Hardware question, soundcards

[Blazer]

For my music production at the moment i'm using my laptop's built-in soundcard, which does it job up to a point, but can strain when i'm using a lot of channels in my daw

I'll be getting an external soundcard at some point, but out of curiosity my question is; will it improve the sound quality of a rendered track?

I've heard that it does, and would've thought so from a guess but will the quality of mp3's/wav's/ect i render from my daw be noticeably better quality than my laptop's soundcard, and does having a better soundcard increase quality more?

Cheers

[wormcode]

No, soundcards do not process internal audio unless you are using onboard DSP effects on the master which aren't very common.
It will improve the CPU usage though.

[Maxxan]

No, soundcards do not process internal audio unless you are using onboard DSP effects on the master which aren't very common.
It will improve the CPU usage though.

Apart from the CPU usage, what do they do then? Decrease latency and increase outgoing sound quality?

[wormcode]

Pretty much, and its converters allow for things like recording and then playing back very high quality audio at 192khz or so that a computer normally couldn't handle. That's also not very common. 88.2khz & 96khz audio is used a bit more though.
I guess you could say it always 'processes' the audio since it does go through it and out to the speakers, but it really doesn't instantly make it sound all shiny or professional which is what I think he was asking. Actually people argue about how much a difference it makes, but surely in blind tests it would be very obvious if it wasn't a negligible amount if any at all. Obviously recording via the inputs is different than playing back internal audio though.

[Maxxan]

Yeah, my CPU does just fine but I guess I should probably get a new soundcard in order to decrease the latency some. Probably gonna need it now that I've bought a bunch of drum pads.

Anything specific you should keep in mind when you're shopping for a soundcard?

[wormcode]

Just whether or not you will need multiple inputs besides the standard TRS inputs. Like SPDIF or maybe optical... or a dedicated headphone output, or a sync card for use with old hardware. The more MIDI ins and outs the better of course, but a lot of stuff uses USB instead of MIDI cables these days... depends on what you use.

There's some that offer onboard DSP effects that basically let you run custom effects plugins on the card itself instead of your computer's CPU, and that can add something unique to the sound, but I would look at that more as a bonus than anything. I have 2 E-MU interfaces that offer that, but there are better native plugin alternatives now, and with modern CPUs it's not very beneficial other than for experimenting really.

[Maxxan]

Yeah, I've got a bit of DJ equipment, all USB though, but I'll probably get some MIDI-keyboards and stuff later on but nothing special I reckon. Not much of a gearhead.

Will have a look around later and see what I can find, thanks for the help man!

(Totally hijacked the thread, lol. Sorry bro)

[Sharmaji]

Actually people argue about how much a difference it makes, but surely in blind tests it would be very obvious if it wasn't a negligible amount if any at all

the difference between, say a macbookpro output and a MOTU ultralite/apogee duet/MH2882 is 300% night-and-day.

[wormcode]

Actually people argue about how much a difference it makes, but surely in blind tests it would be very obvious if it wasn't a negligible amount if any at all

the difference between, say a macbookpro output and a MOTU ultralite/apogee duet/MH2882 is 300% night-and-day.

Yeah I agree with that, I meant internal audio during track rendering which is what he was asking about from what I gathered.

[antipode]

someone post decent affordable external (usb) soundcards plz

I have no idea what to look for and my google fu has always failed me for this.

[Blazer]

Pretty much, and its converters allow for things like recording and then playing back very high quality audio at 192khz or so that a computer normally couldn't handle. That's also not very common. 88.2khz & 96khz audio is used a bit more though.
I guess you could say it always 'processes' the audio since it does go through it and out to the speakers, but it really doesn't instantly make it sound all shiny or professional which is what I think he was asking. Actually people argue about how much a difference it makes, but surely in blind tests it would be very obvious if it wasn't a negligible amount if any at all. Obviously recording via the inputs is different than playing back internal audio though.

Forgot i posted this thread lol, but i'm glad it got replies

I didn't mean does it make it sound all 'shiny' i meant exactly what my question was; Does it improve the sound quality at all?

I have noticed that using my colleges soundcard seems to make the rendered files ever-so-slightly better quality (or maybe just a bit less 'muddy' and clearer) than my laptops built-in, but i'm not sure whether i was just hearing things haha

[Swelly]

Actually people argue about how much a difference it makes, but surely in blind tests it would be very obvious if it wasn't a negligible amount if any at all

the difference between, say a macbookpro output and a MOTU ultralite/apogee duet/MH2882 is 300% night-and-day.

Does this only apply to the output if you are using monitors? Will it just make what I am listening to through the output, a higher quality at the moment? Or does it make the rendered audio withing my DAW a higher quality? As of now, what I understand, is that a better soundcard will only make the output while monitoring, a higher quality. I am totally oblivious to this issue.