Hot answers tagged audio-interface
10
The device you're looking for is generally called an "audio interface", which is conceptually the same thing as a soundcard, but is usually oriented towards recording. There are a TON of different interfaces on the market aimed at different purposes and price points. You are wise to ask "what are the tradeoffs?" as opposed to "what's the best I can get at ...
9
Which is better? That depends on a lot of factors.
Bandwidth
Both FireWire (400 & 800) and USB (2.0 and beyond) have plenty of bandwidth available for multi-track audio recording, even at high sample rates and bit depth.
Latency
Latency has much to do with the drivers, the host computer, and the audio interface used.
Now, I've seen someone else ...
9
Firewire became really popular in the mid-90's when Apple dropped traditional SCSI from their boxes and started pushing the Firewire format instead.
Firewire has always been faster and have lower latency than USB, but obviously USB is a far more prevailant interface to be found on virtually every computer made in the last 15 years, but often you have to go ...
7
Ideally, a converter won't have any "sound". It will just transparently pass through the signal. From the spec sheet you can check things like
dynamic range/signal to noise ratio - the amount of hiss that the converter will add to your recordings. 24-bit converters aren't inherently better than 16-bit. They need to have low noise or you're just ...
6
I used to obsess a lot about specs, but I've shifted from buying the equipment that looks the best on paper to getting the equipment that makes me smile when I use it :-) I know it's an oversimplification, but even with specs, you make subjective decisions on what kinds of measurements to favor, or what frequency plot looks the best. In the end, all that ...
6
Another thing to consider in the Windows world (and maybe OSX as well, but I'm not familiar enough with that kernel), is latency due to Deferred Procedure Calls (DPCs). This can cause audio drop-outs and latency that is independent of the USB/FW choice. Several tools exist to measure and analyze DPC latency:
The Syscon's DPC Latency Checker
TC Electronics ...
6
Reaper is a DAW for PC or Mac which will allow you to record as many tracks as your interface will allow. It comes with many standard effects and supports VST plugins as well. It supports just about any routing configuration you can think up. It also has an excellent "how to" manual to get you started with recording in Reaper.
Reaper's project and track ...
5
Not with any old DI box. The signal going from the power amp section of your guitar amp, to your speaker cabinet, is HIGH POWER. Face-melting type of power. Most DI boxes cannot handle this kind of power and you will melt them in an instant trying to run them between your power amp and your speaker cabinet.
There is a notable exception: the Palmer PDI-09 ...
5
Using computers to record doesn't necessarily cause quality problems in and of itself, but it does introduce a number of variables that you otherwise wouldn't have to worry about:
Latency: Digitizing audio into a computer involves buffering samples, and then processing them. It is possible to minimize it with good hardware, but as far as I know it cannot ...
5
The major difference between "pro" and "consumer" equipment is generally their suitability for their purpose. A home theater setup needs to sound pleasing to the ear without much manual work, only fill up one room with sound, and play from generally a single source. It also (usually) needs to be affordable enough that people will by them. A huge live-sound ...
4
"the line in port on the computer"
"I'm almost sure that the manufacturer
of the on-board sound card is
RealTek."
DAW recording 101: on board sound cards are useless
On board sound cards, the one that comes built into your motherboard is designed to make beeps and whistles and now-a-days telephony. It is not designed for high qualily, low ...
4
In addition to the concerns that Warrior Bob has noted, computer recordings can be noisy. And they tend to have surprisingly inaccurate recording speeds which will be a problem if you want to sync with video. (If not, it's not an issue.)
A portable audio recorder like a Zoom H4n will set you back a few hundred dollars, but will deliver much better ...
4
At a basic level, you need an audio interface, AKA something to get the audio into your computer and, for acoustic guitar (or for recording the sound of an electric guitar amp/cabinet), you'll need a microphone of some kind. The "USB adapters" that you've seen are simple audio interfaces.
Many audio interfaces have USB connections and should work with ...
4
The S/PDIF I/O on the Saffire Pro 24 is stereo. The Optical is an 8-track ADAT input.
The use case for using the S/PDIF I/O would be for using a digital stereo source or destination. You could use put an outboard digital effects processor in that loop, or say, get audio from a separate digital recorder into your computer, or bounce a stereo mix out to a ...
3
D'oh. I found out the issue was w/ the particular FW 400 to 800 cable I was using. It seemed to work fine w/ my external FW 400 drive, but not the 1804. Just bought another. Problem solved.
