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Choosing the right soundcard for your PC can be a bewildering task, especially for the beginner, with lots of talk of Latency, S/PDIF, WDM, PCI and other such jargon.
However, the decision can be made much simpler by taking a pragmatic approach. This short AudioCourses guide will help the beginner find a soundcard that’s suitable for their needs.
How will it connect to my computer?
This is the first question you should ask yourself. There are currently 4 common types of connection with a 5th looming on the horizon:
Lets have a look at what these mean;
PCI – PCI is the most common for of soundcard – the card fits into a PCI slot on the motherboard of the computer. As a rule you won’t be able to use PCI soundcards in a laptop, only in desktop machines. PCI cards traditionally offer the best performance as they can communicate at a high speed with your PC - PCI slots can theoretically move data at 4224Mbps. PCI is an old/mature protocol and is therefore quite stable. The downside of this is that its replacement, PCI-E, is soon to supersede PCI.
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Firewire - Firewire is suitable for laptops and for desktop machines as it doesn’t connect ‘internally’ to your PC, only via a spare Firewire port. Due to this Firewire soundcards are ‘external’ which means that they are portable. Firewire is a relatively new protocol and at present is available at 2 speeds, 400Mbps (aka 1394a) and 800Mbps (aka 1394b). Most Firewire cards only run at the 400 speed, although some high end cards will run on the 800 protocol. Some older computers may not have a Firewire port but PCI cards that offer Firewire ports are available inexpensively. Many Firewire cards are high-end devices.
USB – USB is similar to Firewire in as much as it connects ‘externally’ to your PC making it suitable for desktop or laptop use. USB is a more mature technology than Firewire but is also somewhat slower. The older USB 1.1 protocol is not really recommended for audio interfaces with a speed of only 12Mbps, although some were built. The newer USB 2.0 protocol can run at 480Mbps making it slightly faster than Firewire 400. Most motherboards have USB connections although some older PCs may not have USB 2.0 ports. USB 2.0 ports can be added via PCI based USB expansions. Many USB cards are budget to mid-range devices.
Cardbus – Cardbus is the protocol used on laptops. Cardbus devices fit into a slot on the side of a laptop and are easily removed making them portable. There is relatively little choice in the Cardbus market however, and many Cardbus interfaces are quite expensive.
PCI-E – PCI-E, sometimes called PCI-Express, is a new format which is being introduced slowly. Although there have been graphics cards manufactured for this protocol, soundcards using PCI-E as the connection are still some months off. The most basic PCI-E connection should offer speeds of 2.5Gbps! This indicates that over the next few years PCI-E may become the dominant standard for soundcards. However, as the protocol is still new it is probably wise not to consider a PCI-E option for at least 12 months or so.
So in summary, if you have a desktop computer you can use all of the above connection types except Cardbus, and if you are a laptop owner you can not use PCI and PCI-E.
If you want portability go for Firewire, USB or Cardbus.
How will I connect to my Soundcard?
The purpose of a soundcard is to get sound in and out of your PC. Therefore it is important you get a card that offers the right number and type of connections. Rather than listing every type of connection and its pros and cons, it is simpler to look at what you need to connect to/from. If you are also using a mixing desk in your set-up then you will use that for most of the interfacing so you will be more concerned with line inputs/outputs.
Microphone – If you want to connect a microphone to your card you will want to use an XLR preferably, although you can use a ¼” jack. If you intend on using a ¼” jack then ensure that your cards jack sockets are ‘mic’ rather than ‘line’/’instrument’ inputs – some cards however offer a gain control which will allow you to use a mic or line level signal. A dedicated ‘mic’ input, preferably XLR, is best if you intend on using a microphone often. If your microphone is a condenser/capacitor microphone, then you will need to find a card that offers ‘Phantom Power’ (+48v)
Guitar/Bass – Obviously a ¼” Jack is the ideal solution here. More and more cards offer ‘instrument’ inputs which are high impedance, and therefore much more suitable than plugging a guitar into a ‘line’ input.
