Hi,

I'm pretty new to 'ASIO' and was simply using my onboard sound card.

I've isntalled ASIO4ALL to fix some issues I was having, but wondered if I should be investing in a real ASIO piece of hardware or would something like a Behringer USB ASIO driver do the job?

Thanks,

1DMF

yes

The onboard soundcard for your computer is not meant to handle the various "things" that you're going to be throwing at it.....synths, samples, EQs, etc,......and you will run into problems very quickly once you get into the meat of things. Having an external interface to deal with audio only is a GOOD THING. Plus, you get little extras with an interface, from preamps to midi input/output, to additional software (like lite versions of DAWs or virtual synths).

and buy a midi keyboard. i use this one http://www.akaipro.com/lpk25 but i just use it to audition presets you may require more keys if you plan to play it.

Would you reccoment a USB ASIO box like the Behringer U-CONTROL UCA202, or an M-Audio PCIe card?

I have jumped in and bought myself a Novation Impulse 25 midi controller, just gotta learn how to use it now - lol!

About the question: "Should I buy an audio interface?". It depends on your needs. If you want to record sounds with a microphone, or want to connect dedicated studio monitors then yes.

But if you don't record external instruments and just want to play with some software using computer speakers or headphones, I don't see any need to buy an external audio interface.

I don't know if it is really necessary or not. I suppose it comes down to how serious you are about it, how many channels of audio you need, etc. etc...

The point I'm making is, that there are a lot of people that are doing very well with ASIO4ALL. The HD soundcards, while possibly not having the DACs/ADACs that a pro card would have, not having as good a sound/noise ratio, etc., are FAR superior to pro sound cards that were available just 10 years ago.

Also, consider what is in your signal chain? Are there devices that you use that degrade the signal worse than your on-board card or add noise to your signal? Are you doing everything within the digital domain, and thus bypassing the DACs/ADACs altogether? What quality of microphone do you have?

Personally, I am a hobbyist. I have 2-3 semi-pro cards, and seldom use them. I do most everything within the digital domain, and vocals are the only thing that I use otherwise. I don't find it as necessary as some would.

Then again, I'm not miking a whole live band with pro mics and such like others may do.

Just giving a different perspective from what others have given you so far (who have equally valid opinions and advice).

--Sean

Agreed!

--Sean

Thanks, I guess as I'm not using any 'audio in' devices; DAC isn't an issue.

I have been told that a proper soundcard will play the audio in better quality than my onboard card, but it is meant to be dolby 7.1 , so I thought it would suffice.

I'll only be playing with loops / midi / vst, so yes just digital domain, I guess for the moment, ASIO4ALL does the job nicely!

If the latency is low enough and you aren't having any audio glitching, and you don't need to leave the digital domain, then you should be just fine.

--Sean

I did have audio issues to start with, poping, cracling , clipping, what ever it was, nasty sound what ever the problem was, installed ASIO4ALL and it went away.

Until it comes back I guess I need to worry about more impotant things, like how to use the DAW and VST plugins!

Thanks for the advice.
1DMF.

Then working with ASIO4ALL will be fine. I always work with the ASIO4ALL drivers on my laptop without any problems

I understand you want to make dance music. Some DJ's say they are creating tunes on their laptop while travelling by plane. I don't think they are using any external audio interface while flying.

Yeah, there is nothing "wrong" with working inside the box. But w/o all the subjective baloney, in general, most people, feel a good soundcard sounds better. Ymmv. As an example, my lappy with the built in soundcard can be noisy at times.

If you do decide to get an external card some important questions to ask:

mac/pc
usb or fw. pcie is only ok for desktops obviously
if fw, what chipset do you have? TI chipsets are preferable
how many outs/ins do you need?
Mics? Headphone outs? (some have more than one which is nice for some)
A google can help with reviews and such for stability. (this requires more work than asking on one forum usually)

Latency is generally close on many cards but there are instances where this can be better (rme is known to have very low latency drivers in general...just as an example)

At times I've had 14 flights a month. Using Asio4All has been enough to make my lappy playback stuff quickly enough. But to be honest, there's not that much need for low latency if you haven't got external synths or even a midi keyboard. Keyboard+mousepad setup isn't that responsive that 10ms would matter.


And NO, you won't need a "pro soundcard" if you don't need high quality inputs. Quite many Mobo's even have better DACs than 5 year old "pro soundcards"..

Onboard soundcards have chips cheaper than one of these:



ASIO4all is a great hack but you REALLY want to replace the junk. ALWAYS.