamp thread.
You can get a couple of purpose built boxes and move on....or you can spend time jury-rigging and trying out 10 other ways to get there and debating about which way is best.
There's times when it's not impossible to follow best-practices, and then you do what you can...but I notice that in home-rec world lots of people often create their own "not possible" situations either out of laziness or simply not willing to spend the money or do what it takes...and then again, they'll look for and try 10 other ways to do it...and keep coming back here looking for the answer to their problem....when it's staring them in the face.

Anyway...nuff said. There's nothing really here to debate about or discover.
Everyone can and will choose what they feel works for them...and I'm not seeing where 5 pages of talk has changed that for anyone here. :)
 
Any DJ will tell you to put in a high bit rate (or lossless) song and turn it up loud on GOOD speakers (QSC, JBL PRX's etc) ... you will notice the difference right away. I could never play a club with a laptop audio chip... it sounds terrible turned up.
 
JLondon said:
Any DJ will tell you to put in a high bit rate (or lossless) song and turn it up loud on GOOD speakers (QSC, JBL PRX's etc) ... you will notice the difference right away. I could never play a club with a laptop audio chip... it sounds terrible turned up.
Click to expand...

The vast majority of DJs are playing stolen mp3s on crappy speakers.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
The vast majority of DJs are playing stolen mp3s on crappy speakers.
Click to expand...

Ha! I remember "disc" discos...Never understood a bloody word the guy said since his voice came from the Japanese SM58 copy he was sucking and shot out from 15" speakers. DJs have NO knowledge of the High Pass Filter nor the Proximity Effect!

Oh yes! And they use peizo horn tweeters that sliced your hair off. 50%THD above 3kHz!

Dave.
 
Why would anyone interested in a good sound card, external or internal, ever convert to MP3?
At that point it doesn't matter. You have ruined the product.
 
Well...

I tend to agree that MP3 is the spawn of the devil and has absolutely no place in the PRODUCTION process.

However, like it or not, it is the prevalent file format for DISTRIBUTION. Maybe this will change as internet speeds go up and storage gets cheaper, or maybe it already has to big a hold on the music world. Anyway, that's not important.

What I take major issue with is the idea that converting to MP3 for distribution means you don't need to be aware of quality issues upstream during recording and mixing. That's simply not the case. Quality issues are cumulative. Something that starts off with a problem will only get worse through the production process and eventual conversion to MP3. On the other hand, a perfect mix, while losing quality going to MP3, will still yield a better distribution copy than something thats poor to start with. Indeed, in some cases, MP3 coding can accentuate the sort of noise problems internal audio cards can cause.

So...even if you convert to MP3 at the end, get as good a recording as you can to start with.
 
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