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soundcard advice

ok, I have been producing for quite some time now. I use ONLY fruityloops to produce my trax. I have a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1, and I was planning on buying a new soundcard. Do you guys have any suggestions on a soundcard that would be great for SOFTSYNTHS? I am planning on spending around $400US. The reason I want a new soundcard is because, when I am using lots of synths in my songs, its starts to clip a lot, could that be my soundcard? If not, can someone please tell me what the problem might be?

THANKS! [in advance]

Probably not. Don't know what you mean by clip. That could mean you have the output of the synth too high, and the volume clips, you can just turn down the output volume or compress it or whatever,

OR, what I think you mean, is it gets choppy when you use alot of synths. That is because softsynths need alot of CPU power, so best bet is getting a stronger computer.

just use APD drivers....its as good as anything.....8 ms latency in sx...

duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh.......no brain!,....i meant APS drivers

I understand that the quality of the soundcard will affect the quality of the output,
but will the quality of the soundcard affect the quality of sounds you can make on the computer (e.g through softsynths)?

I ask this because if I create some music on my old soundcard and then decide to
upgrade to a better one, will the sounds sound better on the new one or remain as the same quality as the old one.

I hope this is not too confusing

Cheers

nah wont really matter at mixdown...the extra quality is basically for monitoring your mix. as you are writting and producing your tune.cuz when you mix it down it has to be 44.1 and 16 bit to go on cd....It does make a difference for monitoring though. it helps i guess. Even more important though is a good set of studio monitors. Because if you are using a good card and crappy monitors your 'bottlenecking' your setup because with crappy speakers you wont hear ALOT of things in your mix.

"just use APD drivers....its as good as anything.....8 ms latency in sx..."

Dj sound, how do i go about doing that?

actually you can also use KX drivers....you want to delete all Creative software for you SB Live........then download ( do a search for APS driver or KX drivers) and install the new software..

Alright, I'll try it, and I'll tell you how it goes...Thanks a lot!

Can APS or KX drivers be used with any soundcard?
Will it improve the quality of recording and playback of soundcards? Which is the best way to go, APS or KX?

no they can only be used with SB live i think.but with them you get as good quality as my delta 1010 card...(latency and stuff), . but you cannot monitor at 96khz and 24 bit ( most people dont anyways). you can only do 44.1 khz and 16 bit.....bu remeber that is what you will mix down to anyways to put it on a cd......so they are a great option if you wont want to spend $500 for a enw card.......the KX drivers are newer than the APS and they work a bit better.

I know it's a shitty card, but until I upgrade what drivers would you recommend for a SB PCI128?

Cheers

theres probly no aftermarket drivers for that card.sorry i dont know

That would depend on what type of soft synths you're planning to run. If they're ASIO based (VST) get a card that has great ASIO implementation. Most worthwhile soft synths are VST or standalone and use ASIO, so ASIO would be a good choice (Check out cards by RME Hammerfall, MIDIMAN and even Echo Audio). All of course assuming you're on a PC. If you're on a Mac something like a Hammerfall will totally blow your socks off.

i downloaded the KX and I can only say WOW

that saved me a new soundcard for now, definetly


go for the kx drivers instead of buying a new card, it's good enough


[edit]

and I must say that there's a better sound for music overall 2, noticed when i crancked up winamp...at least it sounds like it

Ok I think some people are confused. You can get the most expensive sound card on the market. You still will be limited on the amount of soft synths. Soft synths require alot of processing power. I don't know how fast your Processor is, but if its less the 1ghz. Then i recommend upgrading that before anything.

As to ASIO and Latency... This is only for when you play your midi keyboard so you can hear the sounds in real time. The lower the latency the faster the sound will respond.. ASIO has nothing to with running more soft synths. I know this because I have a $30 sblive and $700 Pro sound card. And i can get the same quality in sound with both. the only thing i can't do with the $30 sblive is play soft synths in real time with the midi keyboard.

So if your using a midi keyboard. here some cards i would suggest. I have seen each card in action plus i own two of them :P
1.Maudio AudioPhile 2496 owns for the price $180
2.Creamware Luna II is sweet plus it has its own soft synths $400
3.Aardvark LX6 very good all around $350
4.Echo gina 24 $400
Otherwise keep your sound card, and upgrade you processor to a monster

the cliping stil has to depend on the soundcard/drivers you use....i did a test...had some problems with a song in reason that was clipping as hell with creatives standard drivers...switched to kx and vo�la....no cliping......and my cpu usage is down to almost zero now 2 since i installed the kx drivers.....


but anyway.....i was thinking....I have a XP 1900+ processor, 512 ram, SB live 5.1 with KX drivers.....That should be plenty enough power for reason 2 shouldn't it? or can I get even more power that's not overkill?

well i dont use reason. And I use audigy drivers for my card drivers, kx are good too. nothing is a overkill btw

Re: soundcard advice

quote:

Originally posted by midevlbstr ok, I have been producing for quite some time now. I use ONLY fruityloops to produce my trax. I have a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1, and I was planning on buying a new soundcard. Do you guys have any suggestions on a soundcard that would be great for SOFTSYNTHS? I am planning on spending around $400US. The reason I want a new soundcard is because, when I am using lots of synths in my songs, its starts to clip a lot, could that be my soundcard? If not, can someone please tell me what the problem might be? THANKS! [in advance]

i think what has happened to you is not something to do with your soundcard, but more the settings in FL. go into options/audio settings. increase your buffer length and that will cut down on that clippy sound. also enable polling if it isn't already on. if you already have the buffer up and then you still are having problems, its probably not the sound card but just the speed of your computer. thats my two cents.

its the buffer but it is also the driver. with a kx or aps driver with sb live you can DRAMATICALLY increase performance in Fruity Pro or any other music app.

quote:

Originally posted by DJSound its the buffer but it is also the driver. with a kx or aps driver with sb live you can DRAMATICALLY increase performance in Fruity Pro or any other music app.

ok...hmmm now i know what to get for christmas hehehe

the drivers are free...if your buying a new card dont get a sb live just for that. get a audiophile.same price about and its way better

ok... i just dled kX driver 3.6 blah blah blah. it in ".rar" format, what do i open it with. also, i know that this is a really stupid question but where do i go to check what sound card i got. i assume somewhere in control panel right? i want to check and make sure i got SBlive before i install.

hahaha....hmmm you make music but dont know what card you have>? umm ya you might want to find that out first

and winrar or winamp uncompresses .rar files

quote:

Originally posted by xfer As to ASIO and Latency... This is only for when you play your midi keyboard so you can hear the sounds in real time. The lower the latency the faster the sound will respond.. ASIO has nothing to with running more soft synths. I know this because I have a $30 sblive and $700 Pro sound card. And i can get the same quality in sound with both. the only thing i can't do with the $30 sblive is play soft synths in real time with the midi keyboard.

Ermm.. are you sure you cant play soft synths in realtime with the sblive? I've been using my sb16 isa in my old pc with Reaktor. I hook up my midi keyboard to it through the sb16's game/midi port and it plays it fine. This is also the case with my sblive in another pc. Heck, I can hook up the midi keyboard and using Edlib tracker in dos safemode I can still play the sb16's fm chip.

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