Dell PC -Sound Blaster X-Fi?

mkahnisbent

Hi all

I want to start making electronic music.

I am looking at buying a powerful Dell computer, but the best soundcard they offer is the Sound Blaster X-Fi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster#Sound_Blaster_X-Fi)

Are these any good?

Should I invest in a new soundcard - if so, is there any performance difference between an internal and an external soundcard?

Thanks!

oootini

mkahnisbent wrote: »

Hi all

I want to start making electronic music.

I am looking at buying a powerful Dell computer, but the best soundcard they offer is the Sound Blaster X-Fi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster#Sound_Blaster_X-Fi)

Are these any good?

Should I invest in a new soundcard - if so, is there any performance difference between an internal and an external soundcard?

Thanks!

that'll be fine. get a half decent pair of monitors and a keyboard with a few knobs/sliders and your away.

MilanPan!c

Don't make music with the xfi processing turned on.. It won't work out well for ye.

mkahnisbent

Thanks for the replies.

Those "integrated sound card" things on laptops - are they useless? If so, if I bought a laptop to make music would I have to buy an external soundcard?

I can't help but think external soundcards will be painfully slow though, you know, I turn a knob and have to wait a split second for the thing to react.

oootini

mkahnisbent wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

I can't help but think external soundcards will be painfully slow though, you know, I turn a knob and have to wait a split second for the thing to react.

no thats completely wrong. have a butchers on google or summat. it's all out there.

MilanPan!c

mkahnisbent wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Those "integrated sound card" things on laptops - are they useless? If so, if I bought a laptop to make music would I have to buy an external soundcard?

I can't help but think external soundcards will be painfully slow though, you know, I turn a knob and have to wait a split second for the thing to react.

Wrong about the speed, but they are mostly useless... I would recommend going external if you're talking a laptop... for a million reasons.

Neurojazz

mkahnisbent wrote: »

Hi all

I want to start making electronic music.

I am looking at buying a powerful Dell computer, but the best soundcard they offer is the Sound Blaster X-Fi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster#Sound_Blaster_X-Fi)

Are these any good?

Should I invest in a new soundcard - if so, is there any performance difference between an internal and an external soundcard?

Thanks!

Having a look at the specs of that, this looks good - you'd probably be the first person to have a pci express sound card - so worth trying out - all the specs look great for a beginner (better than the usual on board rubbish).

It would be very, very fast and have little latency - if you go down this route, please let us know how it works out

Haven't seen ANY pcmcia express audio cards yet

seannash

Neurojazz wrote: »

Haven't seen ANY pcmcia express audio cards yet

is this what you mean
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdsp_cardbus_interface.php

only going by the tech specs where it says

PCMCIA type II, 32 bit CardBus card

Neurojazz

seannash wrote: »

is this what you mean
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdsp_cardbus_interface.php

only going by the tech specs where it says

That's the sort of thing, but for older lappys - good to see other options - alas this type of card wouldn't work with newer one...

But they do have this - http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_expresscard.php

So a luxury version - will add that to my dream list

seannash

Neurojazz wrote: »

That's the sort of thing, but for older lappys - good to see other options - alas this type of card wouldn't work with newer one...

But they do have this - http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_expresscard.php

So a luxury version - will add that to my dream list

thats what i got

mkahnisbent

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Well I went and bought a laptop -

2.4 GHz (4 cores)
4 gigs RAM
Fast hard disk
17.3 inch monitor.

The problem is it comes with an onboard sound card, which I assume it means it's a bit crappy, so I'm guessing I'll have to buy an external sound card.

Maybe this is a really stupid question, and I apologise, but do I need an external sound card because:

a) an onboard sound card won't be good enough to make all the sorts of sounds I might want to use / may not have production quality sound
b) an onboard sound card won't have ports etc. to plug instruments into?

Or is it just for b?

Thanks!

seannash

a) an onboard sound card won't be good enough to make all the sorts of sounds I might want to use / may not have production quality sound

no it should be fine especially if you are talking about using vsts to make the sounds.the only effect itll have will be for playback.i dont know how this particular soundcard sounds in comparison to others out there so i cant comment

b) an onboard sound card won't have ports etc. to plug instruments into?

it seems like the soundblaster soundcards dont have any inputs on them so it would seem you wont be able to record many instruments into it(it might have 1 input)

to be honest these soundcards seem like they are for movies and gaming rather than for production work

MilanPan!c

The basic thing a sound card does is convert analogue to digital and vice versa and amplifies a signal to make it loud enough to record... essentially...

Onboard sound cards often (if not always) have very crappy analogue to digital converters and amplification... and are therefore not great for recording/making music....

seannash

MilanPan!c wrote: »

The basic thing a sound card does is convert analogue to digital and vice versa and amplifies a signal to make it loud enough to record... essentially...

Onboard sound cards often (if not always) have very crappy analogue to digital converters and amplification... and are therefore not great for recording/making music....

yeah this would be a step up from the regular inbuilt soundcard that ships with the laptop but itll be a hassle plugging your instruments directly into your computer.

it would be better to have a seperate soundcard attached via usb/firewire in my opinion

Anima

Onboard ones are generally pretty rubbish. They're cheap which is why they're used. Theres the littlest amount of hardware on them because software is cheap and they can implement the hardware in software, so they will steal some of your CPU also.

Sound quality is pretty poor but if you're just using cheap headphones/speakers then its not that much of a problem.

ASIO latency is an issue also, its not going to be that responsive.

Quiggers

it'll do for getting started, google asio4all to get a driver that will reduce latecy.

the biggest problem with built in cards is that they can suffer from ground loop, heard as hum, a dual channel DI box with ground lift switches will fix that but for a few pennies
more you could pick up an external soundcard which would probably offer you more ins and outs and a pair of midi ports too.

but try asio4all first and if you've no groundloop then you're laughing, and can start producing.