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Posted by RoBDaWG on Nov-17-2005 18:27:

Soundcard / ASIO question

Hi, I want to start producing trance music that sounds just like DJ Tiesto or Ferry Corsten or Armin Van Buuren, how do I do that? I want to learn how to make a good kick or a supersaw, Are there programs I can use.... ok ahahahh just kidding.... to my real question...

I just got my Midiman Keystation USB midi keyboard back from a friend that I lent it to now that I kind of have an idea of what I'm doing in FL Studio. The Delay on it is terrible. I tried fucking with the latency under audio settings but that was no help.

I just have an onboard soundcard, which I'm sure is my reason. I just read up on ASIO and it seems I should get a soundcard with it.

Any advice on what I should go with? I'm sure I don't need top of the line, I'm still totally in the learning stage, but I want to make sure I get at least enough (as with my DJ equipment eons ago I made the mistake of buying cheap shit to save money and it ended up costing me more in the long run once I learned what I was doing).

Thanks in advance guys!

edit: for the record I have a Dell Desktop, Pentium 4, 2.2GHz, 640 MB of RAM

Posted by Degradation on Nov-17-2005 18:42:

Try some of the less expensive but lowest latency cards from:

Echo
E-MU
M-Audio

Or you can go for a USB device like the Novation Speedio

These should all be around $100

Posted by RoBDaWG on Nov-17-2005 18:53:

Posted by Low Profile on Nov-17-2005 19:37:

Re: Soundcard / ASIO question

quote:
Originally posted by RoBDaWG
I just got my Midiman Keystation USB midi keyboard back from a friend that I lent it to now that I kind of have an idea of what I'm doing in FL Studio. The Delay on it is terrible. I tried fucking with the latency under audio settings but that was no help.

Just to clarify, it's actually not the keyboard that is lagging, the midi latency is only 1-2ms, it's the audio that's lagging (the time that passes after the synth plays a sound and until the sound reaces your soundcard and you speakers).... but you probably already know that since you're asking about ASIO

Anyway, you can gett decent latency with Asio4All Drivers, they are global drivers and work for 95% of all soundcards, by using that you should be able to play some synths in realtime and lower your latency to 15-20ms with a standard built in soundcard. But a decent soundcard is a must if you're serious about music production. I recommend M-Audio cards, I have a Delta 44 myself and it's amazing! ... Might also want to check out E-mu's, The 0404 is supposed to be really good, and for a 150$ you can get that card and the Proteus X Sampling workstation, that deal is hard to pass up... But I have heard E-mu drivers are not the best, just try and find some info about the cards before you purchase.

But IMO it's M-Audio all the way .... I Even got a M-Audio/Midiman Keystation myself, wishing for a Trigger Finger for X-mas

Posted by RoBDaWG on Nov-17-2005 21:40:

Great information, thank you so much!

edit: just installed the ASIO4ALL driver, works PERFECT! Thanx!

Posted by Kev K on Nov-18-2005 03:48:

quote:
Originally posted by Degradation
Try some of the less expensive but lowest latency cards from:

Echo
E-MU
M-Audio

Or you can go for a USB device like the Novation Speedio

These should all be around $100

True.

But I recommend the Terratec DMX6Fire which comes with a breakout box.

App. 109GBP online.

I bought one over a year ago and I can get latency down to 23ms using the asio driver in FL Studio. The delay for me isnt a problem at that latency and the sound and sampling quality is good enough that I don't notice anything bad about it.

See this article in sound on sound:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Apr...erratecdmx6.asp

Thats what convinced me when I was looking to upgrade from a Creative Soundblaster 1024 Live.

Happy hunting.

P.S, i'm currently studying sound engineering, HND 2nd year at Stow college in Glasgow so I know a wee bit about this stuff but sound cards are like anything else, more money = more quality it just depends how far you want to go with it.

Posted by hey cheggy on Nov-19-2005 02:30:

Be careful, I had a desktop computer and because it was a little smaller than the average computer, I was not able to fit my sound card into the PCI slot, it just wasn't big enough. So check that you have a full size PCI slot and if not, you will need to go for a USB model.