How important is a good audio interface?

Brick_top

Brick_top

Power User
I have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme through which I tried connecting the axe to my computer, I used both the digital and analog inputs, But I notice there is some clarity missing in the sound, clarity that I find in my Fbt verve12ma.

Maybe its because these are the speakers I use.

dtt2200.jpg
 
I have a cheapo, but great M Audio Ap2496 and the sound is great thru my studio monitors and recordings are just unbelieveable. Had this card for years-rock solid on Win 7 x64 with Sonar x64 Producer 853. Do you have 1/4 in jacks or did you have to use adapters to connect to the SB?
You could compare the specs of the SB you have with the AP2496. If they are pretty much the same it's most likely somethhing else
Edit: i have some descent Stuido montors so that would definitely make a difference-Mine are flat response.
 
It could be your audio interface as well but those speakers
are surely not the greatest choice for guitar-in-your-face sounds. :)
 
Probably something with the inputs of the card? some kind of conversion maybe?

This is it

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I connect into the front bay.

There is an option in the software that I have to change in order to have low latency which is "Audio creation mode"

Speakers sound great with other peoples clips.
 
A good audio interface is not one of those integrated sound cards. They have both bad sound quality and latency issues. M-Audio Fast Track MKII is what I'm using and I get asked what kind of gear I use etc. so this is a cheap but proper way to do things. You can control the latency and sound quality is ok.
 
Basically anything that a "computer store" sells for audio is crap (if you want to use it for recording) - they may have setups good for games or watching movies though. You need to buy a sound interface from an actual musical instrument store. Good brands include MOTU, Sapphire, Edirol, M-Audio, and some others. Drivers are the most important thing here. What's your price range? MOTU's are flawless and have killer up-to-date drivers but they start at about $549 (that's an 8-input one). Edirol stuff is about half that. I hear horror stories about USB interfaces all the time, so I stay away from those. Firewire is great, but you must have a good firewire chipset or there could be horror stories there too. Do you have Firewire on your computer?
 
I disagree with some of the posters above...

If you're going to connect digitally via the SPDIF then it really doesn't matter how cheap or expensive or what brand your audio interface is. If your Sound Blaster drivers are stable then I wouldn't advise spending money on a new card.

Also, I've also used plenty of different inexpensive USB audio interfaces that work perfectly fine.

I think the problem is more likely that you are comparing the sound of your Fbt verve12ma to the sound coming through some very small computer satellite speakers. They're totally different. Changing the sound card isn't going to improve your situation.
 
Creative has always had crap drivers but the SB X-Fi also has really poor mic preamps and analog inputs. Digital input should work as expected though so I think it's the speakers. Make sure you run the soundcard in the Audio Creation mode and disable any processing shit (Crystalizer and all that crap)
 
I think I may have found part of the problem.

When I switch the card to "audio creation mode" it has no noticeable latency but it also disables the EQ on the card and the "crystalizer" (a sound blaster feature), and with both turned off everything gets a little duller. When I record and then switch back to "entertainment mode" it sounds better.

But this is kind of a problem, how do I know how flat both modes are? Maybe I should trust the "audio creation mode" more and tweak accordingly, and maybe I have to listen to some recordings in other systems.
 
AdamCook said:
I disagree with some of the posters above...

If you're going to connect digitally via the SPDIF then it really doesn't matter how cheap or expensive or what brand your audio interface is. If your Sound Blaster drivers are stable then I wouldn't advise spending money on a new card.

Also, I've also used plenty of different inexpensive USB audio interfaces that work perfectly fine.

I think the problem is more likely that you are comparing the sound of your Fbt verve12ma to the sound coming through some very small computer satellite speakers. They're totally different. Changing the sound card isn't going to improve your situation.
Click to expand...

yeah I guess the speakers are at most fault here, thanks for your reply
 
I have both a PC with a Xfi elite Pro and a macbookpro with a apogee duet

Since vista and 7 the drivers for the xfi are crap ... the sound on xp was better for the xfi, i believe it has something to do with opengl which was not supported anymore in vista and 7 .. i am not sure..

The sound i get in the duet is better than the xfi but to be honost the xfi is not really that bad..

First i would change speakers that is the biggest improvemend imho
 
Had a Tascam US-144 which was really good for the money. I wanted something more variable, though.

Bought the MOTU Ultralite MkIII Hybrid which attained a great sound but I had constant driver problems using it with XP.
Bad support here in Germany. They even told me to downgrade (!!!) from SP3 to SP2 because they knew that there're driver probs.
This was not acceptable for me so I gave it back.

Bought the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra and couldn't be happier. Easy to handle and absolutely no driver problems.
Also used it on other PCs as my little mobile studio and it always worked flawlessly.

The sound with the M-Audio and the MOTU is slightly better than with the Tascam but the differences really are minimal.
 
Record some of your playing. Play that same riff and preset through the Verve. Plug the Creative's output in the Verve and check you have the same sound level and gain staging.

If it's wildly different from playing direct into the Verve then get a better soundcard. If not, get better speakers. Speakers usually have a great deal more influence on the tone than the soundcard.

Be sure to get the levels and gain staging correct. (Enough level at all input and output stages without overdriving anything).


From all I've heard Creative's components aren't that bad, just not pro level. Which means you should hear the difference on good monitors but not be bummed out awful sounding.

It's a matter of what you want, too. Want to make pro recordings? Get apogee or RME or the likes. Just want to practice/noodle ideas to show for the band, then whatever...
 
It's a pity the apogee duet is mac only..it's completely
amazing for the price, i love it. I went to mac from pc
and will never go back..not dissing pc's..just personal
preference. But for a decent interface on a budget you
won't go far wrong with the fast track pro..same with
most things..you get what you pay for!
 
I think some (a lot of...) people put a little too much stock in the "sound quality" of audio interfaces when they aren't getting the results they want from their recordings. For one thing the interface itself makes for a very subtle difference from unit to unit, and for another thing in the digital age it's all fairly moot for people who aren't pros anyway. You think the average person knows the first thing about digital converters? Most people look at the price tag and then let the placebo effect do its thing.

Speakers on the other hand make worlds of difference.

Lastly, don't mistake volume for clarity. Everything sounds better turned up. Personally I like playing my Axe out of my tube amp with the cab modeling turned off more than playing stuff back through my recording setup because, frankly, I don't really like the cab modeling. Most of it sounds like muddy-a**, in my opinion. Luckily there are endless amounts of third party cabs and enough tweaking gets the job done.
 
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