Bassline Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Here's my setup.. 5x5 sound booth. 2" wedge foam ceiling to floor AudioTechnica AT2020 USB mic Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop (old, I know) Audacity 1.3 beta Now, my question is since the laptop is fairly old and I am using the onboard soundcard, how much can that deteriorate the sound quality? I mean, what cards are "good" when it comes to sound cards? Will investing in a quality sound card make "all the difference"? And , in your opinions, what type of sound card should be purchased? Does it matter if it is a USB card or PCMCIA? Would it be best just to buy or build a new computer? These are the burning questions I would like answers to Thanks to anyone who can give some advice and direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arfa B Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 5x5 sound booth. 2" wedge foam ceiling to floor AudioTechnica AT2020 USB mic Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop (old, I know) Audacity 1.3 beta Now, my question is since the laptop is fairly old and I am using the onboard soundcard, how much can that deteriorate the sound quality? That is hard to say, upload a file and let's have a listen! I must add, I am NOT impressed with Audacity! I think it sounds very poor quality! Cool Edit or Audition are the answer, or similar... As regards the PC- I use a 1.8 Ghz AMD processor with XP and 1 GHz RAM, you don't need an over the top PC for audio work. I mean, what cards are "good" when it comes to sound cards? Will investing in a quality sound card make "all the difference"? In my opinion no! Get any old cheap Creative Labs SB16 or better and they will be fine. You can get them for £5 or less quite easily, always keep a few spare too- for another machine. And , in your opinions, what type of sound card should be purchased? Does it matter if it is a USB card or PCMCIA? I have never used a USB card, so can't comment- they should be fine though! Would it be best just to buy or build a new computer? It's always best to build one, some of those PC's you get from shops are real rubbish! Make sure you get a m/board that has plenty of sockets for sound cards. Newer m/b's are getting to be a pain, less and less sockets in favour of USB! These are the burning questions I would like answers to Thanks to anyone who can give some advice and direction. It's a pleasure! Arfa' B! If I have helped you with a Freebie- please be kind enough to add a link from your own site or blog to mine- thanks! http://arthurburton.net Thank You! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankallen Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Here's my setup.. 5x5 sound booth. 2" wedge foam ceiling to floor AudioTechnica AT2020 USB mic Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop (old, I know) Audacity 1.3 beta Now, my question is since the laptop is fairly old and I am using the onboard soundcard, how much can that deteriorate the sound quality? I mean, what cards are "good" when it comes to sound cards? Will investing in a quality sound card make "all the difference"? And , in your opinions, what type of sound card should be purchased? Does it matter if it is a USB card or PCMCIA? Would it be best just to buy or build a new computer? These are the burning questions I would like answers to Thanks to anyone who can give some advice and direction. Heres the thing in my opinion, In most cases USB mics are there own sound card ( I Think ) so replacing sounds cards might not be the thing to do. 2 Questions 1) what is your sound quality like now ? 2) What are you looking to improve ? In all honesty i could use a cheap tie clip mic a usb interface ya know a really cheap one from ebay and still produce a reasonable quality voiceover, Work with what you have and think where do i need to improve quality. Laptop/pc should be i guess 1gb ram 1ghz processor the mic and booth great you have them and sound processing ? upload a short test piece lets hear what quality you have now. http://i.imgur.com/qrEUBH7.png Check us out http://www.itsjustradio.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickolasM. Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Yes, a Demo would be great to have! I use to use a USB Mic, and Had no problem with it, quality was great. And USB's do come with their own soundcard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBVoice Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I recommend getting any of the M-Audio Fast Track series audio interfaces (USB). I'm sure all your troubles would go away ;) -JB Jon Bova "Successful people have libraries. The rest have big screen TVs. - Jim Rohn" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joonas Piiroinen Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Your computer's soundcard doesn't affect to the sound of your AT mic, because it is USB mic and every USB mic has an integrated soundcard. So Audacity records the sound of your mic only through the integrated card. To my ear, I don't like USB mics, but some people like them. If you would like to get better quality, then you have to change your present USB-mic to normal with XLR and buy an external soundcard. Like JB said, M-Audio's USB cards are very decent and affordable. I recommend them. So, when your using normal XLR mic, the external soundcard (for example M-Audio) treats the signal which goes to the recorder. (Computer and Audacity) With USB mic, the sound is already processed in the mic, and won't be as good as external soundcard's. Just my opinion. At the present moment, USB is the best way to send the signal to the recorder if you need the best sound quality, so don't touch to PCMCIA. But of course, give us an example demo of the present sound quality! Hope this helped! J from Finland :xmasthumb: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassline Posted December 13, 2009 Author Share Posted December 13, 2009 2 Questions 1) what is your sound quality like now ? 2) What are you looking to improve ? Well, it is very strange..sometimes the sound comes out just fine but sometimes it has a "clipped" sound. I dont have consistency. These 2 were done 1 after the other and the difference is quite apparent! My booth is virtually sound proof, I didnt move my position and I spoke as close to the same level as I could. Now, when I play them back in my headphones, they both sound ok but after I export them to mp3, then they sound different. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny c Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 With the one with the clipping you are talking louder which makes me think you are overloading the sound card input.I have a firewire audio interface, but for my recording I use a soundblaster card, but the mic goes through a preamp with a compressor first so It dosnt overload. Usb interface's are great. I use a Behringer on my on-air pc and it works great with no added hiss or noise. There are lots of choice for usb and they are all mostly good these days. In the end I think it comes down to what you like or can spend. RAG-FM 107.7 Raglan New Zealand & ragfm.com ........"Top Music Top of the Dial" Click HERE to listen to the RAG-FM radio stream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassline Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 Thanks for the input guys. Ive just recently got everything set up and seems Ive got some adjusting to do. I think a newer, faster laptop is in order for Christmas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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