L
liamgre
New member
I'm working on starting a home studio, from scratch, and I really don't know a whole lot. What exactly does the computer's soundcard do, and will I need one better than what comes standard?
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T
TimOBrien
New member
M
Minion
Blow Me !!!
Your sound Card (Or better called a Recording Interface) is one of the Most Important pieces of equipment you will buy for recording audio....
Your standard Sound Card that comes with your PC will usually only record One stereo track at a Time and it uses low quality AD/DA Converters(14-18bit) so they are not meant for any real recording tasks.....
The sound Card (Interface) is what Takes what you want to record and Converts it to digital and sends it to your PC were the software processes it and writes it to your Hard drive so it is one of the Most important parts of your signal chain.....
You can spend anywere from $100 to several thousand on an Interface depending on the quality of the converters and number of channels and features it provides so if you need some recomendations on what type of Interface to get you will have to give us some information on what your needs are...
Like how many Channels you want to record at once??
What Equipment do you allready have??
What is your budget??
Do you need an Interface that has Built in Preamps or do you want to use outboard preamps that you allready own?? (Allmost every input will need a preamp and some Interfaces have them built in and some don"t)
And any other relevant info....
Cheers
Your standard Sound Card that comes with your PC will usually only record One stereo track at a Time and it uses low quality AD/DA Converters(14-18bit) so they are not meant for any real recording tasks.....
The sound Card (Interface) is what Takes what you want to record and Converts it to digital and sends it to your PC were the software processes it and writes it to your Hard drive so it is one of the Most important parts of your signal chain.....
You can spend anywere from $100 to several thousand on an Interface depending on the quality of the converters and number of channels and features it provides so if you need some recomendations on what type of Interface to get you will have to give us some information on what your needs are...
Like how many Channels you want to record at once??
What Equipment do you allready have??
What is your budget??
Do you need an Interface that has Built in Preamps or do you want to use outboard preamps that you allready own?? (Allmost every input will need a preamp and some Interfaces have them built in and some don"t)
And any other relevant info....
Cheers
T
travelin travis
New member
normal stereo sound cards can record two tracks at a time, if i'm not mistaken. left/right = 2 tracks mono. i don't think most people around here even try the sound card they have before upgrading and i've never heard a comparison between a sound blaster type and a real recording type sound card.
R
Robert D
New member
The fundimental job of a soundcard is to convert audio signals into data while recording, and then to convert data into audio signals for playback. This called A/D (analog to digital) and D/A (digital to analog) conversion. No matter how much money you throw into your computer in the fastest CPU, most expensive RAM, yadda yadda.... the soundcard determines how good your computer sounds. As mentioned, it also determines how many tracks you can record at once, with most built in soundcards only allowing 1 stereo, or two mono tracks at a time. If that's all you need for now, then it's a question of whether the quality is good enough for now. A secondary function of the soundcard is to provide preamplification for a mic level signal. Most computer soundcards, or on board sound chips, provide a line level and a mic level input jack. The soundcard may do a decent job with line level signals, but may have a terrible mic preamp. If that's the case, and it often is, then you may get decent results by buying an external mic preamp, and connecting it to the soundcard's line input jack.
Eventually, if you get into this recording endevour, you will want to upgrade to a better interface with more I/O, and better sound. You just have to first evaluate if what you have is usable, and then what your purchase priorities are.
Eventually, if you get into this recording endevour, you will want to upgrade to a better interface with more I/O, and better sound. You just have to first evaluate if what you have is usable, and then what your purchase priorities are.