Monitoring from interface or soundcard?

[bvp663]

So a thought occured to me the other day, and I thought someone could confirm it for me. I'm working on a mix right now and monitoring through computer speakers, which is the best I can do for now until I get monitors and I prefer them over headphones. I'm monitoring through the soundcard right now, but was curious is plugging the speakers into the headphone out of my interface (Event Ezbus) would yield better results for mixing. The thought here is the Ezbus would have better d/a conversion that the built-in motherboard soundcard on the laptop. Any thoughts?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

The best answer I think is to say that the proof is in the pudding; try a sample mix both ways and see what you think yourself.

I have a Toshiba laptop whose soundcard actually provides scratching noises as I raise and lower the input volume faders in its volume control panel software --- just as if it were a noisy slider or potentiometer on a hardware device! I don't know...maybe that just an added "undocumented feature" It's kind of funny, actually. Then again, maybe the 8-12dB of unwanted positive bias current the Toshiba's sound card adds to my incoming audio signals is another undocumented feature too. And that 's not at all funny, even if I do remove the bias signal in software.

"Factory" soundcards - especially those supplied with laptops - are often of dubious quality for all but the least serious of applications. There are exceptions, of course, but I wouldn't depend on that exception residing on you laptop without testing.

G.