Keyboard recording: what sound card?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mental Floss
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Mental Floss

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Hi all,

I have some questions regarding sound cards. Soon I'm going to buy a new computer and the card I've been advised is the Creative Sound Blaster X-fi Music, but I'm not quite sure if this is the right choice for me.

I'm a complete n00b when it comes to hardware, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm mainly a keyboard player myself so audio recording is very important to me (especially my keyboard sound, maybe later some vocals too) and my computer is going to be my main music player too, so that's also a reason why I want good sound quality. ;)

So I hope anyone has some ideas about what would be the perfect sound card for me (or if I should just go with onboard sound - my mobo is an Asus A8V-E SE 939).

Thanks. :)
 
Well if your Keyboard has midi capabilities (Which it should) then all you need is a simple Midi interface then you can record your Keyboard digitally and make it sound like pretty much anything useing VSTI"s and other Plugins.....

if you want to also record other Instruments and Vocals then Maybe something like a M-Audio Delta 66 would be a good choice, It will let you record from 4 Analogue audio sources and Midi and I believe it also has a digial audio input/output for connecting a Dat machine or something....

The delta 66 is probably about $150 US or even less and has good converters and uses a regular PCI slot which most machines should have at least one of....

I"m sure if you look arround this forum you will find many Interfaces Talked about and you can get a good idea that way of what each interface can do and there is allways Google...

Good Luck

Cheers :)
 
I've been advised is the Creative Sound Blaster X-fi Music
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Not very good advice. For recording, those cards are a no-no
 
altitude909 said:
Not very good advice. For recording, those cards are a no-no
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True. And if you are into record "your keyboard sound" then you need an audio interface. Search around this board, there have literally been hundreds of threads asking "which interface is best for me?".
 
Minion: yes it has midi capabilities... ;) (It's a Korg N364, to be specific.) I just also want to be able to record the synth's own sounds for I'm not much into softsynths (although I probably will be, reading this forum made me interested).
And with this M-Audio Delta 66... the way you say it sounds like the only important feature of a sound card is the amount/kind of in- and ouputs the card has. This may well be a stupid question, but... do sound cards affect the sound quality of the recorded music or am I entirely wrong there?
I will check out the card btw, thanks. :)

altitude909: I already thought so... but it's nice to have that thought confirmed. :)
 
do sound cards affect the sound quality of the recorded music or am I entirely wrong there?
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They do based on their convertors (analog to digital) but for the most part, that difference is small and only ppl with a very good ear and some hardware will be able to tell the differences. The problem with the creative is that it only supports a 48K samplerate and converts all others on the fly, this wreaks havoc with realtime audio programs. Anything M-Audio or similar will work well (and cost less the x-fi)
 
altitude909 said:
They do based on their convertors (analog to digital) but for the most part, that difference is small and only ppl with a very good ear and some hardware will be able to tell the differences.
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Ok, that clears things up for me... :)

So then... If the real importance lies in the in- and outputs... shouldn't I just go with onboard sound, since I won't be recording several instruments at the same time?

Oh, and another small question: the soundcard of my current PC has a 1/8" line in and line out, and my synth obviously has 1/4" so the recording I have done until now I have always used a 1/4" to 1/8" converter. Is it important to have 1/4" in- and outputs? (I looked up the M-Audio Delta 66 and I noticed everything was 1/4", that's why I thought of it. ;))
 
Thanks for the link! I feel like I'm finally beginning to get a clue about how these things work... but I have alot to learn.

For so far the M-Audio Delta 66 Minion mentioned sounds good to me, espescially since I can also afford it... I'm only a poor student, I can't spend €500 on an audio interface. ;)
 
One more question... Is this M-audio delta 66 compatible with Cubase SX? Cos I read Ableton Live Lite 4 comes with this card and I wondered how well the card will perform with other music recording software...

Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid, but after reading TimOBrien's link I've become very scared of driver incompatibilities and all that... and I really don't know where to look to figure it out. ;)

Thanks in advance. :)
 
What if I want to record bleeps and boops? (I know what a beep is, not entirely sure about the boop though!)

Seriously, I've been running the M-Audio Delta 44 since 2000 (yep, ~7 years ago) and it has yet to fail me! Great card, does what it does (4 Ins, and 4 outs, that's all!) and is fairly inexpensive. Is it a Apogee? no! But it costs alot less than one.

TimOBrien said:
Rule #1 of Home Recording: ALWAYS replace the on-board soundcard.
They are made with 25cents worth of parts and are made for light gaming, beeps and boops ONLY.

Good guide with reccomendations here:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm
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gordone said:
What if I want to record bleeps and boops? (I know what a beep is, not entirely sure about the boop though!)

Seriously, I've been running the M-Audio Delta 44 since 2000 (yep, ~7 years ago) and it has yet to fail me! Great card, does what it does (4 Ins, and 4 outs, that's all!) and is fairly inexpensive. Is it a Apogee? no! But it costs alot less than one.
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Alright! And what software do you use for recording? :)
 
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