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Post by ha2he on Oct 23, 2009 22:41:07 GMT
Hi Charlie & Friends,
I've read a bit here recently about recording at home into a computer, something I have yet to try. I thought I'd ask about sound cards to see if anyone uses or recommends a specific type. I'm not familiar with sound cards at all and only slightly familiar with graphics cards, I've never had a need of anything special so just use what I have which is a built in sound card and a cheap graphics card which do exactly what I require of them.
The reason I mention graphics cards is because I'm aware of the speed of some of these things and their capabilities with regard to processing power. I've also heard sound cards can suffer from latency problems which can be due to poor processing power which if possible I'd like to avoid.
So, as a starting point I have in mind plugging my Boss GT-8 into a sound card to record whatever comes out of it, which it (GT-8) has the ability to do. As yet I don't intend miking up my amp so that is not an issue but perhaps in the future so the facility could be useful, if indeed that's how to do it, ie. microphone straight to sound card.
A MIDI facility for creating backing tracks/general amusement might also prove useful but not essential.
Computer:- I use a Windows XP PC.
As I said , just a starting point, any thoughts and experiences welcome.
Thanks in advance, Regards, Tim.
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Post by olemuso on Oct 23, 2009 22:59:46 GMT
Hi Tim. Here`s my experience in the matter. Wanted to do multitrack recording on my PC and found that the built-in sound pretty useless so I spent around 60 quid on a Creative Audigy platinum. This is a couple of years ago, by the way I found that the card suffered from bad latency. So then I did my research and decided to get an M-Audio card as these seem to have excellent reports. From the well known auction site I bought an M-Audio 2496 card. It`s a PCI card so connects to the PCI slot inside the PC - not a USB one. I installed it, installed the drivers then spent a couple of hours trying to get the thing to work. Eventually I read the manual and Hey Presto! recorded sound and NO LATENCY All my tracks on this forum have been recorded through the M-Audio card. It also handles MIDI. If I were to change I would stay with M-Audio but go for one of the higher range, like the 1010 which has ten audio ins and outs. I`ve had no trouble at all with this card. There are plenty of other options, some of them in use by other members but I can only advise on the one I know (and love) Regarding graphics... the type of graphics card is not really an issue unless it`s one of those that shares your system RAM, in which case you`d be advised to either make sure your have plenty of RAM or replace the graphics card. That`s about it. Others will be along to give your their experience. Good Luck
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Post by tonybiker on Oct 24, 2009 0:47:59 GMT
Hi Tim
Internal sound cards are better these days but its best to not use an internal sound card due to noise etc than 'can' be picked up. An external has to be the only option.
M Audio do the 'Fast Track'. It has a number of inputs including guitar jack lead as well as XLR/mic lead should you wish to record via mic, vocal or guitar. You can use it to replace your existing internal sound card or just for your recording use.
This sound card was built with guitar in mind rather than other use. There may well be others that do the trick.
Like you have pointed out, you just take your lead from either guitar or effects unit and plug into the unit. It connects to your USB.
You also have connections for head phones or RDC/phono to connect monitor speakers.
As far as I am aware its plug and play.
They ain't cheap so expect to pay £50 plus for one. But like I said, cheaper alternatives are out there, but m-audio is good gear.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2009 18:12:30 GMT
Hi,
Here is an alternative>
Get a Behringer UCA202 audio to usb adapter which has stereo inputs, cost £23 from GAK.
Input your processor to this. Use something like Audacity 1.3.9 beta (free) and record to this. No sound card used or required.
I bought this unit this week and it has transormed my sound and recording.
My setup is: Guitar to Magicstomp to V-Amp2 to Behringer usb device to computer USB to Audacity. Simples!
I was amazed at the change, and no latency to worry about.
Hope this helps>
Regards
Ian
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Post by joeboy on Oct 24, 2009 22:21:24 GMT
Hi Tim I tried various sound cards in my recording PC, I tried the built in sound which was next to useless, then I tried a Soundblaster Live which again wasn't up to the job, then an Audigy 2 which suffered from terrible lag. I eventually settled on a 'Creative X-fi Elite Pro' which I find is an excellent card, it is expensive though, you don't get much change out of 200 quid For the money you get a card with all the bells & whistles, a desktop standalone unit about the size of a smallish video player which connects to the card via a very thick solid cable (Even a big solid remote control is supplied). There are a whole host of connections on the back & front of the Desktop unit, you can plug your guitar pre-amp or whatever in the front as it has 2 qtr inch inputs & qtr inch headphone socket, on the back you have various other qtr inch inputs/outputs including midi in & out digital coax in & out digital optical in & out plus many others. It is a great piece of kit & well worth the expense. Lucky for me I picked mine up off the well known auction site it was brand new used only for a 2 week show & then sold on, I picked it up for £95 ;D
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Post by graeme on Oct 24, 2009 22:53:11 GMT
You can spend a lot of money on audio interfaces for a computer (my two channel card cost $500 - ouch!!). On the other hand, the cheap cards and onboard stuff that comes bundled with the average computer are pretty near useless for serious audio work. There are some good choices to be had in the middle range. M-Audio do some nice cards and USB interfaces, for example - but you really need to think about what your requirements are and - more to the point - what they might be in a years time. If you don't do this, you'll quite likely end up having to start again. Whatever route you take, I would advise against any product that comes from Creative Labs - despite all their hype, they are really jumped-up gamers cards and you won't find many serious audio guys using one. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is that the native sample rate of the card is fixed and anything else you feed it with will be automatically re-sampled - this is not a great idea . Even so, you will find their more expensive models a lot better than the one that came with your computer. As far as microphones are concerned, I would not concern myself too much about them at this stage. There are few cards or interfaces that have a really good pre-amp built into them and you are better to go with an external pre-amp when the time comes. One final point, re latency. Latency is a fact of life when using a computer to record. There is no way you can avoid it completely, merely aim to reduce it to a manageable level. When you see claims of 'zero latency' this is usually because the card concerned has a direct monitoring feature - which does, indeed, have zero latency - but that does not take into account what happens when signals have been passed through the computer electronics and you are trying add additional tracks by playing along with previous tracks in a real-time situation - that's when true true latency will hit you in the face.
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Post by ha2he on Oct 26, 2009 10:42:28 GMT
Hi Charlie & Friends,
Thanks to all for sharing your experiences, it's very much appreciated and has pointed me in the right direction and given me a lot to consider.
At the moment and as far as I can see I will only be recording (trying to ;D) a single guitar from my GT-8 although maybe later a miked amp. Then combining with a BT through software.
I quite like the idea of an external unit and the M-Audio Fast Track looks good to me. Also had a look at some Edirol stuff too, so something else to consider. Then of course the Behringer wins on price.
Thanks once again, Regards, Tim.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2009 10:58:04 GMT
Hi Tim,
As I said I use Audacity which is quite easy to use.
Audacity recognizes a number of file types such as MP3 and Wav so I open an MP3 backing track in Audacity and then I record the guitar track alongside. As the sound card is not used there is no latency, if there is I certainly cant perceive it!
I also moniter everything whilst playing with earphones plugged into the Begringer.
Regards
Ian
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