How much do soundcards ACTUALLY help?

[almostskate100]

Hi,

I know this topic has been discussed before, but I can't seem to gather definitive information from the existing threads.

I've been having a lot of trouble with my mixes, mostly because I can get them to sound pretty good on my monitors (M-Audio Bx8a's - plugged directly into my laptop), but they sound like shit on other systems, specifically my headphones, other speakers, etc.

I'm wondering if this is largely due to the fact that I don't have an external soundcard, and if that is the case, I'd be willing to spend some cash on one in the next couple weeks. My question for those of you who use external soundcards is this -- how much do they actually affect the sound quality of your mixes? Will getting an external soundcard fix the issues I've been having? And if so, would a moderately priced soundcard like the Focusrite Saffire 6 (around $200) be good enough to get the job done? Thanks in advance for any help, as this issue has been really bothering me lately...

[Towany]

It could be your speaker set up or the room your mixing in either man. I noticed that when I mix ( and i don't have monitors yet) that when I take my tunes out and play them somewhere else that theres a fuck load of bass in it. Where as I didn't hear that in my room. So it all depends sometimes on your set up as well. Try and move your work station around a bit and look up some vids on youtube like ''Studio Rescue'' thats got good info in it. If its not your room then check your computers sound equalizer to make sure thats off because you don't want to be mixing an already boosted or cut sound, it could end with terrible results.

Hope some of that helped!

[sunny_b_uk]

i unfortunately use my default soundcard, i use a lot of decent soundfonts lately in my music and using an onboard soundcard 1 sucks for this since each soundfont will take away 200-500 mb of my ram in a project
another plus of having a good soundcard is that certain things like soundfonts (and maybe VSTs too) RAM useage will be decreased a lot and there will be a bit sound quality improvement overall too.
despite not using a good soundcard i am able to mix down fine lately. i do use good monitoring headphones however so my only guess is that your room isn't acoustically treated properly for your speakers.
the only other thing it could be is your mixdowns.. they may have frequency clashes that you arent picking outs. using analyzers (and hearing out each sound carefully in your mix) to check if sounds arent peaking in the same frequency range is a must.

[CenturySam]

The better the sound card the more sound processing you can complete at the same time. This also means better sound quality before and when rendering to a file. When you have a dedicated soundcard (external or internal) you will be able to mix down properly. I use a Steinberg CI-2. The sound processing is good for the price. The first time I hooked it up I was blown away at the difference. You can actually hear what is wrong with your mix right away, instead of having to render to a wav or mp3. You will be able to make objective decisions that will have a positive impact on your final mix. You will get a lot more out of your monitors as well.

Trying to mixdown without a proper sound card is like trying to power a car using a bike chain

[Bournio]

Unless you're using external gear, a soundcard does not affect the quality of your mixdown.

A better soundcard will probably improve the frequency response and s-n ratio whilst music is playing, but it won't change anything from the moment you click export or render.

You're probably hearing a difference because your playback device is better!

[almostskate100]

Thanks everyone for the responses...

So is it more worthwhile for me to get a pair of monitoring headphones or something than an external soundcard? I don't have the money to acoustically treat my room, and I'm not in a permanent residence anyways, so it wouldn't be worth my time. All I want is for my mixes to be somewhat transferrable to other systems. I realize there are a lot of variables that play into this, but to have my mixes sound awesome on my monitors and completely shitty on my headphones (which are expensive Bose headphones) sucks.

I use spectrum analyzers all the time, and I am following proper gain structure (to my knowledge). I always make sure to EQ each item individually so that everything fits properly in the mix. So I've reduced the problem to be hardware related...or so I think.

[tavravlavish]

It's important to mix or at least reference your mix on different things, ipod headphones, monitors, nice head phones, crappy hi fi speakers. I usually never like anything enough to actually practice this but if I was super stoked on something I made I would definitely be checking my mix on different speakers.

[Basic A]

Soundcard = will increase your monitoring bitrate, improve buffering/relieve processing latency, and give you more ins and outs.

Addressing your mixdowns = will make your shit sound good on other systems.

[coogcoo]

get a good pair of headphones, much much much much much more worth it. that way u can actually hear wats going on (those bx8s prolly are doing much more harm than good if u dont have a proper room treatment). i mix and make music using some akg k99 headphones exclusively for most of da track and then l8r i check the mix in the car/on the soundsystem, and (once i got used 2 the headphones) every mix has translated perfectly. i almost never have a problem, only check it now usually just cuz its good practice..

get sum nice headphones, not a soundcard, it will do nothing 4 ur mixdown unless its like a UAD card or somethin n u put ur plugs on it (best plug-ins ever btw)

[almostskate100]

Soundcard = will increase your monitoring bitrate, improve buffering/relieve processing latency, and give you more ins and outs.

