External Sound Cards

[robloxley]

The majority of the noise that comes out (of the on-board card or creative external) seems to be processor noise and gets worse when the processor is make to work harder. Should I be looking for an externally-powered USB audio interface, rather than USB-bus-powered? Is it a ground loop issue?

[jamesperrett]

The majority of the noise that comes out (of the on-board card or creative external) seems to be processor noise and gets worse when the processor is make to work harder. Should I be looking for an externally-powered USB audio interface, rather than USB-bus-powered? Is it a ground loop issue?

 

The noise from an on board audio interface shouldn't be loud enough to be really objectionable. If it is then that usually points to a ground loop. Does the noise go away if you run the laptop on its batteries?

 

The main problem with on board audio interfaces in laptops tends to be a lack of definition to the sound and a very slight increase in noise when compared to a better external interface.

 

Cheers

 

James.

[dbuckley]

I've got two USB interfaces; the Edirol UA-1A, which had the distinction of being the cheapest USB audio device I could find, and it is pretty wonderful, especially considering how little it cost. It's cheap(+), it has RCAs(-), it works(+), it's reliable(+++) and it beats the hell out of the muck that comes out of the Thinkpad's headphone socket(++++++). I'd never use anything other than an external audio interface on a lappie when it matters. For rehearsal purposes the headphone output "will do".

 

I've also got a Behringer BCA2000, and dont get one of these. If the software worked it would be brilliant. I was hoping that for the most common sorts of shows I do I wouldn't need to bring a mixer, the BCA2000 would do enough. What the literature and user interfacer implies is that you can have is three sets of stereo outputs on Windows WMA devices. It cant; it can have one, the other four outputs are ASIO only, and worse than that, the WMA drivers become "detached" from the BCA2000 after a while, so the audio starts looping. This happens on record as well as playback. Brilliant bit of hardware, perfect for my needs, let down by atrocious software, making the bloody thing next to useless. I only keep it as its got a couple of phantom powered balanced inputs, so is handy for recording occasionally.

[robloxley]

The majority of the noise that comes out (of the on-board card or creative external) seems to be processor noise and gets worse when the processor is make to work harder. Should I be looking for an externally-powered USB audio interface, rather than USB-bus-powered? Is it a ground loop issue?

The noise from an on board audio interface shouldn't be loud enough to be really objectionable. If it is then that usually points to a ground loop. Does the noise go away if you run the laptop on its batteries?

It's a desktop PC.

[DavidLee]

The main problem with on board audio interfaces in laptops tends to be a lack of definition to the sound and a very slight increase in noise when compared to a better external interface.

 

Actually the main problem with on board audio interfaces in laptops really is that many only have a mono mic input and no line in.

 

David

[paulears]

Desktop PCs frequently have such amazing demands for quality audio that they fit £10 OEM soundcards, or even cheaper on board generic chips. Signal to noise, crosstalk specs and quality of midi sounds are very low on the pecking order - as long as they work, that's often good enough. Proper external (or internal) devices that are designed for quality audio are a different beast entirely. The data noise in the background on internal cards is hardly surprising given that they are unscreened, in the middle of huge amounts of unscreened data carrying cables. The fact they work at all is quite an achievement. Soundblaster have had cheap game cards and expensive audio quality cards in the range for years - it's just that the average user is happy with the cheap ones.

[alex_kyuss]

I have a pc (desktop) with a E-MU 18 - 20m pci sound card in it and it sound fantastic, but not cheap. Resently I have noticed they have brought out a 16 in 16 out laptop version retailing for about £270 although I haven't used this If its anything like the earlier models this sould be a great product. But it does have the same ADC as Protools HD 192 converters

with a 120dB signal-to-noise ratio. Hope that helps

Cheers

[Arran]

The majority of the noise that comes out (of the on-board card or creative external) seems to be processor noise and gets worse when the processor is make to work harder.

 

Have you checked if the Modem/Phone and Mic are muted in Volume Control on your PC? They're the most common source of noise.