Home Studio Problems [M Audiophile 192 Soundcard] HELP!!!

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pennitentiary

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Hello I recently decided to build a home studio setup. These are the following items I purchased in the exact order they are connected:

Studio Projects TB1 Microphone>M Audio Dmp3 Preamp>M Audiophile 192 Soundcard>Pc [1.4Ghz/512Mb Ram/Win Xp Home Sp2]


This is my very first studio setup and I bought everything in one shot. I had problems with the M Audiophile 192 card when I got it and sent it back because every time I tried to install the drivers, than install the pci card, I would boot my pc up and it would freeze at the Win Xp logo screen. The only way to get it to stop freezing was to take the card out. I thought it was faulty so I sent it back and they sent me a new one.

I got the new one and it did the exact same thing. Someone than told me to try the updated version of the drivers for the M Audiophile 192 sound card off the M Audio site. I tried the newer version of the drivers instead of using the older version that came on a cd with the card and it worked. My pc did not freeze and it booted up fine.

I have little to no experience with sound cards and this is where my problem begins. Well I thought I could just attach one of my studio monitor headphones to one of the sound cards output cable things and I'd be able to start mixing what I record. Boy was I wrong... I don't know why but when I attached my headphones to the "L Main Output" the sound from the sound card sounded like crap. It sounds like it's missing volume and very faded even though I have the M Audio Control panel set to max volume. It sounds like theres no bass and very dim. I talked to one of my engineer buddies who has an m audio 2496 card, and he said "well you either have another faulty card or the drivers/installation is broken". I than called M Audio and they told me that in order for me to hear sound well with this card I need to have a mixer or amp thing to boost the sound so I can connect my headphones/speakers to it???

He said that all M Audio cards are very different and that my friend is wrong. He told me to check the device manager in my pc for problems and we found none. So therefore he told me the card is fine but you need to amplify sound on it by using a mixer or whatever. I do not know anything about this and I just want to be able to mix music with my monitor headphones, and possibly buy monitor speakers in the future. For now all I have is headphones and a cd stereo that has really nice speakers. The cd stereo I have has two rca input jacks. I just want to be able to mix songs that are recorded and also be able to listen to cds and music normally like the old "Creative Soundblaster Audigy" $40 sound card I had in this pc before I bought the M Audiophile 192 card. This thing is too confusing and it has so many cable outputs and inputs.

What do I need and can I buy for cheap in order to be able to mix and master with my headphones, stereo, and real studio speakers in the future?

Someone told me a simple $30/$40 mixer. I dunno. I need to know what I need and what cables to buy as well. Or is this not how the card is supposed to function? Meaning I have a bad card it's incompatible? Because I still can't find the reason why the drivers that came with the card didn't work meanwhile it was meant for my OS, and the updated ones off the web did work. This all sounds bad to me and I bought tons of equipment. I cannot keep all of this if my sound card doesn't work. I need to mix and master!!! Please tell me what I need to get this working.

Here is the link to the user manual for my card:

http://www.m-audio.com/images/global/manuals/AP192_UG_EN1.pdf

Here is a picture of the sound card with details:

audiophile192ik2.jpg
 
you need to go from the "main outs" of your audiophile card to the RCA ins on your stereo. end of problem.
You will have to remember to turn off "input monitoring" when you have a microphone hooked up.
cheers
C.
 
no it can't be that simple because my card outputs are 1/4 trs not rca. there is only one s/pdif output on the card, though i don't know what that's for. all i know is i think i have to amplify sound if i'm correct? i mean i don't know much of this soundcard stuff. all i know how to do is mix and master music. so what i'm trying to do is hook up headphones so i can mix and master songs. but i believe i need a mixer or headphone amplifier to amp the sound coming out of the L and R 1/4 trs outputs on the card. therefore i need a good mixer and i don't know which one to get. remember i'm using monitor headphones to mix and master. so i need good sound although i don't know if it matters what mixer i get since the real sound is coming from the card no? i dunno... please help. look at the pictures of my card on my first post and you'll be able to see what i mean.
 
The sound is coming from the card but it would need to go through your mixer without being colored for you to get accurate monitoring. Since the soundcard does the D/A conversion and I don't really use mixers I don't know if that's much of a problem. My first suggestion would be to run the TRS lines into active monitors rather than headphones if possibly but that's more costly than just finding a way to amplify the signal. There are a bunch of headphone amps on the market but from what I've seen they're mostly for 4 or 8 sets, not just a single pair. Would still work but you'd be paying for things you don't need. Behringer makes some but the jury's still out on if their equipment is good or not. They are low-cost, and that's always nice. You could also get a cheap USB output and run your phones off of that. Behringer makes one of those for like $30. Again, I probably wouldn't suggest it for a mixing or mastering application. I also wouldn't suggest headphones, but that's just me.
 
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If the DMP3 had a stereo headphone out you could just run the TRS outs back into that. I don't know a thing about headphone input levels vs output levels on the DMP3. You could do some y cabling with the outs on the DMP3 into a female stereo TRS but I'd talk to someone who knows more than me about headphone inputs before trying something like that. Could be damaging.
 
The M-Audio guy was correct in what he said. All the outputs and inputs are line level, as you will see in most professional devices. Your particular card does not have a built in headphone amp. You will need either powered speakers, or speakers with an amp, or a headphone amp to hook up to this. Conversly, on the inputs you will need to use preamps of some type and not hook up anything directly to the inputs or the same things will be happening on the input side....low volume, bad sound, hard to hear.

H2H
 
Wow thank you both I understand quite a lot more now that you've cleared up some things. Well as it stands now I guess I'm in need of a mixer. I do not want to just buy a headphone amp because I'd find the extra stuff on the mixer useful in the future. One of the things I'm getting in the future are monitor speakers which I don't know if they would need to run on the mixer or standalone straight to the card, but I'd rather have a mixer that can do a lot of stuff instead of running into situations in the future where I have to dish out more cash.

Well like I said for now I will need a mixer so I can connect my headphones to it and finally hear what the sound card sounds like. I need it to do mixing and mastering. I'll be plugging in a cd stereo I have to the mixer as well just for the moment to do some mixing because I have a nice $800 cd stereo with very good speakers. The stereo has only one way of input and that's two rca red/white plugs. I've chosen three mixers right now and I'm listing them below. Please let me know which one you guys recommend out of the three or if you think I should purchase a different mixer you can name altogether.

[Please click on the links and than click on the pictures if you wish to see everything on the boards enlarged]

1. Mackie TAPCO Blend 6

2. Alesis Multimix 6FX

3. Soundcraft COMPACT 4


As mentioned before 3 of the most important things I need in a mixer is headphone(s) jack, a connection so I can hook up my cd stereo speakers that use one rca white and one rca red, and a plug for monitor speakers in case I get some in the future that are not self powered or direct to soundcard monitors you know?


Thank you for your time I appreciate all of your efforts!
 
When I see those 3 names I tend to choose Soundcraft. That being said, Ive never used any of those mixers.
 
Thats the one I wanted too. It says it's for mixing and mastering or something.
 
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