PCIe soundcard?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 101 posts since 31 Oct, 2009
Is there such thing as a good PCIe soundcard? I can't find any from the usual soundcard manufacturers.
thanks
Keith
thanks
Keith
Keith
Glendale, AZ USA
Glendale, AZ USA
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- KVRAF
- 2493 posts since 6 Dec, 2005 from Bay Area, USA
RME?
G
G
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- KVRAF
- 15523 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
I guess you need to define "good." I like my emu card, but I have ears of tin so YMMV.kmmcdonald wrote:Is there such thing as a good PCIe soundcard? I can't find any from the usual soundcard manufacturers.
thanks
Keith
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- Pick Me Pick me!
- 9691 posts since 12 Mar, 2002 from a state of confusion
with the rise of Firewire and USB, there aren't many new cards out these days unless you go with a pricy source.
I just switched from an 8+ year old M-audio PCI (old school) to a Motu microbook II USB a month or so ago
It's quick but is also a bit annoying too with the routing.. plus having an external box. Because of the obnoxious routing and software, I set everything to out and then routed it through a small Mackie mixer just so I could get a proper volume knob. The one on the microbook is weird. I probably should have returned it and kept looking, but time for that has past..
I wish manufacturers still made many choices of PCI cards.
I just switched from an 8+ year old M-audio PCI (old school) to a Motu microbook II USB a month or so ago
It's quick but is also a bit annoying too with the routing.. plus having an external box. Because of the obnoxious routing and software, I set everything to out and then routed it through a small Mackie mixer just so I could get a proper volume knob. The one on the microbook is weird. I probably should have returned it and kept looking, but time for that has past..
I wish manufacturers still made many choices of PCI cards.
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- KVRAF
- 15523 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
I find it irritating that I can't get the clock daughter board for my EMU card.VitaminD wrote:
I wish manufacturers still made many choices of PCI cards.
Blame laptops!
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- Pick Me Pick me!
- 9691 posts since 12 Mar, 2002 from a state of confusion
That is exactly the cause!ghettosynth wrote:I find it irritating that I can't get the clock daughter board for my EMU card.VitaminD wrote:
I wish manufacturers still made many choices of PCI cards.
Blame laptops!
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- KVRAF
- 2493 posts since 6 Dec, 2005 from Bay Area, USA
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- KVRAF
- 4321 posts since 26 Jun, 2004
This subject has been blowing my mind for a good month now since a friend ordered a tippy-top of the line Alienware monster rig that does not have a slot that will accept an M-Audio PCIe card.
What we learned is that the 'backward compatible' dual-use slots were really just a gift to us lowly end users by the mobo manufacturers over the years they were 'standard'.
So yes, its because of laptops.
Are people still buying desktops?
Or, with decent latency, was it just that easy to convince most of the desktoppers to just use an outboard box?
Convince em with marketing that its 'cool', like having 'hardware', and bam, production costs cut in half.
Its pretty crazy right atm though.
Someone picking up say, a midrange Dell and wanting an internal card has some pretty shit options.
They are already basically forced into outboard (like my friend was).
Fukk, will we ever see consumer grade internal cards again?
It kind of makes sense that we will not....
What we learned is that the 'backward compatible' dual-use slots were really just a gift to us lowly end users by the mobo manufacturers over the years they were 'standard'.
So yes, its because of laptops.
Are people still buying desktops?
Or, with decent latency, was it just that easy to convince most of the desktoppers to just use an outboard box?
Convince em with marketing that its 'cool', like having 'hardware', and bam, production costs cut in half.
Its pretty crazy right atm though.
Someone picking up say, a midrange Dell and wanting an internal card has some pretty shit options.
They are already basically forced into outboard (like my friend was).
Fukk, will we ever see consumer grade internal cards again?
It kind of makes sense that we will not....
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- KVRAF
- 1782 posts since 4 Sep, 2011 from England
Creative do PCI-e soundcards with stereo ASIO at 96khz The X-FI Titanium has served me and Ableton Live without bugs for the last three years.
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- KVRAF
- 2677 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
First, there really isn't any. Well, of course except some really expensive stuff from RME, SC and TC. I think I have seen a cheaper card or two from Maya/ESI though. But not sure.
Second, Creative Sound Cards are not proper audio interfaces. You could use them, but not an ideal solution.
Third, does EMU still exist? Considering that they have not done anything noteworthy since the beginning of the 90's, I'm not sure I would buy anything EMU written on it. I might be wrong, of course.
So all things considered the best bet is still to get a PCI card. This of course presents another set of problems as you have to find a proper mainboard that can use PCI card. As modern SB boards do not have a native PCI support you have to look for a board that has enough PCIe lanes as these are shared among PCIe and PCI slots. Ideally the board should have an extra PCIe controller that gives some extra lanes (like Asrock borads). Also the older SB chipsets had a serious compatibility problems with PCI audio interfaces, so you need to look out for those.
Second, Creative Sound Cards are not proper audio interfaces. You could use them, but not an ideal solution.
Third, does EMU still exist? Considering that they have not done anything noteworthy since the beginning of the 90's, I'm not sure I would buy anything EMU written on it. I might be wrong, of course.
So all things considered the best bet is still to get a PCI card. This of course presents another set of problems as you have to find a proper mainboard that can use PCI card. As modern SB boards do not have a native PCI support you have to look for a board that has enough PCIe lanes as these are shared among PCIe and PCI slots. Ideally the board should have an extra PCIe controller that gives some extra lanes (like Asrock borads). Also the older SB chipsets had a serious compatibility problems with PCI audio interfaces, so you need to look out for those.
No signature here!
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- KVRAF
- 3441 posts since 15 Mar, 2003
I was just looking online at motherboards.
I see that both Z77 and X79 boards have pci slots.
The ones I saw had 2 pci slots, as well as the pci-e.
I think you just have to be careful which board you buy.
I suppose the pci will eventually be dropped but it doesn't appear to be gone yet.
I see that both Z77 and X79 boards have pci slots.
The ones I saw had 2 pci slots, as well as the pci-e.
I think you just have to be careful which board you buy.
I suppose the pci will eventually be dropped but it doesn't appear to be gone yet.
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- KVRAF
- 1782 posts since 4 Sep, 2011 from England
So what does a proper Audio card offer over an X-FI Titanium ?
- KVRAF
- 5948 posts since 19 Jun, 2008 from Melbourne, Australia
Better converters.Kaboom75 wrote:So what does a proper Audio card offer over an X-FI Titanium ?
Better ASIO drivers and therefore ASIO performance i.e. lower latencies, more instruments and effects.
At least that's the theory - depends on which company we're talking about. Not all drivers are created equal!
Peace,
Andy.
... space is the place ...
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- KVRAF
- 2677 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
Like the above poster said: better drivers and sound quality. No doubt the Soundblaster Titanium is a good card. I had Soundblaster SZ2 Plantium (well, I still do in my old computer) and it was great for gaming, listening music and even doing some music. But my M-Audio Delta blew it out of the water when it came to ASIO latency and stability. And there was a noticeable difference in sound quality too.Kaboom75 wrote:So what does a proper Audio card offer over an X-FI Titanium ?
Also I remember that Creative drivers had a strange limitation - you could not set sampling rate lower than 48khz and it tended to cause some problems with VST plugins and samples.
No signature here!