The DijonStock Digital Home Recording Support Forum

I've been reading the posts about the Mackie software and noted the comments about the necessity of a good sound card. I have a couple of late model Toshiba Laptops one with a 1.4 Centrino chip the other with a 2.4 Atheron both with 512 RAM modules. The built in sound cards are pretty lousy.

So my question is: will something like the Tascam USB 122 mentioned in the post help?

I'd like to be able to mixdown some stuff recorded on the G and also record some MIDI drum and keyboard tracks in real time. I've tried this with my existing set up and have run into serious latency problems.

Any thoughts on what would help with these laptops.

Thanks to all

http://www.digitraxx.com/ma_soundcard.html

Look towards the bottom of the page. They have about 4 to chose from.

oddly I was on a similar path in another thread this morning.

Geno

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

That's where the good soundcards come into their own ... low latency ... smooth running of software effects, pristine quality mixdowns ...

Cheap onboard soundcards can only do so much when it comes to running this type of software ...

If you've got a free slot it's good to shove a better soundcard into your machine. For example, I think the new Emu cards also make life easier for your PC as a lot of the audio effects are running on the card itself ... very nifty ...

I use an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI card, I believe Utah does too and Mic has just bought the Firewire version. There's alo a USB version ...

But there's loads to choose from, RME are renouned for making top-end stuff but you'll have to bust the piggy bank.

I went for the M-Audio cause it got very good reviews and has good specs. It's also just so useful. For example, yesterday I took an old Christmas tape my kids wanted to hear, took a stereo out from an old Sony tape deck into my TC-Electronic compressor and from there a digital stereo (SPDIF) out to the soundcard. I then had some nice wav files which I burned to a really high quality CD ... it sounds just so much better than the tape since I used some finalizer mixdown settings on the compressor and also beefed up the signal ...

Sorry to go on ...

Good luck

Pete

You GO ON?

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

The fog is beginning to lift.

This whole sound card thing has had me confused and the posts here and in Mr.Skygod's previous thread have been a big help.

I would like a clarification on one issue. Do "sound cards" always have the 128 midi sounds that my laptop card does. Is this just a given or are some lacking? I've looked at the specs on the USB Mobile stuff M Audio sells and don't see a mention of this.

The reason I'm interested in the sounds is that I would like to occasionally record a piano part using a sound card with little or no latency. I can do this with my current laptop soundcard but the quality of the piano doesn't even reach cheesiness.

Thanks once again for your help. Without this site I'd still be scratching my head over the manual.

I am always available to help with any questions you have about guitar repai , setup and construction, both electric and acoustic.

Ha, brilliant Don't confuse a soundcard with a 'midi module', you're moving ahead of the pack here. The M-Audio thing is a dedicated piece of hardware which will help you create and playback stuff in pristine audio quality. Now if you want better 'midi sounds' you'll need some better patches than the standard windows built in thingy. I'm sure Geno or Dr Ricardo can explain better ...

By the way does your laptop have a midi I/O?

Your midi keyboard notes will trigger the world's cheapest and the world's most expensive software synth sounds. If you want an immediate improvement you could go with Roland's Virtual Sound Canvas. It's a sight better than the built-in windows sounds. By installing that it becomes your default midi playback player and sound module.

However, I'm sure before I've finished writing this someone (maybe in Oxford ) will tell you where to get some free midi synths. By the way (speaking in a whisper ) I'm not supposed to say this here, but I'm hoping to get the Tascam 2488 which has a built-in midi module and USB out, that's so clever and so very useful ... well, we all move on ...

Here's a link to the Roland thing. They have some MP3 samples for you to listen to ...
http://www.edirol.com/products/info/vscmp1.html

Yours sincerely

Dr Steinberg Gumby

Thanks for the info Pete, the fog continues to lift.

My laptop only has the USB interface.

I do have a version of the Roland Virtual Synth that came with band in a box. It sounds infintely better than the onboard soundcard, but the latency is horrific. About half a second or so.

So with one of these M-Audio USB thingys could I make an acceptable dent in the latency?

I want to track live into the G. The midi synch bit is still well beyond my understanding.

Well, better soundcards give lower latency and since that's what you're after ...

You know if it's just midi, they have a little USB midi thing too. But the prices are so low that you might as well get the audio I/O ...

So you're in fact using the laptop as a type of synth? Good idea.

Yes, BB include the Roland synth in their software ... hey, you've got it already! Talk to the guys at your store or write to m-audio or Roland or whoever to get the right info. Talk to the experts.

Of course, you''ll need a fairly quick machine and some RAM to also help the situation along ... but I take it you have that?

P

Ya hit the nail one the head Dr. Cat!

MIDI is the "conductor" of the orchestra. The sounds of the orchestra are whatever are on your sound card , keyboard synth, rack module , or plugin software synth. The midi conductor can be a midi enabled synth , midi keyboard ,a midi software program , a midi sequencer or even a computer.

MIDI tells each "member" of the orchestra what instrument to play , when to play, how loud to play , what time signature, what key , what effects to use while playing , when to turn them on and off, and on and on. If one can think of something to do musically , there is a MIDI command that will control it.

You can use MIDI to record every note , nuance of almost any instrument or have MIDI play back the same recording down to the last string squeek on some sequencers.

MIDI can be used to say record a piano performance and play it back as a saxaphone for an extreme example.

MIDI can be used to play several sequencers (or keyboards)at the same
time.

The days of the cheesy midi "piano" are long past. The limits concerning MIDI are only your imagination.

MIDI is a playground I love to hang around in.

DR. Midi Skygod

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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE
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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.