Buying New Sound Card

Assuming you're using Windows 7 and have PCIe slots:

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD PCIe Sound Card powered by THX TruStudio Pro

http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-XFi-Titanium-HD/M/B0041OUA38.htm

or

Xonar Essence ST
World's first Precision Clock Tuning for Revolutionary PC Hi-Fi audio

http://www.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_Essence_ST/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UVME88/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001OV789U&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0ZNEQXTPA298QF1DSSNX

This is not to be confused with the STX model which is a slightly lesser quality card.

~ Chris

I'm searching around the discussion boards to see if there is some way to improve my sound. I have a Mac Book Pro laptop and a blue snowball mic. Is there anyway to improve my sound? For some reason using the new Snap recorder/mixer I always have to be in the plus 27 range.

But what I really want is better vocal sound, clearer cleaner perhaps not so much reverb. It's not terrible but if there were some way to improve it with a small investment or by adjusting some settings I'd really appreciate knowing. Do Macs use sound cards? Sometimes I go back to my iMac (ancient! which can't use new mixer) just to get the more intimate sound.

I'll go ask tech support too. But you seem really knowledgeable. Thanks!

Flagging!

and what is a permalink?

MSTAKE YOU MAY WANT TO MOVE UP TO THE YETI PRO http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/blue-yeti-pro-usb-microphone#review :o) HOPE THIS HELPS

and what is a permalink?MsTake

I just bought the Creative Soundblaster x-fi go pro (I am using a laptop so I need to use an external soundcard) and after installing it, setting it to be the one in use for my speakers, mic, etc, the result was zilch coming out of my speakers. My OS on this old laptop is XP Professional and I made sure that I updated all of the drivers, etc. and it shows that 'the device is working correctly'. Troubleshooting through MS did nothing (big surprise). When I opened my Windows Media Player, it showed that the music was being ran through the computer (I could tell by the screen movements that coordinate with the beat) but ultimately, I disabled the new sound card and am back to using the Sigma Tel one that was already installed.
I went to the Creative website and it's not very user friendly for trying to find solutions so I thought I'd check with the brilliant minds here on SS for any suggestions? Thanks!

Also- it would not record/ did not detect the microphone.

HI Jeanne
I'm not totally sure about this but....
If you double click on your little white speaker icon down by your clock,it will open the "volume control"
In the top right corner you will see "Options",click on it and select "properties"
(as seen in photo #1)
When the properties window opens you will see "mixer device"
Now this is where I am not absolutely sure,but you may be able to select your soundblaster external soundcard here,and then select the items you want to add to the playback and recording controls,by selecting the items in the "show the following volume controls" section

If you are still experiencing problems,please drop a message to Recording support. Chris has a lot more experience with the external cards than I do
http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/member/recording-support
--Barry--

Jeanne - In addition make sure any internal driver is disabled. To do that:

- Click on START then Run

- Type: devmgmt.msc and hit enter. The Device Manager appears.

- Then click on the + sign next to sound, video and game controllers to expand it.

- Find the entry for your on-board sound (i.e. RealTek, IDT, Sigmatel, etc...), right-click on it and choose disable and click OK.

- Exit out of the Device Manager and reboot the computer.

- The X-Fi Go Pro should now work for you.

~ Chris

Thanks Chris and Barry for the tips! I had previously tried what you suggested without any luck... but boy, did I feel stupid though once I realized that hidden away on the bottom-end of the soundcard (which is plugged into the USB port on the back-side of my laptop) has these two little input jacks for a microphone and headphones! Doh!! Once I plugged both in, I was up and running. Ha, ha. (I figured that sound would still play out of the laptop speakers but...)
I'm still tweaking with it a bit. After recording, the play-back editing features are really delayed so I guess I'll need to add more RAM to correct that but for the time being, I can work around it.
Thanks again for the help! You are all awesome!!
Jeanne

No problem Jeanne - we're here and happy to help and happy singing! :)

~ Chris

It's weird... I don't have any problems with the old recorder but the new one, now that I have this upgraded soundcard, definitely is having some compatibility issues for some reason during the preview/edit after the recording. Slow to load, voice/music timing significantly off and when I try to make any adjustments or stop/pause the recording, it takes a long time for the computer to understand what's being asked and execute it. Also, some audio skipping going on during the process.
It doesn't appear, however to be a problem with the recording once it's finalized.
Hmmmm.....
OS is XP Professional (Service pack 3) 2.4Ghz Intel Celeron with only 512 RAM.
Suggestions? Again, the original recorder gives me no problem, just the 'new' recorder which never has before with my old soundcard.

Thanks.
Jeanne

Some suggestions Jeanne:

- Increase the RAM to 1 or 2 GB Ram. Even though Windows XP will operate with 64 MB (128 MB recommended) RAM that's only pertaining to Windows XP itself with it's basic functionality, not anything else that's run especially audio and video.

- Turn off hardware acceleration in Adobe Flash. In any recording or playback window right-click in the video window and choose settings - click on the 1st icon and uncheck hardware acceleration and click close.

- Defragment the hard drive.

- Run a spyware/malware/virus scan and make sure your system is clean.

If you need further assistance a trouble ticket may be in order and we'll look into this further with you:

Click Here to Submit a Help Ticket

~ Chris

It's weird... I don't have any problems with the old recorder but the new one, now that I have this upgraded soundcard, definitely is having some compatibility issues for some reason during the preview/edit after the recording. Slow to load, voice/music timing significantly off and when I try to make any adjustments or stop/pause the recording, it takes a long time for the computer to understand what's being asked and execute it. Also, some audio skipping going on during the process.
It doesn't appear, however to be a problem with the recording once it's finalized.
Hmmmm.....
OS is XP Professional (Service pack 3) 2.4Ghz Intel Celeron with only 512 RAM.
Suggestions? Again, the original recorder gives me no problem, just the 'new' recorder which never has before with my old soundcard.

Thanks.
Jeanne
Jeanneweanne

Thanks Chris! I was just getting ready to run a manual defrag to see if that helps at all. I cleared my temp files and made sure that I'm up to date on my Adobe Flash Player (11. something) and my drivers for Creative Soundblaster as well as anything Windows/MS related are updated (I believe-will double check).
I don't have webcam on this laptop so hardware acceleration hasn't been enabled.
Oh and to update- now the original recorder has the same problems as the improved one has. Also, after I added the new soundcard, I needed to increase my Local Storage from 1KB to 10KB. Not sure if that is anything I should be concerned with...
I suppose the good news is despite having problems when trying to edit and save fresh recordings, once they have been saved, the finish product sounds noticably better than they did with my old soundcard. :)

I'll look into getting some more RAM (any suggestions for inexpensive external USB adaptable if anyone knows off-the-top of their head is appreciated. )

Thanks again for your assistance!
Jeanne

Also, when I re edit a recording from a different device like my android phone, it still is slow and muddled during the process.