Benefits of external sound card on laptop?

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-- Benefits of external sound card on laptop?

Posted by keithos27 on Jul-30-2007 14:58:

Benefits of external sound card on laptop?

Hey guys and gals. I have a MacBook Pro and a Xone 92 mixer. I used to record from my Xone 92 to a PC I had and would record in Sound Forge (version 8 I believe it was). I've since sold off my PC and have a MacBook Pro as my main computer.

If I want to get back to recording my sets (note they're just really for me and my listening pleasure... nothing going out as demos or to be later pressed and sold, haha) is the soundcard provided internally on the laptop "good enough" or is it worth the money to invest in an external sound card? If the latter, what are the benefits? I'm not entirely sure what the differences are?

Thanks,
Keith

Posted by DiscoStew on Jul-30-2007 15:31:

Hey Keith,

The line-in on your Mac is probably good enough for the purpose of recording your mixes. (IMO anyway.) The main reason that DJ's use external sound cards is because it provides multiple inputs and outputs. i.e., if you're using something like Ableton, you can send different channels in the application to different channels on your mixer.

You might be able to get a little better quality if you use a sound card with balanced inputs and use the balanced outputs on your A&H mixer. But, for home use, that's overkill.

Posted by keithos27 on Jul-30-2007 17:48:

Okay thanks Chris, I appreciate it.

-Keith

PS. Want to get together this week to do a little spinning? Hit me up on PM.

Posted by Dojomaster26 on Jul-30-2007 18:08:

Count me in for the mixing

I'm looking at some external USB sound cards with LINE-IN, so that my mixes can be in stereo instead of mono, but price-wise it looks like I'll have to wait a while before I can pick one up...

Posted by DiscoStew on Jul-30-2007 18:18:

quote:
Originally posted by Dojomaster26
Count me in for the mixing

Hey Mike - I just PMed Keith, but to keep you in on the loop too, I would love to meet up and spin with you guys this week, but I have to fly out to Colorado tonight and then I'm in Boston for a couple weeks. Super weak, but it pays the bills.