Hey, I just picked up a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS soundcard for my computer for $80. Its supposed to be a great sound card for playing music (havent had a chance to install it yet), but i dont know how it is on recording. I've heard that if your doing recording and you want it to sound good, you dont want to use the mic in jack on the sound card (this is correct, right?) My question is that if I bought an external mic preamp for recording, would the sound card have much to do with the quality of the recording? Are their certain sound cards that are better for recording, or do they not really matter when you use an external mic preamp? Thanks.
The first time I heard a Beatles song was "Let It Be." Some little kid was singing along with it: "Let it pee, let it pee" and pretending he was taking a leak. Hey, that's what happened, OK?-some guy
The Creative Labs cards are targeted at the gaming and music listening crowds, and whatever you do to them will give you recordings that will make professionals retch. That's what I gather from forums dedicated to recording. For undiscriminating folks like you or I, it should work fine. If you really get into recording, you may want a card actually made for it, like the ones made by M-Audio (first company that comes to mind) and others. A preamp will help you get a good recording, but that's true of any card. Your sound card will still have the same effect on the recording, but you'll be giving it better source material. An external EQ would be another investment that might be helpful. I don't know what you'd use instead of the mic in on the sound card. Or are you referring to the one on the breakout box? I'd use the one on the card itself before that, and the line in jack if I had a preamp. I think you be able to get good results with it, although not professional quality.
For a little more than the price you paid for that ZS you could have probably gotten an M-audio 2496 card (recording software included, albeit limited versions) and a small tube preamp. The Audigy cards have really low headroom. Their drivers are so infamous that other independant techies have gone to the trouble of writing their own drivers for them. http://www.kxproject.com and http://www.asio4all.com . That being said, with those drivers I think you could put together a passable demo with the right software. Check out http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php lots of free plugins. I'm sure you already know about audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Well The only two things I really care about in a soundcard are music playback quality, and sound recording quality, i don't really care much about games. I can still return this card and get one of those M-audio audiophile 2496 cards. Think its worth it?
The first time I heard a Beatles song was "Let It Be." Some little kid was singing along with it: "Let it pee, let it pee" and pretending he was taking a leak. Hey, that's what happened, OK?-some guy
Audiophile 2496 $100.00
Behringer ultragain tube 100 preamp about $70.00
Audigy ZS is about $70-$90 us.
It's your call. If you have the extra cash it's worth it.
I think Im gonna go for it, I just know I'll be kicking myself down the road. Thanks for your help guys.
The first time I heard a Beatles song was "Let It Be." Some little kid was singing along with it: "Let it pee, let it pee" and pretending he was taking a leak. Hey, that's what happened, OK?-some guy
