Onboard sound v. sound card

XOG wrote on 3/2/2004, 2:20 PM

Howdy all,

Apologies if this has been asked. I did a search and came up empty.

I note that most of you are using add-on sound cards. My mobo has integrated 5.1 channel sound.

Would appreciate any/all opions about I am missing by using onboard sound?

Cheers,

XOG

Comments

BE0RN wrote on 3/2/2004, 2:24 PM

If you want quality, you should look into an independent sound card. The Vegas-Audio forum says stay away from Sound Blaster...I have an M-Audio firewire 410 which I really like. It has 3-pin xlr inputs, so I don't use a mic preamp when doing VO's. It also has 48v Phantom Power.

FuTz wrote on 3/2/2004, 2:34 PM

ha ha ha! not only on the Vegas-audio forum: on a LOT of places throughout the Net !
I had one of these sound cards(Crapative SoundBuster Jive the Value) plus a WebCam (WebCam Blow) and since I needed support and got , hum, nothing (to say so) I will *never* get anything from that fischer price company again. For example, you had to fit the card in the third slot to avoid cracks, pops or conflicts with other PCI cards. Some guys would fit it in an "isolated" PCI slot to sort their problems out (ie a PCI slot with empty PCI slots on both sides on the mobo). Go figure out, you had to find the "right receipe"...
But it's my $0.02... some like playing with fire.
Speaking of fire, the FireWire port on their Audigesty is not failproof either if you do a search on the net... Get the ADS Tech 1394 card.

For soundcard, go with M-Audio... good cheap PCI ones? the Audiophile 2496, Revolution or Delta 44 models. A good 1394 one? I guess the FireWire 410 (my next one... soon!)

riredale wrote on 3/3/2004, 8:39 AM

I'm just beginning to get my feet wet in the world of surround audio. Looking in bewilderment at the dozens of cards (internal and external) in the aisle at Fry's a few weeks ago, I noted with curiosity that one of the generic cards was priced at just $12.95. Curious, I bought it.

Turns out it works just great. I turned off my motherboard audio, loaded the drivers, and connected it to my brand-new $100 Creative 5.1 speaker system (highly rated for the price point). The cheapo card does what it is supposed to do--deliver multichannel audio to the speakers.

I did find, however, that the microphone input is pretty noisy, even worse than the motherboard mic in. I already had an "Imic" USB audio in/out adapter lying around that I had used with my laptop, and pulling a microphone signal in via USB was far quieter than either the motherboard or the new sound card. So I'm a happy camper.

My conclusion, XOG, is that if you're happy with the noise levels of the onboard sound system (particularly the mic and line-in levels), then there's little need for more complexity. Take this advice with a grain of salt, though: I'm brand new to this stuff.

jboy wrote on 3/3/2004, 12:35 PM

Despite all the nasty things I've heard about Soundblasters, I bought the cheapest, (about $40), Audigy OEM card just to get access to low latency ASIO drivers for a MIDI setup I was working on, and was blown away by the totally unexpected jmprovement in sound quality over the on-board audio-(Reatek 97 on an Epox MB). You have to spend $100+ to get anything from M-Audio-the next step up, and I've heard they have their own problems. I've had no problems with the Audigy whatsoever, but know from past experience thsat Creative's support sucks. Good Luck..

cosmo wrote on 3/3/2004, 1:26 PM

Everyone's PCs are different so it's dumb to ever compare two systems. So we'll just recount some of my personal pc history with soundcards and Vegas. I have a Dell pc, P4 2.4, 3/4GB ram, 2 IDE discs...one for OS and programs and one for audio/video.

I started with a 5.1 card, Hercules I think. No good. Then SB Audigy. Spent hours and hours and hours on with tech support and changed so much crap I had to reformat my pc...the audigy didn't work. Then I tried and SB Extigy..same as Audigy.

Then a miracle happened...someone pointed me towards m-audio and I learned that for $99, only $99 I could have a quality card that would allow me to multitrack and mix 5.1 so I bought it. I put it in, installed the driver and haven't thought about it again since. That was a year ago. Not one single problem with this thing. Best $99 I have ever spent. And if you have a stereo receiver that has analog 5.1 inputs(6 rca jacks) you can mix 5.1 in a snap. It's amazing....mixing in 5.1 that is. Sooooooooo worth more than $99 and Vegas.

That's my two cents....

M-audio Delta 410 at MusiciansFriend.com