Hi,
Recently i've started with one of my friend to do some home recording on a pc. Right now he just want some demo tape so we found overkill to invest in a 6in/6out 24/96 sound card.
The problem I've found is that the mic input of most sound card d'ont have enough gain in them.
So I have two question.
1. Does the gain that we put in the windows mixer is digital or that gain is aplied before the adc.
2. Does adding a standalone(and homebuilt) mic preamp befor the sound card would improve the sound quality.
tanx.
Recently i've started with one of my friend to do some home recording on a pc. Right now he just want some demo tape so we found overkill to invest in a 6in/6out 24/96 sound card.
The problem I've found is that the mic input of most sound card d'ont have enough gain in them.
So I have two question.
1. Does the gain that we put in the windows mixer is digital or that gain is aplied before the adc.
2. Does adding a standalone(and homebuilt) mic preamp befor the sound card would improve the sound quality.
tanx.
Most pro cards will not be able to take a mic level input, they're all designed for studio work. You may actually need a mic preamp before you can even get a mic level input to produce any sound. Also bear in mind that a pro card takes a +4 dBu input, as opposed to -10 consumer standard. Means your preamp has to able to supply enough to keep an input that high happy, and have a low noise level at the same time.
I would suggest to stick with a good 44.1/16 card like the SB Live! platinum or Audigy series. On a cheap dynamic microphone the first set of improvements to be made are in the microphone and preamps. Use a good quality mic like the SM 57/58 and a m-Audio Audiobuddy, and a new decent card. This combo should cost about $300 or so, and will be a huge improvement. More than you can get with switching soundcards to a pro level card, a homemade mic pre and a Delta 66 or something...
To answer your other question, a soundcard does not apply gain. It only attenuates. That too, digitally. The only gain device is the '20dB gain' near the mic slider. That is achieved usually with a single transistor on the soundcard. It usually is very noisy and very low quality.
I would suggest to stick with a good 44.1/16 card like the SB Live! platinum or Audigy series. On a cheap dynamic microphone the first set of improvements to be made are in the microphone and preamps. Use a good quality mic like the SM 57/58 and a m-Audio Audiobuddy, and a new decent card. This combo should cost about $300 or so, and will be a huge improvement. More than you can get with switching soundcards to a pro level card, a homemade mic pre and a Delta 66 or something...
To answer your other question, a soundcard does not apply gain. It only attenuates. That too, digitally. The only gain device is the '20dB gain' near the mic slider. That is achieved usually with a single transistor on the soundcard. It usually is very noisy and very low quality.
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