Hello there,

I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

My main interest is music rather than games, especially classical music.
As my first project I am looking toward copying all my LP's on the HD.
I would like to be able to capture all the quality available from LPs
that are (most of them) in good shape. My cartridge, turntable, and
preamp should be good enough. My MOBO is a Soyo Dragon 400 Platinum,
sporting the C-Media CMI8738-MX chipset. I am looking for a fairly good
sound card under $100, possibly the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 ($89 at
Newegg). Will that do? Or would something else be preferable?

This will be my first sound card, so I'll be grateful for any input
from you folks, with much more experience than I have (zero).

Also, what are some good web sites to bone up on audio stuff? And can
you suggest some books to do the same?

In article ,
jmvcq wrote:

Hello there,

I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

My main interest is music rather than games, especially classical music.
As my first project I am looking toward copying all my LP's on the HD.
I would like to be able to capture all the quality available from LPs
that are (most of them) in good shape. My cartridge, turntable, and
preamp should be good enough. My MOBO is a Soyo Dragon 400 Platinum,
sporting the C-Media CMI8738-MX chipset. I am looking for a fairly good
sound card under $100, possibly the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 ($89 at
Newegg). Will that do? Or would something else be preferable?

This will be my first sound card, so I'll be grateful for any input
from you folks, with much more experience than I have (zero).

Also, what are some good web sites to bone up on audio stuff? And can
you suggest some books to do the same?


You do realize that this is illegal

"Robert Morein" wrote in message
...
In article ,
jmvcq wrote:

Hello there,

I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

My main interest is music rather than games, especially classical music.
As my first project I am looking toward copying all my LP's on the HD.
I would like to be able to capture all the quality available from LPs
that are (most of them) in good shape. My cartridge, turntable, and
preamp should be good enough. My MOBO is a Soyo Dragon 400 Platinum,
sporting the C-Media CMI8738-MX chipset. I am looking for a fairly good
sound card under $100, possibly the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 ($89 at
Newegg). Will that do? Or would something else be preferable?

This will be my first sound card, so I'll be grateful for any input
from you folks, with much more experience than I have (zero).

Also, what are some good web sites to bone up on audio stuff? And can
you suggest some books to do the same?


You do realize that this is illegal

Forgery.
Arny, bring him up to speed.

In article ,
Robert Morein wrote:

In article ,
jmvcq wrote:

Hello there,

I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

My main interest is music rather than games, especially classical music.
As my first project I am looking toward copying all my LP's on the HD.
I would like to be able to capture all the quality available from LPs
that are (most of them) in good shape. My cartridge, turntable, and
preamp should be good enough. My MOBO is a Soyo Dragon 400 Platinum,
sporting the C-Media CMI8738-MX chipset. I am looking for a fairly good
sound card under $100, possibly the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 ($89 at
Newegg). Will that do? Or would something else be preferable?

You're talking about stereo, right? Why do you want to bother with 7.1?
And, why mess around with a PCI card, when USB is easier, not subject to
the RF inside the case, and did I mention easier?

Take a look at the Creative MP3+, Griffin iMic, or Griffin PowerWave.
Of course if you're fond of M-Audio, they make a similar device called
the Transit- much more expensive for its features, but maybe it's
actually better too. Haven't bothered to pay the price to find out.

The MP3+ is the cheapest, but produces sound quite apart from what you'd
expect. I've also used the iMic in the past, the difference in
performance on a pair of headphones between it and a built-in jack was
like night and day. I prefer not to use stereo minijacks for anything
but headphones, though, which is where the MP3+ comes in.

--
Matthew Weigel
the email address is real
the contents of the post are not

"Matthew Weigel" wrote in message

In article ,
Robert Morein wrote:

In article ,
jmvcq wrote:

Hello there,

I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

available from LPs that are (most of them) in good shape. My
cartridge, turntable, and preamp should be good enough. My MOBO is
My main interest is music rather than games, especially classical
music. As my first project I am looking toward copying all my LP's
on the HD. I would like to be able to capture all the quality

a Soyo Dragon 400 Platinum, sporting the C-Media CMI8738-MX
chipset. I am looking for a fairly good sound card under $100,
possibly the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 ($89 at Newegg). Will that do?
Or would something else be preferable?

You're talking about stereo, right? Why do you want to bother with
7.1?

Because you can, and for not a lot of money. I think the Revolution 7.1 is
in the $80-100 territory.

And, why mess around with a PCI card, when USB is easier, not
subject to the RF inside the case, and did I mention easier?

RF inside the case doesn't have any significant effects on a good audio
interface. IMO, the Revolution 7.1 is an example of such a thing. One of the
quietest audio interfaces in the business, the LynxTWO with about 120 dB
dynamic range, is an internal PCI card.

