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First time ive ever considered this...seriously

M

Mayhs

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
2,999
Hey people,

Me and my brother are going to start music production soon in the summer and im getting some 'really' good 5.1 speakers from a specialist company here in Britain...so i thought why not get a good sound card? so is it worth it going from the bog standard onboard sound card to an OK sound card? ( i dont want to spend too much because i cant really justify my parents spending even more money on me)....and if it is whats the best sound card for me? but most of all...will i notice it? and yes i do have good hearing :)

p.s. im not using any good headphones but i might buy some good ones soon for gaming...

Thnx
Mayhs
 
onboard is horrible, especially buying 'really' good speakers for it .... look at Creative EMU series, not audigy.... or Revolution 5.1.....
 
aZn_plyR said:
onboard is horrible, especially buying 'really' good speakers for it .... look at Creative EMU series, not audigy.... or Revolution 5.1.....
Click to expand...

any particular reason? audigys are pretty popular
 
well you said something about music production, and the EMU from creative would be much better in sound quality and such compared to the audigy series ..... but are you gonna do some gaming too? might as well just grab an X-fi then if you are and get it over with.
 
If you're going to be doing music production, you should be looking at seperate external amps, monitors, and true DIO cards; M-Audio Delta, E-MU, and Korg primarily.

Also take up some basic sheetmetal bending; you'll want an internal EMI shield on the card. A simple sheetmetal wraparound is sufficient. Just don't short anything. ;)
 
lol....the music production will be a hobby just going to buy some nice software worth a couple of hundred £'s for it...if we get serious we will go to a uni and do it there...they let you use all the facilities for free :)

yeh i do game...so id like a good gaming soundcard too
 
Mayhs said:
lol....the music production will be a hobby just going to buy some nice software worth a couple of hundred £'s for it...if we get serious we will go to a uni and do it there...they let you use all the facilities for free :)

yeh i do game...so id like a good gaming soundcard too
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Since you're just doing it for hobby, a 5.1 setup instead of monitors will be more multipurpose. A creative X-fi isn't "professional", but it will do a decent job along with being great for music/movies/games.
 
hmm ok ill look for a good priced xfi they range a lot in price in britain....even on the same model....

but is the audio difference ok, huge or monstrous?
 
Mayhs said:
hmm ok ill look for a good priced xfi they range a lot in price in britain....even on the same model....

but is the audio difference ok, huge or monstrous?
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I would say huge, coming from onboard sound. You will be pleasantly delighted.
 
since you're in Brit, why not buy B&W speakers? dunno if you read local music trade publications but even Abbey Road recently upgraded their STUDIO monitors to B&W 800 series. Skywalker Sound, movie studios, record companies, the list goes on. B&W is the de facto when it comes to music production.

re: music creation. if you're getting decent speakers, i'm assuming you'll also have a nice external processor (mixer) and amp to go along with it. if that is so then the mixer/processor (or a/v receiver) can accept SPDIF. so either get M-Audio (now AVID) cards or get somn like the AuzenTech stuff X-plosion or X-mystique to transcode multichannel over SPDIF if you're mixing multichannel audio.
 
JediFonger said:
since you're in Brit, why not buy B&W speakers? dunno if you read local music trade publications but even Abbey Road recently upgraded their STUDIO monitors to B&W 800 series. Skywalker Sound, movie studios, record companies, the list goes on. B&W is the de facto when it comes to music production.

re: music creation. if you're getting decent speakers, i'm assuming you'll also have a nice external processor (mixer) and amp to go along with it. if that is so then the mixer/processor (or a/v receiver) can accept SPDIF. so either get M-Audio (now AVID) cards or get somn like the AuzenTech stuff X-plosion or X-mystique to transcode multichannel over SPDIF if you're mixing multichannel audio.
Click to expand...

hm yeh ive heard a lot about bw but theyre pretty expensive for a secondary computer :p
 
Mayhs said:
hmm ok ill look for a good priced xfi they range a lot in price in britain....even on the same model....

but is the audio difference ok, huge or monstrous?
Click to expand...

I just got my X-Fi yesterday and it replaced NF2 onboard sound and yes sir, it is indeed montrous. Absolutely fan-freakin-tastic. Still a little excited. The Crystalizer makes all my low quality concert bootlegs sound amazing. Also the driver foot print is a lot smaller than the Audigy series. And if you play BF2 or most games withthe Unreal engine, it's a must.

I'm using Logitech Z-3 e 2.1's by the way.
 
i thought there were LM1's that were small enough but still maintained some semblance of quality.

Mayhs said:
hm yeh ive heard a lot about bw but theyre pretty expensive for a secondary computer :p
Click to expand...
 
ForBuilding said:
I would say huge, coming from onboard sound. You will be pleasantly delighted.
Click to expand...

I compared my 1992 Soundblaster 16 soundcard to my AC'97 onboard, before I sold my old pc.That thing in comparison to my onboard AC'97 sound is very obvious. The SB16 had an onboard 4W amplifier, 2 sound inputs, and it had some insane sensetivity on the microphone line.

Its hard to describe the difference, but the AC'97 driving my amplifiers at a decent level sounded similar to someone farting under-water (clipping/distortion). If there was more than a few sounds playing at once (such as in games) I would get a fair amount of cracking and popping. It may just be the AC'97, but in general I cant imagine onboard sound being all that great.

A sound-system is only as good as its weakest link, and if your spending any kind of decent money on a good amplifier/speaker set, its nonsense to not consider a better soundcard.
 
$200-400 a pair or somn. i can't recall =). not cheap that's fer sure. but you pay for what you get. hi-fi's budget starts at these price points, not those creative/klipsch/bose "5.1" shitboxes.
 
JediFonger said:
$200-400 a pair or somn. i can't recall =). not cheap that's fer sure. but you pay for what you get. hi-fi's budget starts at these price points, not those creative/klipsch/bose "5.1" shitboxes.
Click to expand...

lol..true i suppose :p

but this is for my secondary computer...and i want to keep the budget under $100...any thoughts?
 
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