Sound quality of rendered edits

[JayEss]

This may be a stooopid question but...
Does the quality of your computer's sound card have any effect on the quality of .wav file resulting from exporting an edit?
And while I'm asking dumb stuff...
Is there much difference between the .wav file and the aiff file? Which one do you guys prefer to use?

[GaryG]

No, when exporting or rendering the audio doesn't go through your soundcard at all, it's all done internally, digitally.

None that I'm aware of, same data just a different format (wav favoured by Windows, aiff by Macs)

Nice sig btw.

.g

[davor]

No, when exporting or rendering the audio doesn't go through your soundcard at all, it's all done internally, digitally.

.g

I wouldn't be so sure that the card doesn't have anything to do with it, but then again, that's just my experience. Yours may be different.

[nuffink]

No, when exporting or rendering the audio doesn't go through your soundcard at all, it's all done internally, digitally.

.g

I wouldn't be so sure that the card doesn't have anything to do with it, but then again, that's just my experience. Yours may be different.

No, it really doesn't. Take it out and you can still render down.

[davor]

No, when exporting or rendering the audio doesn't go through your soundcard at all, it's all done internally, digitally.

.g

I wouldn't be so sure that the card doesn't have anything to do with it, but then again, that's just my experience. Yours may be different.

No, it really doesn't. Take it out and you can still render down.

I know that you could take it out and stil render, but if it's in, it can have to do with the export. At least I'm pretty sure my does ( Terratec DMX 6 Fire ). I know that because after I messed with ASIO setting in Cubase Asio control pannel, the quality of sound changed ___ for better luckily.
Also, I noticed that I cannot export audio if I remove stereo card out buss from Cubase project file, so I guess it goes somehow through the card. I'm pretty sure. But that's just my experience, and it need not be general.

[nuffink]

Sorry, but I think you're imagining it.

[.jon]

At least I'm pretty sure my does ( Terratec DMX 6 Fire ). I know that because after I messed with ASIO setting in Cubase Asio control pannel, the quality of sound changed ___ for better luckily.

You changed the sample rate, which makes a difference for sure.

[davor]

Sorry, but I think you're imagining it.

No, I'm not. I'm using it for too long to be imaginig it + I've did extensive comparisons, over a long period of time, so it's 100% sure I'm not imaginig it. EOD

[davor]

At least I'm pretty sure my does ( Terratec DMX 6 Fire ). I know that because after I messed with ASIO setting in Cubase Asio control pannel, the quality of sound changed ___ for better luckily.

You changed the sample rate, which makes a difference for sure.

Pal, I'm not a not a 13 year old wannabe techo producer + I'm not that stupid and inexperienced that I wouldn't know that sampling rate makes a difference. I'm aware of the fact there are people here who would claim that, 44 100 and 48 000 ,for example, sound the same. But I'm not one of them.

[.jon]

I didn't say so, I just told you what setting you changed and why your exports sounded different afterwards. Something that your "extensive testing" didn't cover.

Sorry davor, the sound does not go through your soundcard when exporting, but you are of course free to believe otherwise if you wish. Just keep false information to yourself.

[davor]

I didn't say so, I just told you what setting you changed and why your exports sounded different afterwards. Something that your "extensive testing" didn't cover.

Sorry davor, the sound does not go through your soundcard when exporting, but you are of course free to believe otherwise if you wish. Just keep false information to yourself.

OK, what settings do you think I changed? Are you sure that you know what I'm talking about. Are you a Cubase user. I'm pretty sure my audio card is somehow involved in the quality of sound of vst instruments as well as quality of export -- at least when the card ASIO drivers are used- my experience after 3-4 years of using it. And, as I said that's just my experience, and if yours is different I respect that.

[IIRs]

I'm pretty sure my audio card is somehow involved in the quality of sound of vst instruments as well as quality of export -- at least when the card ASIO drivers are used- my experience after 3-4 years of using it.

Well.. you are still wrong.

The only difference the card makes is to the sound you monitor while you do it: unless this prompts you to make different choices than you would have done otherwise, the rendered results will be identical.

[IIRs]

The only exception to this rule is when using Tracktion's 'render' function (rather than 'export'): in this case Tracktion takes the bit depth setting from the card.. but I regard this as wrong behaviour to be honest, and the signal still doesn't actually pass through the card.

[audiobot202]

So, if this is indeed the case, then why are many of us still not using onboard sound and ditching higher end soundcards? I want to know why my Audiophile sounds better than my Vortex 2 card..on both playback and rendered tracks to cd?
Legitimate questions considering the topic at hand.

[.jon]

The soundcard comes into play on the output stage - the digital to audio converters on the card have a big impact on the actual quality of the sound coming from the outputs to your monitoring system.

Exporting, on the other hand, is executed by the host application's algorithms, it just converts the digital output stream from VST & VSTi into standard audio file formats.