But, if you want a USB-based interface, the 2-channel Creative Labs
SoundBlaster USB MP3 works, too and for about half the price fo the
revolution. One trick for recordists using either the SB USB or the
Revoltuion is to use the *lowest* record level setting that gives
undistorted results. IOW, goose the analog signal going into it high, and
use the input level control to cut it down to a usable recording level.

Take a look at the Creative MP3+,

Good, but low-rez compared to the Revolution. Frankly, good enough for
consumer work, just not 24/96 like the Revolution.

One problem with USB-1.1 based audio interfaces is that they can't handle
the agregate data rate you naturally get with high sample rates or lots of
channels or both. They are also more prone to clicks and pops with some PCs.

There's only really two serious things wrong with PCI audio interfaces, and
that is you have to have a PCI slot to put them into (sorry about that
laptop owners), and you have to open the PC case to install them (sorry
about that if you have fumble fingers).

Griffin iMic,

Good for playback, but sucks for high quality recording.

or Griffin PowerWave.

Don't know about it.


The MP3+ is the cheapest, but produces sound quite apart from what
you'd expect. I've also used the iMic in the past, the difference in
performance on a pair of headphones between it and a built-in jack was
like night and day.

On playback, the iMic is just fine - about CD quality. But this guy wants to
record, and for recording, the iMic is a noisy, dull-sounding POS with bad
measurements to match (about 45 dB dynamic range and rolled-off highs). The
problem is that the so-called mic preamp is one crappy little chip (not that
all chip mic preamps are crap, but this one was never designed to amplifiy
mics), and the line input is attenuated and routed though the same chip at
the same low level. Whaddya expect for under $30! ;-)

I prefer not to use stereo minijacks for anything
but headphones, though, which is where the MP3+ comes in.

Other than being unbalanced and fragile, there's nothing technically wrong
with minijacks, no matter how scary they seem.

On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 20:53:08 -0700, Robert Morein
wrote:

In article ,
jmvcq wrote:

Hello there,

I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

My main interest is music rather than games, especially classical music.
As my first project I am looking toward copying all my LP's on the HD.
I would like to be able to capture all the quality available from LPs
that are (most of them) in good shape. My cartridge, turntable, and
preamp should be good enough. My MOBO is a Soyo Dragon 400 Platinum,
sporting the C-Media CMI8738-MX chipset. I am looking for a fairly good
sound card under $100, possibly the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 ($89 at
Newegg). Will that do? Or would something else be preferable?

This will be my first sound card, so I'll be grateful for any input
from you folks, with much more experience than I have (zero).

Also, what are some good web sites to bone up on audio stuff? And can
you suggest some books to do the same?


You do realize that this is illegal

So is fraud, but that never stopped *you*, eh Brian?

"dave weil" a écrit dans le message news:
...
On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 20:53:08 -0700, Robert Morein
wrote:

In article ,
jmvcq wrote:

Hello there,

I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

My main interest is music rather than games, especially classical
music.
As my first project I am looking toward copying all my LP's on the HD.
I would like to be able to capture all the quality available from LPs
that are (most of them) in good shape. My cartridge, turntable, and
preamp should be good enough. My MOBO is a Soyo Dragon 400 Platinum,
sporting the C-Media CMI8738-MX chipset. I am looking for a fairly good
sound card under $100, possibly the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 ($89 at
Newegg). Will that do? Or would something else be preferable?

This will be my first sound card, so I'll be grateful for any input
from you folks, with much more experience than I have (zero).

Also, what are some good web sites to bone up on audio stuff? And can
you suggest some books to do the same?


You do realize that this is illegal

So is fraud, but that never stopped *you*, eh Brian?

Are you pretending that fraud already stopped *you*, Dave ? ;-)

I'm afraid some went
over my head. I'm good with audio electronics, have put
together a few PCs so I (usually) can find my way around
motherboards and cards, but I'm just getting my feet wet
with serious PC based audio.

I just started copying my LPs to the HD in .wav files, and
later I'm going to convert them to high quality MP3.


You're right - you're over your head. If you're converting anything into
"MP3's", your a complete boob. MP3's aren't "high quality", their
overcompressed junk.

I sugest you go back under the rock you crawled out from, and STFU.

In article ,
Eric wrote:

What I'm after is being able to go from LP to .wav file
without loosing quality. I've done some copying using the
mobo onboard sound, and the quality is ok, but not all it
could be even after running it through the Goldwave editor.

