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the best sound card under $150
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| clubkidnycnyc |
Im in a tight budget right now looking for a external soundcard to install or internal to install to my pc.
The thing is right now im using a on board soundcard and everytime
i insert like 6 synths into the sequencer or even 4 synths
i get the cpu warning and im running a p4 2 ghz so i know its not the speed the problem is with my sound card so which card would you guys recommend for like under $200
thanks club kid. |
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| Pimp_fu |
I have an article somewhere comparing soundcards, I'll hunt it down and see if I can get you some info. In the mean time, one of the tricks that I've learned to compensate for this problem is to bounce synth tracks down to individual audio tracks. You can then apply effects and things like that putting less strain on your soundcard.
Check this out |
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| m0-0n |
What 4 soft synths are you trying to run at once?
I would think that latency would be the biggest problem with a stock sound card. I haven't heard of the quality of the sound card affecting the cpu performance?
I think the m-audio audiophile 24/96 is the best card for $150. |
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| Pimp_fu |
| quote: | Originally posted by m0-0n
What 4 soft synths are you trying to run at once?
I would think that latency would be the biggest problem with a stock sound card. I haven't heard of the quality of the sound card affecting the cpu performance? |
Latency wouldn't be the issue here, unless he was trying to play 4 soft synths at once and record them realtime. I was thinking that myself. If I'm not mistaken, that's going to be a RAM issue. How much do you have installed? |
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| clubkidnycnyc |
| quote: | Originally posted by Pimp_fu
Latency wouldn't be the issue here, unless he was trying to play 4 soft synths at once and record them realtime. I was thinking that myself. If I'm not mistaken, that's going to be a RAM issue. How much do you have installed? |
I get this problem when I tryi to run 2 vstations 1 vanguard and 2
z3ta+ 3 rgcaudio synth.
Im running a P4 2.0 ghz and Ram is 256 but in control panel it reads 224.
The only problem im having is it crashes with cpu usage warning if Ram will fix this if i got more if that is the problem or would i need to do both the sound card and more Ram.
let me know thanks
Clubkid |
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| clubkidnycnyc |
| quote: | Originally posted by m0-0n
What 4 soft synths are you trying to run at once?
I would think that latency would be the biggest problem with a stock sound card. I haven't heard of the quality of the sound card affecting the cpu performance?
I think the m-audio audiophile 24/96 is the best card for $150. |
With the stock onboard sound card I do have trouble with latency
so if the cpu problemm is a ram issue i think ill get the better professional soundcard to fix the latency too.
Clubkid |
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| Pimp_fu |
| Your stock sound card would cause latency issues, however, having only 256MB of RAM is what the problem is for now. z3ta is a CPU hog. I have the same issue with it, and I have LOT more RAM. Turning off your video acceleration will help, as will disabling any background programs you have running at the same time, antivirus, screensavers, autosave. Its a temporary fix though, and the answer to it is going to be increasing memory. I think pretty much every one here will agree with that. My own opinion is that the greatest soundcard you can buy isn't going to help much if your PC doesn't have the memory to run higher end synths. |
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| Derivative |
buying a new soundcard wont ease the strain off your cpu from running multiple softsynths in realtime. i have an m-audio delta 1010 now but before i had no soundcard. just the onboard sound on my motherboard. practically no difference in cpu load between the two. i can even switch between them in windows and it makes no difference. the only difference i got between the two is i now have 10 ins/10 outs, can record in 24bit/96khz and have 20ms latency whereas before i had no midi connectivity, couldnt record anything and used fruity with a whopping 371ms delay making playing anything live totally impossible.
polyphony is the big cpu killer and effects. noticed how some patches on vanguard shoot up to 100 cpu load whereas others dont take up so much? high polyphony + delay + reverb most likely. one option is to render everything to wav and assemble your tracks in wav format or to lower the polyphony of each synth (you can always raise it back to what it was before you record).
also as pimp fu says, some VSTis just like to eat cpu for breakfast. zeta does this. vanguard does this when the polyphony is set high and you got effects on it. rhino and albino are big cpu hogs too. reaktor likes to eat 17% of my cpu as soon as i load it up. greedy bastard.
the only way to get better performance is to get a better cpu (but the faster cpu you get the more ram you'll need. you may even need to get a new motherboard too if you want a biiig speed hike) or free up some system resources by closing down applications you dont need running. there are other little tricks you can do to ease the strain like turn the timebase down from 96 to 24 in fl studio. im sure other hosts have a timebase setting. another one is, as said before to render everything but this is a pain to do everytime you wanna make small adjustments to your tune. |
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| Pimp_fu |
| You can also try turning off all the efects until you're ready to bounce down. That'll free up a bit of CPU as well. |
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| clubkidnycnyc |
| Thanks Everyone for your help it was much appreciated |
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| newproducer |
I installed a new card but now when i go to rewire i get that error pop up in Reason
"midi input problem one or several of the midi inputs
could not be opened.they might be in use by another app open the preferences and check midi settings"
when i go to preferences the red x is there and will not go away
when i close my sequencer and open Reason as a stand alone its fine?
has anyone else had this problem and what did you do? i think im gonna try and re-install the drivers for the midi?
any other suggestions? |
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