audio interface / soundcard

Robot_G · Post by **Robot_G** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:51 pm

Don't know a lot about hardware, so please bear with me for a minute or two.

I mainly doing electronic music and only own one drummachine, but plan on getting 1 or 2 synth later on. So I won't be recording a whole band at the same time.

So I need a nice and affordable mobile soundcard / audio interface. I guess a audio interface is actually a soundcard that replaces my on board soundcard, when plugged in via usb, usb2 or firewire and is not just a break out box that allows me to plug caples into my computer.

As I understand it there are also soundcards that actually take work away from the cpu, but they aren't actually capable of doing calculations that a vst instrument or audio unit send to the cpu, but use effects that are support by the soundcard (dsp effects?).

Soundcards actually don't make my mixes better, but rather are capable of outputting the digital signal more accurate. So it doesn't matter if I made my mix on my crappy onboard card or with my new nice mobile one, since they don't actually interfer with the processing tasks, correct? (I guess they truly shine if you record something from an outside source)

Last question is about mixing. Is it recommendable to rout the audiosignals of my drummachinge and let's say an analog synth into the computer and do the mixing within it and then just output a master signal or would it be better do mix on external hardware (pros/cons?). I don't believe that you loose the analog quality if you rout an analog synth into your computer, right?

thanks for you time.
If you could suggest a nice and affortable interface, I'd be a happy man.

cheers

Robot_G · Post by **Robot_G** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:09 pm

nodbody?

divonic · Post by **divonic** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:22 pm

did I miss it or did you say what they of computer you have?

Robot_G · Post by **Robot_G** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:32 pm

mac and pc, so looking for something that works on both systems.

Having my eyes on the edirol UA-25, but it seems to be out for a very long time so maybe there's something better out there?

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:48 pm

Check out the Presonus Inspire and the Firebox.

The M-Audio Ozonic is cool too, but maybe too much $$$ for you.

As far as soundcard quality for mixing... I think it's safe to say that it doesn't hurt to have good gear... I guess the answer you hear will depend on who you ask.

Just worry about the song and you're golden.

As far as mixing goes, yeah, if you're using Ableton I would definitely get that drum machine and synth into the computer. You'll be able to take it much further.

clipperer · Post by **clipperer** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:57 pm

hey robot_g
check this thread:

http://www.ableton.com/index.php?main=forum

this is also a thing that maters when buyng a new sound card..i quess. well. thats what ive been told..

clipperer · Post by **clipperer** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:00 pm

it means. there is a difference when rendering/listening music through crappy sound card and cool sound card...

Robot_G · Post by **Robot_G** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:03 pm

the link isn't working. could you post it again?

clipperer · Post by **clipperer** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:57 pm

oh yes of course :

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ng+serious

Robot_G · Post by **Robot_G** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:52 pm

okay so there could be sync problems.

But could somebody confirm me that the thins I've stated about soundcards are about right?