I can pretty much guarantee you that on-board sound will give those kind
of results :-/

And there are incompatibility problems between the mobo
sound driver and other stuff on board. So I've been looking
toward shutting off the onboard sound and using a sound card
instead. The newegg reviews say that the Revolution 7.1 is
very good for music. Will it be able to record from LPs
without losing quality? Or should I go to a higher end card?

All analog transmission involves loss of quality, of course. But I
don't think it will be very noticeable with any of the products
mentioned.

The MOBO has USB2.0, but I had not heard about using USB
instead of a PCI card. Could anyone point me to a url where
I can find out more about that?

Sure; but if you're planning on turning off on-board sound completely, a
PCI card would probably be better. I've got a laptop, maybe I'm biased
:-)

And can you recommend a general purpose book with which I
can bone up on PC-based sound -- say the equivalent of what
'Mother of all Windows' was for Win98?

Sorry, I can't.

--
Matthew Weigel
the email address is real
the contents of the post are not

"Eric" wrote in message


What I'm after is being able to go from LP to .wav file
without loosing quality. I've done some copying using the
mobo onboard sound, and the quality is ok, but not all it
could be even after running it through the Goldwave editor.

Goldwave isn't really all that bad. Another freeware editor with merit is
Audacity. It supports more formats and mulitrack, both features that are
kinda moot in your situation. Nevertheless, the price is right so it may be
worth investigating.

And there are incompatibility problems between the mobo
sound driver and other stuff on board. So I've been looking
toward shutting off the onboard sound and using a sound card
instead. The newegg reviews say that the Revolution 7.1 is
very good for music. Will it be able to record from LPs
without losing quality? Or should I go to a higher end card?

I think that the 7.1 is very good for music, and could be an audible upgrade
over the audio interface on your system board. What system board do you
have, BTW?

The MOBO has USB2.0, but I had not heard about using USB
instead of a PCI card. Could anyone point me to a url where
I can find out more about that?

http://www.usb-audio.com/faq.html ???

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/audio/usbaud.mspx



And can you recommend a general purpose book with which I
can bone up on PC-based sound -- say the equivalent of what
'Mother of all Windows' was for Win98?

Nothing comes to mind.

"Eric" wrote in message
...
- Hello there,
-
- I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
- suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

Calamine lotion, and a cold pack to keep the swelling down. It
usually goes away by itself after about 48 hours.

Norm Strong

"normanstrong" said:

- I've recently got bitten by the audio bug, and am looking for
- suggestions and recommendations to get up to speed.

Calamine lotion, and a cold pack to keep the swelling down. It
usually goes away by itself after about 48 hours.

I've been infected for almost all my life, ever since I got stinged by
the 9 pins of a 12AX7.
They say shopping for and extended listening to the cheapest audio
components would help, though.

--
Sander deWaal
"SOA of a KT88? Sufficient."

"Eric" wrote in message


Someone on another NG suggested "The Complete Guide to
High-End Audio" by Robert Harley, in case someone else is
interested. I ordered it, but it has nor arrived yet.
Also, www.sound.westhost.com/articleshtm

Hmm, well your chance to compare and contrast. Harley is basically nuts,
while the westhost crew are basically very orthodox and down-to-earth.

From: "Arny Krueger"

Harley is basically nuts

I would think you'd like him, Arny. Robert Harley is very, very digital.

"Christopher" wrote in message

From: "Arny Krueger"

Harley is basically nuts

I would think you'd like him, Arny. Robert Harley is very, very
digital.

If you want to REALLY understand my reservations about Harley, read his
Listener's Manifesto. It used to be on the Stereophile site, but I think
even they have found it to be too embarassing.

http://www.stereophile.com//features/20/

"Editor's Note: This article is now only available as an Audio Engineering
Society preprint, under the title "The Role of Critical Listening in
Evaluating Audio Equipment Quality," preprint number 3176. The price is
$4.00 for AES members, and $5.00 for non-members; it can be ordered
(currently on paper only, not as a downloadable pdf) by entering the number
in the appropriate field on the preprint search page at the AES website."

Eric said:

a _wire_ tape recorder...

That's cool! I once repaired/revised one.
While audiowise it's nothing, I just *loved* the mechanics and
appearance!

--
Sander deWaal
"SOA of a KT88? Sufficient."

Eric said:

Someone on another NG suggested "The Complete Guide to
High-End Audio" by Robert Harley, in case someone else is
interested. I ordered it, but it has nor arrived yet.
Also, www.sound.westhost.com/articleshtm

I'm afraid you won't find much on PC-based audio in this book, if that
was your goal.
I don't have a reference on that subject handy, sorry.
If ever I would have a question about PC Audio, I'd turn to someone in
one of these newsgroups that I trust to be knowledgeable.

--
Sander deWaal
"SOA of a KT88? Sufficient."