After emailing and calling Tascam support, I had pretty much given up. They couldn't help me, and said there wouldn't likely be anything in terms of firmware upgrades ...
3
Oh, it turns out you sometimes have to manually change the sync source to "Internal" as seen here:
If the "Locked" indicator on the unit does not show, it won't work.
3
MIDI is designed such that on a single signal chain you have one sender that is broadcasting events on up to 16 channels; the default MIDI port chain (IN/OUT/THRU) only allows you to have one controller. Basically you have your sequencer's OUT hooked to your controller's IN, your controller's OUT hooked up to your sequencer's IN, and your other receivers ...
3
It comes down to how much control you think you need and how many inputs. If you get a Marantz 660 or Zoom H4n style recorder you get two XLR inputs and control over the levels. If you need more inputs then you need to put a mixer in front of it. Another thing to consider if if you need phantom power to your mics, or if you even need mics and want to use ...
3
Technically, the PMD661 and that mic should be clean as a whistle. Maybe your gain is turned up too high? I don't know if changing the recording method would change that, but it could if you use a device with a better mic pre-amp, so the gain isn't so high and the hiss isn't introduced. Personally, I would try borrow another device and see if the hiss ...
3
This is the case with many mid to high end audio hardware - the compute intensive tasks are handed off to processors on the card so that your CPU doesn't need to handle them.
For creating/mastering/mixing multilayer projects, especially those with plugins or real-time effects or transitions in any DAW I would recommend an external card to handle these ...
3
The usual reason for these being external are:
No conflict with internal devices
Size and heat requirements
Requirements for multiple interfaces: midi, spdif, line-in, mic etc
User interface requirements - mixer controls, EQ etc
Occasionally power requirements - an externally powered sound card can provide a lower noise floor, higher quality and dedicated ...
3
To answer the title question: no, a professional microphone cannot be plugged into a computer to produce in any way acceptable results. For condenser mics, this doesn't work at all because they need 48 V phantom power, and dynamic mics have too low signal levels for the low-quality on-chip mic preamps that are used in virtually all consumer-grade sound ...
3
The problem with running multiple audio interfaces simultaneously is that the drivers typically won't work. Even if they do, audio applications often are designed to work with a single interface at a time. If you are running OS X, you can aggregate audio interfaces together to appear as a single large interface.
The problem with aggregation, either using OS ...
3
It is actually preferable to record separately, however many bands don't like to do this because they may feel disconnected when recording the first few tracks. A way around this is to record with an area mic with the full band and then begin laying down real tracks off of that. The idea is that each performer will be setup one at a time and then play ...
2
Focusrite Saffire
I have been using consumer-priced Focusrite hardware for quite some time now. I've started with the smaller 2in/2out series but then bought a Saffire PRO10IO, which is now discontinued. Been using it ever since. A friend of mine has a newer version with is even easier to use as a standalone mixer, which is what you asked for, too.
The ...
2
are these ports analog or digital?
Analog.
Should I be looking at a surround sound system that accepts SPDIF or are the 6 ports digital and immune to noise like the SPDIF connector and therefore no sound quality difference should be expected?
I would personally prefer a S/PDIF connection. One cable is easier to run than many cables. I don't ...
2
USB passes each read/write packet through the CPU.
Firewire bypasses each read/write packet, avoiding CPU usage.
This has been the main issue with USB-1.0 and USB-2.0, and I'm unsure about USB-3.0. Intel USB-3.0 requires proprietary Intel drivers, and there are no generic USB-3.0 drivers for Windows platforms, except for Linux.
Many audio related ...
2
There are companies making great USB interfaces now (RME). I'm going USB due to the computer upgrade issues - ie apple not putting firewire on certain lower cost computers. Very irritating. I have one of those new pcmcia express cards which has also been removed from all but the 17" Macbook Pro - so choose your connections for the long haul. You'll need ...
2
On Windows, get ASIO-compatible audio interface. Firewire or USB since you're on laptop.
This is the most proper solution to your problem.
You can try to install ASIO4ALL wrapper, which just lies to your OS and software that your internal interface can do ASIO, but it's considered a hack by any means. Your mileage may vary if you go this path, I went this ...
2
Yes, a faster transference decreases latency, but as far as I'm concerned it wouldn't be any less latency than USB 3.0 or firewire if you are not transferring a large number of tracks. Latency relies more on hardware and processing power than the transfer itself.
In the case of computer audio, the latency depends more on the driver and the transfer protocol, ...
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