would an external audio interface help?

[zombie_xxl]

After several years inactive I'd like to try to make some music again. I stopped when my daughter was born and work got really demanding too so I could not dedícate so much time to it.

I have a desktop computer with a Creative SB X-FI card and I got me a license of Live Intro and set everything up. It works really well but I can hear some cracks from time to time when playing my songs even though CPU load is only 50-60% and I've set latency at just around 10 ms (using the manufacturer Creative ASIO driver). I'm not that serious about my music but this occasional popping is really annoying and was thinking if I could maybe get a better sound card as current Creative cards suck (though I still fondly remember my AWE32, that was really something). I've made some searches though and it seems nowadays most people uses external interfaces. Would an USB external interface improve the performance of my equipment? Do they work as well as a PCI card? I plan to only use VSTis and audio files and my old Evolution external USB keyboard to enter notes. I don't need to record any external instrument. My desktop is around 2-3 years old, with Windows 7 and a good processor and RAM.

In the case the answer is affirmative I would be really thankful if any of you could recommend me a good interface, not necessarily the cheapest but good price/quality.

P.S: I've already updated my soundcard drivers to no avail.

[dsan@mail.com]

IMHO, it can't hurt. But it sounds like you are preparing for the journey into the abyss of the perpetual money pit.

If you're "not that serious" I don't know if I would travel that route. There are likely some tweaks you have overlooked to achieve the goal. Granted Creative Labs are not the greatest of cards, by comparison, but there are many making music on these cards today.

Now, having said that, if you feel the need to invest in a dedicated card, be sure to do your homework to find the card that will work with your system and give you the results you need. There are many USB modules to choose from and they all have their pluses and minuses. After much research I ended up with an Edirol Fa-101 (firewire) to replace an M-audio FireWire 410 But this may not be the one for you. What I didn't like about the 410 was volume control.

There's just more to it than "oh, that one's nice. I'll get it." Read the internet posts, likes and hates, before deciding on a card. Be sure it will work on your system. Most will but they all have their quirks.

Again, IMHO, at this level of interest, there is no need to spend tons of money. It seems today, aside from cards similar to what you have, an Rme or UAD PCI card, which are top shelf, will set you back a pretty penny. Although some external modules can too.

My advice, stay with your current setup, investigate to determine the best card for your needs and budget, and then, when you are POSITIVE, make the buy. You will be much happier in the long run. And money ahead.

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[zombie_xxl]

Thanks dsan. That's a pretty sound and wise piece of advice. I understand what you mean by the pit, I've already been there before (not with hardware but with software). I'll do like you suggest. Cheers.

[BertKoor]

It works really well but I can hear some cracks from time to time when playing my songs

Hard to remotely diagnose, but these could be digital overshoots: clipping! Or if this is indeed a matter of the CPU not being able to keep up, have you ever tried the DPC Latency checker?
For what it's worth, I would not jump to conclusions and blame the soundcard, since too many other factors might cause this. You could ofcourse try Asio4All and see weather that makes any difference.

I've made some searches though and it seems nowadays most people uses external interfaces. Would an USB external interface improve the performance of my equipment?

External interfaces are popular because people have massively switched to laptops/notebooks and have ditched the old desktop computer. USB audio is good enough, but in terms of CPU usage it will always take more CPU resources than a well-written PCI driver. On todays (and yesterdays) systems that's no real issue.

[zombie_xxl]

have you ever tried the DPC Latency checker?.

Thanks BertKoor. I downloaded DPC Latency checker and run it, but it says "This machine should be able to handle real-time streaming of audio and/or video data without drop-outs". Thanks for the tip anyway, I did not know about DPC Latenty checker and it's been helpful to know there's no obvious issue with my computer.

try Asio4All and see weather that makes any difference.

Thanks, good thought but unfortunately in this case it made things worse.