Line Inputs – Practically all cards offer at least one line level input into which you can connect CD Players, DJ mixers, DAT machines, Amp Modellers, Drum Machines, Synths etc.
Speakers – Again, all soundcards will have a stereo output that you can connect to your amplifier/active monitors. These are usually either on ¼” Jack or Phono.
Headphones – Some cards offer a dedicated headphone socket, others don’t. If you are not using a mixing desk then you will either want to plug headphones into your soundcard or the amplifier driving your speakers. If you are using active speakers and you don’t have a desk then you will almost certainly need a headphone socket on the card. If you are using a desk in your set-up then you may want to consider using the headphone output on the desk.
Digital Equipment – You may need some digital connectivity in your soundcard. S/PDIF is the most common interface found on budget soundcards. You will need to look at the rear panel of any equipment in your studio and decide if you need digital connectivity.
MIDI – If you intend to use a MIDI keyboard to trigger any sounds from your computer then MIDI connectivity is a must. Many cards offer integrated MIDI ports although some modern MIDI keyboards will connect to your computer via USB, negating the need to have MIDI i/o on your soundcard.
Now, all you need to do now is decide which type of inputs you are most likely to need and how many. If you are a solo artist and only ever record yourself singing and playing acoustic guitar, you may only need one mic input. If you played a keyboard as well you would require a line input. If you intend to record a drum kit with 4 mics then you will need 4 mic inputs.
Performance and Drivers
PC hardware requires drivers to run – this is how the software ‘talks’ to the hardware.
There are a number of different type of soundcard driver such as DirectX and MME. However, for serious audio work you want to look for cards with ASIO drivers, and to a lesser extent WDM support. ASIO/WDM drivers allow you to operate with a low ‘latency’.
By ‘latency’ we mean the delay between an input (audio or MIDI) and the audio output. An example would be using a PC based sound source such as a soft synth (i.e. Reason, Pro 52 etc). When you press a note on your keyboard you want to hear the sound straight away. If there is latency then there is a delay between you pressing the key and hearing the sound. A 500ms latency value would mean that there would be a 0.5 second delay between pressing the key and hearing the sound. ASIO drivers allow you to reduce the latency considerably, in some cases down to around 3ms! As a guide a latency of below 20ms is acceptable for most purposes.
This latency isn’t only applicable to MIDI and soft synths though. If you are working without a desk then you will need to monitor what you are recording. If you are laying down a guitar track with your headphones on then you will obviously want to be able to hear what you are playing, and any delay may have a detrimental affect on your performance. The same applies with vocals, drums etc. Anything that you want to ‘monitor’ will be subject to latency.
Some cards will offer ‘direct monitoring’ or ‘zero-latency monitoring’. As the names suggest these allow you to monitor your own performance with no delay. This is certainly useful if you intend on doing a lot of audio recording and don’t have a mixing desk.
You will also see different sample rates and bit depths offered by different cards, such as 44.1kHz/16 Bit or 96kHz/24 Bit.
For most people in a home recording situation, 44.1kHz is fine for all applications. If you music is going to be burnt onto CD then recording at 44.1kHz saves resampling further down the line. Recording at a higher sample rate than this is unlikely to yield any better results unless you have an acoustically treated room and expensive monitor speakers. Recording at higher sample rates will also eat up more of your hard drive space.
Some big name consumer cards are internally ‘locked’ at a rate of 48kHz. If you wish to work at 44.1kHz then a conversion has to take place and audio quality is degraded. These cards are best left to gamers and not audio enthusiasts.
Bit depth is a slightly different matter. If you are working primarily with MIDI such as in Reason, then recording at 24 Bits may not offer any advantages. However if you are recording acoustic instruments and vocals then 24 Bit can yield audibly better results.
A card that can offer recording at 44.1kHz/24 Bit with ASIO drivers should suit the vast majority of home recordists.
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