USB Sound cards

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Technofreak

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#73407 13-Dec-2010 23:23

I want to rip my vinyl LP's to my laptop. Yeah I know I could probably do out and buy CD's or download most of what I've got but I've decided to do my own thing. All it's going to cost me is some time and a few dollars on hardware.

I'm using Audacity, the problem I have is, the mic input to my laptop is only mono, I have been able to rip sucessfully but only in mono. :(

To get stereo I need an external sound card. Does anyone have any experience/advice on the various cards out there.

How good/bad is something like this http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=369393 Creative Sound Blaster Play! Sound card, External, USB. There are others that look to be similar at around this price or cheaper.

Is my money better spent on something like this http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=384887 Creative Sound Blaster Easy Record Sound card, External, USB

or this http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=369389
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround Sound card, 5.1, External, USB

Any other suggestions on different sound cards or other comments appreciated.

Thanks

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

richms

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#416855 14-Dec-2010 00:17

I will never ever ever buy another piece of hardware with drivers made by creative. They seem to get some ok hardware, and ruin it with shoddy drivers.

There are some actual 7.1 devices on deal extreme - a friend has this one http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15746 and its pretty quiet on its analog outputs, but I dont know if he has used the line in on it at all. Works best at 48kHz like most PC audio devices, so record at that and only downconvert if you feel the need to burn to obsolete disc media, since everything I have tried is fine with 48kHz.

Richard rich.ms

Technofreak

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#417323 14-Dec-2010 22:20

I couldn't find what you recommended locally and ended up buying one of these.

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=XC4994&keywords=XC+4994&form=KEYWORD

So far it seems to do a pretty good job along with Audacity. A couple of things needed sorting out, as well as me having to figure out a how a couple of things were supposed to work.

The CD with the drivers on it didn't auto run like the instructions said it would, so a bit of stuffing around there to start with. The instructions also intimated that the software on the disc also allowed you to record. This doesn't appear to be the case. This is probably why they include a Roxio install disc as well.

Once you fire up Audacity the SnapMusic control panel works with Audacity so it all worked well in the end.

So far I am very pleased, from what I could find from New Zealand suppliers of similar units the price is OK even though it is expensive by overseas prices. I just need to find time to get the job done. So far it has taken abour twice the playing time to copy a track by the time you run the click and noise removal functions and finish the formating etc.

Thanks for the help.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5