The truth is I need to run a really demanding set to hear the noise. What confuses me is that when I configured Live I set up the buffer size using the Live test with a 80% CPU Load simulation and I could go as down as 312 samples no problem. And I left 440 just to leave some room. But when I play for instance the new Live Tutorial Live Set which in my computer reaches more tan 60% CPU usage I experiment the cracking noises. With my usual VSTis I don't often reach that high, I need many simultaneous instances and polyphony and loads of FX. I guess I can always render some tracks to audio when I reach this point.

I think I'll keep yours and dsan's advice and keep on going with what I have, if with time I see a real need then I'll consider an external card.

Thanks again for your help.

[EnGee]

For what it's worth, I would not jump to conclusions and blame the soundcard, since too many other factors might cause this. You could ofcourse try Asio4All and see weather that makes any difference.

+1

IMO you should check your system with this free tool:
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml


If it is not green (meaning red spikes) then read how to test your PC and test/disable your hardware/drivers one by one till you find the problem.
I had a click/crackle problems for more than 2 years (it made me crazy! that I installed OS X in other partition!). Anyway, finally I solved it with this gem. In my case it was my wireless adapter driver!! I was lucky that I could find alternative driver

Edit: Oh, you already knew about the DPC Latency Checker

[bazwillrun]

I have a lot of experience with video and in the past every now and again there would be the a few frames of flicker appear in my vids.

i used to spend hours , days, months even, all to no avail trying to find the source...

In the end the one thing that was 100% guaranteed to solve the problem was a complete re-install of the op/sys and all software.

i'm willing to bet its the same in cases like this with audio, but instead of the flicker its pops etc

any problems i have now if I cant solve them within the hour...then i re-install, saves me a lot of time and headaches in the long run.
Its hassle but its less hassle than I used to have and I know it will sort things out

theres always so much going on in the background on computers unless youre lucky the chances of finding which product is trying to update etc, which service the comp is trying to run etc etc etc etc is practically nil unless youre extremely lucky.

software and drivers just seem to gradually "wear out"

[piel]

Hi,

I don't really know where to start...
First, all the above comments make sense.
Second, PCI is faster than USB 2.0 in high speed mode.
You said you work "in the box" so if you don't want to record external instruments you won't need the extra/better inputs. Unless you have really high quality headphones or monitors you won't be able to tell the difference at 44.1 kHz sample rate playback and not any higher either.
I have Live Standard and i have experienced the same crackling in that demosong with builtin and external soundcard occasionally. I have an i7 laptop with fresh install. Some of Lives devices have a quality setting set to high. 2 in that demo. (saturator and reverb i guess and they are hungry...)
The meter in Live does NOT show the processor load. Unless some expert can enlighten us i think it is more like the load of the audio buffer. On my system it is not consistent with any if my cores load. I might be wrong here.
Check the latency and buffer size settings inside Live and the driver because live can change it.
Live is not the best performer in my experience, I mean not to diss it's quality, simply i've got better performance in other DAWs on my system. I still love it though. Check multicore support too in preferences.
Check or turn off AV software, network adapters etc. WiFi is my weakest link f.ex.
Use 44.1 kHz samplerate if you don't already. No perceivable quality loss there, but lightens the load.
I don't know if ASIO4ALL will work for you, but many people reported better results with it than with manufacturers own ASIO drivers. (Usually the type of soundcard you have, not the higher qulity stuff)
10ms is considered a quite good latency for recording, you don't need that good for playback. I think you can safely experiment a bit higher.
If you still need better performance, you'll need a better system and not a soundcard.

I hope i made sense.

Best regards

Peter

[DuX]

An RME HDSP 9632 PCI card [PCIe costs more] can be had for about 200$ these days and that card can be an absolutely solid foundation with absolutely solid drivers for your home studio. It's a really great card to start with. And to finish with, too. The only downside with a PCI card is that it doesn't come with a preamp, so if you plan on recording vocals and guitars, you will have to buy a preamp, too. If budget is a problem, and you really need to record those vocals and guitars, then Focusrite Scarlett USB or Firewire interfaces, or TC Impact Twinf is a very good option.

Cheers!