Help Me Shop For Sound Card! :d

[Phyrnna]

Hi everyone!

I'm deciding that with my current workstation for audio, I can't really make anything better than what I'm doing now as I've taken it to it's limit already.

If you're curious, I use a 2yr old laptop, Vista OS, 1.7ghz, 1gb RAM, on-board soundcard. UGH.

So, I'm going to go make a bit of an investment in a decent laptop that can handle stuff that I throw at it. Since it's cheaper to get a compy-saavy person to build it, I'm buying my own parts myself. However they (and the computer stores) have no idea what's a good soundcard for music production. Only what's good for Gaming and music, and from what I researched those all color the signals like a Skullcandy.

Soooo....

Presuming that there are others around here that know this, I'm asking for help and recommendations for good soundcards for music production. I'm not super techsaavy, but I'm not computer dumb either, so providing techspecs would be nice. :D As far as budget goes... I'm not looking to go all the way professional so something under the $200 mark would be nice. Although feel free to toss out some of the higher end stuff just so that I know what's out there whenever I feel like going professional and all out.

Thank you to everyone ahead of time, and I really appreciate your help.

~Phyrnna ^_^

[loansindi]

At 11/12/09 05:57 AM, HalcyonicFalconX wrote:

So, I'm going to go make a bit of an investment in a decent laptop that can handle stuff that I throw at it. Since it's cheaper to get a compy-saavy person to build it,

Wait. You're expecting to build your own laptop? That's not really within the realm of reality. A laptop generally contains quite a bit of custom-manufactured hardware to make everything fit.

As far as sound hardware, your best bet is to look for an external USB/firewire interface from companies like m-audio or presonus.

[Back-From-Purgatory]

I can't really make any recommendations as you set you budget at $200, which isn't enough to build a desktop PC worth a shit, let alone a laptop (Building a laptop from scratch will cost you AT LEAST double).

Just saying, if you want a decent computer for audio production, it's going to set you back a lot more than $200, a decent audio card by itself could take up that whole budget of yours.

[loansindi]

At 11/12/09 06:10 AM, Back-From-Purgatory wrote: Just saying, if you want a decent computer for audio production, it's going to set you back a lot more than $200, a decent audio card by itself could take up that whole budget of yours.

I think he meant $200 for the sound hardware, which is plenty.

The Fasttrack Pro is a great unit. It's got two mic pres with phantom, and the outputs give you a variety of options to connect amps/monitors to your computer. Plus you can run pro tools with it if you like.

[Phyrnna]

Oh shoot. I'm so sorry. I meant DESKTOP >_< I'm not building a laptop.

[loansindi]

At 11/12/09 06:30 AM, HalcyonicFalconX wrote: Oh shoot. I'm so sorry. I meant DESKTOP >_< I'm not building a laptop.

Thank god. That's much more believable.

Tell us more about what exactly your audio production process entails, because it's hard to recommend a product without knwoing how it's going to be used.

That said, make sure you don't skimp on your desktop's other hardware, they'll be far more telling than the sound hardware when it comes to production.

[Phyrnna]

Well, I'd say something that could run software like East West without any trouble. (specs for that can be found here) Also something that won't freeze/crash whenever I have more than five automation clips going at the same time in FL Studio. Certainly what I've worked with and still do clearly doesn't cut it. I do aim to at least be able to produce complex pieces and not have to render them each time to hear what it sounds like. That and perhaps go into recordings (although I have a USB condensor mic).

As for specs for parts that I already have for my desktop... well here's a list.

Relevant parts:

AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-5300CL5D-4GBMQ

Other parts (for those of the curious types):

PNY VCG98GTXPXPB GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Thermaltake Element T VK90001N2Z Black SECC/Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

I do suppose what I have already would support most any sound card. Only other relevant part that might need consideration is the power supply, which I am looking to get a 700w one.

[loansindi]

Honestly most of the performance is going to fall to the CPU, rather than the sound card.

[Phyrnna]

Yeah. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't a good sound card work better for monitoring your music? Especially if gamer cards are advertising "Bass Boost" and whatnots... I suppose there are those that are made to just sound accurate.

[loansindi]

At 11/12/09 07:00 AM, HalcyonicFalconX wrote: Yeah. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't a good sound card work better for monitoring your music?

i think you should worry more about your speakers/headphones coloring your sound than the sound hardware.

[KrisSumara]

Well most the lag coming form your playack is going to be from the lack of cpu power. Get an intell because the intel cpu run cooler than the amd models and that means you can overclock them to go faster.

I would get this. CPU 1

and if your have them money to get sometin else try getting this model since it is quad and its faster. Quad cpu

Like I said, most of the lag coming form your plabak is going to be the lack of cpu power. Get a good cpu and atleast 4 gb of ram, that should get tou covered. Try getting a 9600 card an use the extra money for cpu power. or a sound card get a fatality series card, or a soundblaster.

They are quite goodif you ask me, my friend has a fatality6 card and its quite good. His quality in games are much betterand whe he makes music all the souhnds are clear as diamonds.

If you have other tech prpblems just send me a mail, I am quite good at tech tuff with cmputers and whats good and what s not.

[Back-From-Purgatory]

My bad, damn tired, missed the part about the 200 being the budget for just the sound card... I'd add more but seems everything I would add has pretty much been covered already.

Personally, I'm running a core 2 duo 3 Ghz CPU with 6 gigs of RAM, on board high definition sound. It's leaps and bounds beyond what I had before. When using my old PC with FL studio, anything with relatively low bass or more than 4 things playing at once I would crack and pop like no tomorrow... Now I have yet to run into any problems with playback... It's great recording/producing without sound cutouts/pops.
Granted I built this PC mostly for gaming, but it just so happens to work real well for music production as well.

Good luck on your build.

[nathanallenpinard]

i think you should worry more about your speakers/headphones coloring your sound than the sound hardware.

True, but you DON'T want a gamer card. It's not built for production audio, and absolutely colors the sound with non-configurable DSP most of the time.

East West samples won't change in performance hardly with a new card, unless the card is having trouble with mutiple tracks and bad latency.

Also, get a 64bit OS, and get 8gb RAM. 4gb won't be enough if your going to heavily use East West.

[Phyrnna]

At 11/12/09 08:12 AM, nathanallenpinard wrote:

i think you should worry more about your speakers/headphones coloring your sound than the sound hardware.

True, but you DON'T want a gamer card. It's not built for production audio, and absolutely colors the sound with non-configurable DSP most of the time.

East West samples won't change in performance hardly with a new card, unless the card is having trouble with mutiple tracks and bad latency.

Also, get a 64bit OS, and get 8gb RAM. 4gb won't be enough if your going to heavily use East West.

As far as the OS, I'm aiming to get 64bit Windows 7 Ultimate installed on it. The RAM is something I'm trying to see if I can get enough money for, since 8gb is so expensive. D:

[Phyrnna]

I love the replies so far also. Can anyone perhaps give me a brand of sound cards that are good (and aren't gamer cards)?

[loansindi]

At 11/12/09 01:46 PM, HalcyonicFalconX wrote: I love the replies so far also. Can anyone perhaps give me a brand of sound cards that are good (and aren't gamer cards)?

Like I said, for serious audio production you'd be well served to check out something like m-audio.

If an external unit isn't your game, there's a wide range of pci options which still offer a variety of connectivity.

[Reaper93]

Sound cards will very rarely actually color your sound. They will have the option, most times, but they won't do it themselves without you telling them to.

Really any sound card will do fine. They're all a lot better and more isolated than integrated chipsets.