KVR Audio

theupgrade · Post by **theupgrade** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:27 pm

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) and KRK rokit 6.

Will an external soundcard make a difference in the sound-quality?

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:30 pm

d-s-m · Post by **d-s-m** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 6:17 pm

With a decent interface, there will be night and day difference in sound quality.

Rene · Post by **Rene** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:04 am

Absolutely agree. I'm also using a MBP and the internal sound card isn't bad. You can absolutely use it for arranging stuff together, doing rough mixes etc. But, to get really decent audio quality (e.g. for doing final adjustments) a good external sound card with good speakers and or headphones is a big step ahead or even a must (depending on your personal ambitions).

risome · Post by **risome** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:23 am

If your serious about production of course you do

bmrzycki · Post by **bmrzycki** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:45 am

theupgrade wrote:I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) and KRK rokit 6.

Will an external soundcard make a difference in the sound-quality?

IT all depends on what you're after.

If you don't plan on recording anything with mics or line instruments and listening back at 44.1k or 48k then not really. You're better off saving your money while you learn what's good and what's bad and what you think you want as you continue with music.

As long as you have a good cable converting the 3.5mm plug to your KRKs you're fine and as long as you are not hearing audible hum, crackles, or, other unwanted noises I'd say don't bother. OS X has good drivers written for their built-in hardware and it has comparable latency to Windows stuff with ASIO4All.

Gates of H&I · Post by **Gates of H&I** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 10:15 am

No.

Sound quality straight out of a MBP is fine. You will not see a night and day difference. Save your money.

Dúnedain · Post by **Dúnedain** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:54 am

d-s-m wrote:With a decent interface, there will be night and day difference in sound quality.

I seriously doubt this claim. Did you conpared it yourself?

d-s-m · Post by **d-s-m** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:18 am

Dúnedain wrote:
d-s-m wrote:With a decent interface, there will be night and day difference in sound quality.
I seriously doubt this claim. Did you conpared it yourself?

I could clearly tell that there was a big difference in sound quality when I got my interface, everything sounded clearer, more detailed and a lot louder than compared with my computers built in soundcard.

You can get a good interface for well under £100 these days, so if you are serious about making music then there is no excuse to cheap out on buying one. Especially if you have spent money on some nice monitors, you are doing you and your monitors a disservice by not getting one.

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:51 am

Oh jesus christ, not the "all soundcards sound the same" bullshit again........

UltimateOutsider · Post by **UltimateOutsider** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:24 am

theupgrade wrote:I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) and KRK rokit 6.

Will an external soundcard make a difference in the sound-quality?

If you work entirely in the box (soft synths and plugins for effects), then having an audio interface will not improve your recorded sound quality at all. If you record external instruments or use external processing equipment, your recorded sound quality may improve with an interface, but it won't necessarily be a night-and-day difference.

Playback can sometimes be noticeably better through an interface because interfaces usually have a lower noise floor than internal audio, and because they usually offer better, balanced outputs to wire up to your monitors.

I wrote a post a while back that lists all the reasons you might want to use an interface instead of on-board audio.

I also put together three different playlists that compare audio recorded directly into a PC versus several different audio interfaces. There are some subtle differences. (Each audio clip is available as a 44.1/24 WAV download if you don't trust SoundCloud.)

https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider ... line-level
https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider ... line-level
https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider ... line-level

Dúnedain · Post by **Dúnedain** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:10 pm

d-s-m wrote:
Dúnedain wrote:
d-s-m wrote:With a decent interface, there will be night and day difference in sound quality.
I seriously doubt this claim. Did you conpared it yourself?
I could clearly tell that there was a big difference in sound quality when I got my interface, everything sounded clearer, more detailed and a lot louder than compared with my computers built in soundcard.

Does this only applies to recording -> playback or just for playback as well?

Do I need an external soundcard?