another question of hardware. buying a external soundcard.

[qubism]

Hey guys. I am using a notebook for everything that I do and did not really bother about the soundcard when I bought it. However one thing that i think was not intended when building this pc is that incredible annoying noise that i permantly get.
There seems to be something inside the pc inducting on the soundcard i have no clue really. I read its a common thing. My dads and my brothers notebook dont seem to have that problem tho. which is funny...

However I am thinkin about buying a external soundcard now.
I have looked up the Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 NX aswell as the Audiotrak Maya EX5/EX7. And read reviews on it. Are there any others that u can recommend ? or what do u think about those i mentioned.

Please help me with the descission

[g]

try getting a converter for the end of your laptop power cord so as to un-ground the plug. don't know how it works in germany but in the states this is analogous to taking it from a 3-prong plug to a 2-prong plug. this might solve your noise problem.

as for the soundcard, what do you want it to do? how much I/O do you need? there are a lot of options via USB, Firewire (1394), and PCMCIA.

[jpls]

i have had an mbox for over a year and have never had one problem
with it. the noise floor is very low...and the mic pres are pretty quiet.

all usb, no power cable.

[augusto palma]

I have the M-Audio Quattro. Not a bad thing, I got this for less than 100 bucks, you got 4 (duh!) I/Os, uses usb but also has its own power cable. The only problem is that it doesn't have mic possibilities because it has no IMPs. You need the Omni also from M-Audio or go directly buy an M-Box. I thought of buying the Maya, but I expect'd more from M-Audio, however, I never thought of buying Creative.

[Renze]

Hey guys. I am using a notebook for everything that I do and did not really bother about the soundcard when I bought it. However one thing that i think was not intended when building this pc is that incredible annoying noise that i permantly get.
There seems to be something inside the pc inducting on the soundcard i have no clue really. I read its a common thing. My dads and my brothers notebook dont seem to have that problem tho. which is funny...

However I am thinkin about buying a external soundcard now.
I have looked up the Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 NX aswell as the Audiotrak Maya EX5/EX7. And read reviews on it. Are there any others that u can recommend ? or what do u think about those i mentioned.

Please help me with the descission

My laptop also had strange sounds, which I heard through the speakers/headphones. I found out it was my infrared port, so I switched it off in Windows XP (never use it anyway). It might help, so check it out. I recommend buying an external card anyway, want to buy one myself too

[daemon]

i also have an mbox and am quite happy with but if you re interested in one then watch the comptability list and forum on the digidesign site if you re chipset matches their requirements

[isa]

And what about external for voice recording?
Can someone recommend me something?
I'm on a laptop as main system too.

[fredrik_h]

I would recommend getting a decent interface right away if you're serious about composing/recording music/sounds. If you're on a laptop system, I'd say a motu828 (mkI), which you can find really cheap these days, thinking of that they costed approx ~ $1500 when they came out... these days you can find them used for almost a third of the price.

especially if you now want to record with a microphone, you will most likely need preamp's, which the 828 has 2 of them actually (nice neutrik combo xlr/1/4" jacks)... check out the specs, somewhere

I'd rather get one of those instead of, let's say - a new m-audio 410 firewire or something like that, which costs the same price.

if you got alot of money, go for the newer model, 828mkII, or maybe RME's new fireface800...

NOTE: 828's need firewire connection.