Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Sound Cards for Sound Producers
Sound producers
are people who intend to create their own sound files. These can range
from casual business users recording low-fidelity voice annotations to professional mu-
sicians. These users need an adapter that can perform as much of the audio processing
as possible itself, so they don't place an additional burden on the system processor. Ad-
apters that use DSPs to perform compression and other tasks are highly recommended in
this case. Musicians will certainly want an adapter with as many voices as possible and
a wavetable synthesizer. Adapters with expandable memory arrays and the capability to
create andmodifycustomwavetables arealsopreferable, aswellasawidevarietyofana-
log and digital I/O ports (refer to
Figure 13.3
for an example).
To avoid problems with latency when communicating with external devices, particularly
with Microsoft Windows, look for cards supported by the latest version of the audio
stream input/output (ASIO) protocol (version 2.0 as of mid-2011). ASIO was developed
by the Germany company Steinberg, which also developed the Cubase digital sequencer.
Tip
TheASIO4ALLprojectoffers32-bitand64-bitASIOsupportforvirtuallyallaudiothatuses
Windows driver model (WDM) drivers. Learn more at
www.asio4all.com
Many of the best sound cards for hardcore gamers can also be made suitable for sound
producers by adding the appropriate sound-editing programs, such as Sound Forge
(
www.sonycreativesoftware.com
)
or Audacity (
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
)
. By
choosing a card that supports S/PDIF and (if desired) MIDI interfaces, you can have a
single card that is suitable for gaming and enjoying audio.
A sound card for use for music enjoyment or production also needs to have a very high
signal to noise ratio (SNR of over 110dB) as well as the ability to sample audio up to
192KHz.
Note
The Recording Review website (
www.recordingreview.com
) is an outstanding resource for
researching advanced sound cards and other audio hardware designed specifically for audio
production. If you're wanting to select a sound card or USB device for audio recording,
try the Audio Interface Wizard at
http://www.recordingreview.com/soundcard/sound-
