sound card advice

[gothicfires]

I am the type of person who hates having other people doing work for me that I should be able to do for myself, but in this i'm a bit overwhelmed and hate trying to do something that I would take me 100 times longer to figure out than if i just asked.

So...

I need to upgrade the sound card in my computer and need some suggestions on what I should use. I have fl studio and adobe audition, a mic and a preamp. But neither program will register that the microphone is even there. The computer sees it and I could use it as an expensive IM mic, but I have a convenient headset for that.

My computer is running windows 64 bit. 6 gig of ram. I'm not on it to know the exact processing speed but it's at least 2g.

I'm only dabbling so it's not like I need something super fancy but there is the potential that what I record could be used by a friend for his label released music so it's not like i can go bottom of the quality barrel either.

Anyways, thanks for your in advance.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Your software may not 'see' a microphone.

It should see 'built in input l+r', or 'line input l+r', assuming that's what your computer has.

Your mic -> preamp should be connected to one side of this stereo line input.
That's not ideal though, so I'd recommend either

selling the preamp and purchasing a usb audio interface with preamp built in (presonus audio box, tascam us122 etc)

or

buying an interface that doesn't have preamps built in. I know echo have the audiofire 2. I'm sure there are others.


Personally, I'd go for #3. It just keeps life simple.

Either way you're looking at higher quality components that are designed for much more professional audio use, and probably better drivers for lower latency and greater stability.

 

[arcadeko]

Just to say what steeny said in another way... you should get a new soundcard, but really its more than just a soundcard, its an interface, an external hardware device that works in place of your soundcard to convert analog input to digital - traditional soundcards are made primarily for playback so you need to get something specifically made for capturing audio

read teh intro to multi-track recording sticky for more detailed information