Audacity Forum

MY Windows XP pc has Realtek onboard sound. After a day of surfing and trial and error, I can't get a good recording of my voice or guitar, or even of midi generated by the pc. When I play something back with Audacity, it distorts and drops frequency by a semitone - i can't imagine how.
I'm not blaming Audacity. I think it's Realtek that's the problem.
So not having too much time on my hands, I thought I might buy another sound card - not too expensive - something like a Soundblaster in the hope that this would function properly.

Any recommendations for a sound card? Nothing fancy - 30 ukp or $60 would be about right.
Would it probably be easy to plug in and set up, or would there be a problem/conflict with the existing onboard card?

Thanks

Tony

I use a very old SoundBlaster Live Value - it's not "state of the art" but it works very well.

Creative generally make pretty good sound card hardware, but the drivers can be a bit "iffy". They tend to include loads of features for gamers, so when you install it you have to go through and disable all of these "extras" (things like "EAX" and "Wow effect") just so that you can get a straight un-processed recording.

Much of the software that comes bundled with sound cards is best avoided. If possible, just install the drivers and nothing else. You can install other features later if you decide that you want them.

PCI soundcards are generally much better for music than on-board sound or USB sound cards. USB devices are ok for just making a single recording, such as copying a tape to CD, but for multi-track recording I would go with a PCI card.

The best way to avoid any conflicts with your on-board sound card is to disable it in BIOS. You may need to check your motherboard manual for details of how to do this - don't go changing BIOS settings unless you know what they do as you can stop your computer from working.

The microphone inputs on most cheap soundcards (including my SB Live) are rubbish. Much better to use a little mixer and record through the "Line" input.

Sound cards designed for audio work generally start a little higher than your budget. One of the cheapest is the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (about £50 GBP)

Thanks Steve for the very helpful advice.
There's a path in my bios settings, something like:
Advanced>Integrated Peripherals>Onboard Audio [enabled]
- so all I'd have to do is change that to [disabled] and the integrated audio is out of the equation.
Then I can install my own card. I'll look into the one you mention. I'll have to check that I get the correct card for the slot. I don't know if that's an issue, like with video card.
I'd perhaps have to reconnect a few wires presumably for the DVD to work and the front jack sockets, or would the dvd work anyway? Should be straightforward I expect.

"Sound cards designed for audio work generally start a little higher than your budget. One of the cheapest is the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (about £50 GBP)"

I can stretch to that

Tony

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (about £50 GBP)"

Steve,
Something that puts me off the above a little is the use of RCA jacks. I don't see the point. Other users use standard jacks for ipods headphones etc, and everything I use has standard jacks
Great to have 4 inputs though since I have lots of old 4 track tape recordings.

Would it be feasible and straightforward do you think to install the Audiophile card for myself and leave the onboard card still running so that other users can use the front jack sockets?

Tony

RCA connectors are FAR more reliable than mini-jacks.

Professional level cards use 1/4" jacks or XLR connectors, but these are too big to fit in a standard PCI slot, so they frequently use a break-out box.

If you are using an external amplifier, such as a hi-fi amp, these use RCA connectors. You should not be put off by the RCA connectors as they are much better than mini-jacks. If you need to connect something like an iPod to the sound card, you can get a "mini-jack/RCA" lead for about £1.

You can probably keep your on-board sound card without any problems, but there is a small risk that it could interfere with the new card. You also need to be that little bit more careful when setting up your system that you are selecting the correct device. It is advisable to disable the on-board sound card, and I can probably talk you through how to do it, but you can probably get away with keeping it.

Hi,
A few months ago, I decided to start digitising my LP collection and bought the professional soundcard Lynx22, so that I could archive them in 24/96 format. Even though Audacity does not 'support' this sound card, I had no problems in using it. The sound quality achieved is remarkable - with my computer connected to the hi-fi system, I could not tell the difference between the original (analog) and digital sounds. The only isssue I have is that I could not adjust the input level of the signal before/while recording, but had to amplify it later, after the recording was completed. I guess this has something to do with the sound card not being 'supported'. Apart from that, I'm extremely happy with the program, the sound card and ultimatley with the end result.