which soundcard for this particular need?

[BHead]

Hi! A lost newbie in the computer recording world ...

Not really, I don't record using my computer. I record all the tracks on my BR-8 and use its WAV convertor to convert the tracks into WAV and do the mixing on my computer with Vegas and its plug-ins. The computer I am using is a P4 2.4G with 512M 333-DDR RAM and a 40G Maxtor hard drive. The sound "system" comes with the motherboard (which I know is not good).

My problem is whenever I play 4 or 5 tracks with plug-ins (about 4 to 5 each track) simultaneously, there is a lot of dragging in the sound. It is like the computer doesn't have enough memory to support the load. Is it the case? My guess is 512M RAM should be good enough to afford the load. Is it the sh!tty "soundcard"?

Does a soundcard come with "RAM"? (yeah, if you didn't know I'm a complete newbie, now you know ...) Would a particular type of soundcard fit my need more (playback and mixing multitrack WAV)? Usually I have 8-10 tracks for a song and 4-5 plug-ins each track.

Thanks!

 

[Stealthtech]

512 Ram should be fine. Some cards do come with onboard processing but only a few. You could get an audiophile 2496 at a good price from ebay or retail at $175.
This card would serve your purpose well. Probably the best entry level card out there {up to 24/96 recording with 2 analog in and 2 analog out, sp/dif, and midi combined}

 

[Nosferous]

Negative on soundcard with RAM.

And even with on-board sound, if it's on a Motherboard that can support a P4, it shouldn't be that sluggish. I've never had sluggish sound, unless it was imported audio or something and I have the tempo in cakewalk set lower than the actual tempo.

This even goes for my 500MHz AMD K6-2, with CW Pro Audio 9, with 512MB of PC-133 RAM just a little over a year ago, with on-board sound.

But maybe Vegas doesn't just drop out when things get crazy and it just TRIES to manage the load.

You might want to confirm the RAM is in-place. There's a good possibility the RAM is bad.

I don't think a new sound card is going to solve your problem, are you running XP?

Not sure how resource hungry Vegas may be.
Your specs sound fine, it should run 5-8 tracks with-out a hitch. I mean, the audio may sound crackly and fuzzy, but it shouldn't chug along.

that's all I can think of at the moment, now for someone else to actually answer your problem ...

 

[James Argo]

I don't think a new sound card is going to solve your problem...

Most case, it will. The main reason will be the driver you install. Poor designed drivers will be pain in the ass, even for top of the class cards. Most of on-board sound device is driven by "poor" driver. It sounds fine for regular multimedia activity, but NOT for serious audio work...


Jaymz

 

[BHead]

Thanks all for your replies!

Stealthtech,

I have heard of Audiophile and I know it would serve my purpose well. BUT since it serves more purposes than I need, I am wondering if there exist some "inferior" (thus cheaper) soundcards that can fit my bill. I will probably consider Audiophile if I am to record using my computer, but I don't plan to do so in the near future though ...

Nosferous,

What you said really worries me ... I'm pretty sure the RAM and the motherboad are pretty decent and working properly. Maybe I should go check if Vegas is a memory-hungry software.

James Argo,

I'm pretty sure an onboard soundcard is sh!tty ... hopefully it's what you said and not what Nosferous said.

 

[MiXit-G]

Even a soundblaster will be a huge improvement over your typical onboard sound chips.

First tell us what your PC specs are, and plan ahead.

Can you see yourself using the computer for recording 8 tracks at a time? or are you happy to lay instruments down one at a time?

Or do you just need it for playback and mixing for burning? seeing you use the br-8 for all your tracking?

dr.colossus(hi doc ) just bought himself a guilimont xp game theatre card, probably more suited for games than anything else but is having great results compared to using the onboard one (and great driver support from microsoft).

BUT and a big but, he only uses it for his final stereo mix down for burning and minor editing like fade ins/outs.

But like james said if you plan on using CPU generated effects, compression etc..a card with a good driver ( e.g ASIO) will make a huge difference to the peformance of your PC, probably the biggest.

I'm running XP with my asio drivers which are not digitaly signed by microsoft, not that its a big problem but it can be a little buggy.

So i recommend if you are spending a bit of dough on a soundcard and want to run XP check if it is endorsed by gatesy or more important make sure you stick with solid manufacturers like RME or (other end of the price range) creative labs.

Hope this helps.