Addressing your mixdowns = will make your shit sound good on other systems.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong with my mixdowns though...that's what I'm trying to explain. I feel like I'm doing everything that I'm suppose to be doing with EQ, levels, spectrum analyzers, gain structure, etc. It sounds great on my monitors -- I just don't understand how my mixes can sound so drastically different on two different systems.

get a good pair of headphones, much much much much much more worth it. that way u can actually hear wats going on (those bx8s prolly are doing much more harm than good if u dont have a proper room treatment). i mix and make music using some akg k99 headphones exclusively for most of da track and then l8r i check the mix in the car/on the soundsystem, and (once i got used 2 the headphones) every mix has translated perfectly. i almost never have a problem, only check it now usually just cuz its good practice..

get sum nice headphones, not a soundcard, it will do nothing 4 ur mixdown unless its like a UAD card or somethin n u put ur plugs on it (best plug-ins ever btw)

I'll definitely look into this...the reason why I didn't get headphones in the first place is because they tend to hurt my ears...especially if I have to turn up the levels to hear all the tiny details of sounds.

[Disco Nutter]

Maybe you don't know your speakers well and that's why it translates badly to other systems.

A lot of other stuff can influence the sound of your speakers - position, room, distance and etc.

[wormcode]

Yes get a proper audio interface. It will help with latency, CPU usage, and inputs as mentioned. It will do nothing to actual sound quality unless you are using its DSP processors or the like (if it has that).

Cross reference everything. Study how tracks you like sound on your speakers, but turn them down to match yours.

You don't have to EQ or process every sound. If you are EQing everything, chances are you are killing the mix. Some sounds should be left alone. Process only where absolutely necessary. Sound selection is far more important than sound processing.

[Warwolt]

Good headphones will bring out all the details at moderate listening volume, so that should be high up on the to-buy list. Soundcards doesn't really do much for a mix, it just keeps the computer from spitting out odd noises and hickups.

[VirtualMark]

It will do nothing to actual sound quality

? ?

I was under the impression that onboard audio had lower sound quality. Dedicated audio interfaces have better signal to noise ratio, higher quality digital to analog converters and better quality outputs.

My laptops onboard sound has hiss and cpu whine - plug in an external card and the noise disappears. I suppose onboard audio varies from system to system, but i'd think that a dedicated card would be better sound quality every time.

As for cpu usage - i think people are getting a sound card confused with a dsp. A dedicated dsp card, such as the UAD ones, will offload processing from the cpu to the card. So the UAD plugins take up much less cpu. But a normal sound card won't do any of the processing for normal vst's. The cpu still does the processing and outputs to the soundcard. I would have thought the cpu saving would be minimal. Just out of interest, I might do a test on my laptop with and without an external card, see if i get any difference.

[wormcode]

Yeah sorry by that I meant it won't add any polished sound to your mixes, as in it won't "process" your mixes unless it's going through onboard processing of some type, but not all cards have that.

[almostskate100]

So can anyone help me figure out how to check if my Mac's internal EQ is on or not?

[syrup]

So can anyone help me figure out how to check if my Mac's internal EQ is on or not?

I run an oldish 10.4 and there is no EQ afaik.

Check System Preferences=>Sound tho

[skyh]

i should probably see if this creative audigy still works and put it in my new rig if possible... this thread inspired me

[mikeyp]

It will do nothing to actual sound quality

? ?

I was under the impression that onboard audio had lower sound quality. Dedicated audio interfaces have better signal to noise ratio, higher quality digital to analog converters and better quality outputs.

My laptops onboard sound has hiss and cpu whine - plug in an external card and the noise disappears. I suppose onboard audio varies from system to system, but i'd think that a dedicated card would be better sound quality every time.

As for cpu usage - i think people are getting a sound card confused with a dsp. A dedicated dsp card, such as the UAD ones, will offload processing from the cpu to the card. So the UAD plugins take up much less cpu. But a normal sound card won't do any of the processing for normal vst's. The cpu still does the processing and outputs to the soundcard. I would have thought the cpu saving would be minimal. Just out of interest, I might do a test on my laptop with and without an external card, see if i get any difference.

could you or someon clarify or find an example of what you mean by dsp card? not entirely sure what i'm supposed to be looking for when i google it, kind of interested in something like this