laptop sound cards

I know that at least some of you out there use your computer for sequencing or mixing, and I know that some of that group uses laptops. What do you guys use as a soundcard? My laptop came with a really terrible integrated one, so I bought a slightly better external soundblaster, but my CPU levels still get raped when using Reason or Reaktor.

Is this a problem with my soundcard, or do I just not have a good enough processor or enough RAM?

How about some specs of your laptop... or the model # of your sound card?

Laptop:

Intel Pentium M, 2.00 Ghz

1 gb RAM

Windows XP Professional, SP2

The soundcard:

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/produ...mp;product=9103

This stuff just isn't cutting it. My processor goes to shit even when just working with a single string synth in ableton.

i used the Audigy 2 ZS (PCMCIA) from Creative on my 1.8Pentium M system a while back before upgrading both my laptop and interface and it did the job decently. You using asio?

You need more RAM mate, then you'll be sorted.

first, try d/ling asio4all.

install.

set your soundcard to use asio.

still doesn't work?

try bumping your buffer size up... you can go a reasonable way before you start to get noticeable latency.

still diesn't work?

disable onboard soundcard.

still doesn't work?

take your piece of crap soundblaster back to the shop, get your money back, and get an m-audio audiophile firewire ext card or comparable.

fixt.

edit: and you probably don't actually need any more ram, but it wouldn't hurt.

I have a NI audio kontrol interface, which you can get for about 180 usd if you're a student.

yeah I only run 1Gb RAM and I can pretty much do everything I need to.

Fuck Soundblaster basically.

So if not soundblaster, which external soundcard do you guys recommend?

i recommend m=audio.

i dunno your requirements, but it sounds like the audiophile firewire, or usb would suit your needs.

there's any number of comparable cards though.. i'm sure a lot of people here will have other ideas.

try the other stuff i suggested in the meantime. it might help, at least until you can get a new card.

I've used various Terratec soundcards for the past 5 years. I've not had any of them come remotely to close to fucking up. I think it's the german engineering or something.

But like Logan said, there's a number of comparable cards you could use.

  loganfive said:

first, try d/ling asio4all.

yep.

I was using an external Audiophile USB for a while, but after I upgraded to XP SP2 it wouldn't work.

I downloaded http://www.asio4all.com/ and now I have very low latency on my Laptop soundcard and I dont need to piss around with external soundcards any more.

asio4all is an ingenious driver built on top of WDM which uses WDM Kernel-Streaming and other techniques to implement low latency ASIO support for laptop soundcards.

read about it at http://www.asio4all.com/

Alright, I will definitely get on that.

Btw, zazen, I love your username.

if you want to be portable, there is only 1 option. echo indigo io.

http://echoaudio.com/Products/CardBus/IndigoIO/index.php

best a/d converters i've heard in a pcmcia card... sounds pro as far as i'm concerned.

echo are shit-hot.

however, the assertion that, "there's only 1 option", is patently nonsene.

patent pending...

:)

(its an impatient exaggeration... TRUE enough)

Bleh.. I rocked a Audigy for the loooongest time cuz it had optical in/out.

As Zazen says http://www.asio4all.com/ that'll greatly improve your internal soundcard's performance. I doubt you'd be able to play in real time notes off a keyboard without a pro card though.

i got an edirol UA-25 a few months ago and it sounds aaaace, really noticeably better than every other soundcard i've ever used. i don't really use the mic etc. inputs though really so it's a bit bigger than i needed but damn does it sound good! i'd not exactly whip it out for music-on-the-go but for working in the house it's ace (i've actually got it as my main sound on my desktop now but take it with the laptop whenever it's required).

if i'm still in time...

boot your winzozz,

COMPLETELY uninstall creative drivers (clean the registry entries too)

now,go on google and type "KX drivers download"

check the compatibility with your creative card (it should be ok)

download

install it

go in ableton and set : KX asio

shit your pants off

(just to be precise: creative cards are ALL equipped with wonderfully amazing E-MU chipsets,their problem is just the crappy creative drivers bundle.)

I liked the e-mu synth in my soundblaster live so much I bought the rack version.

I don't think I will buy another soundblaster though. pretty notorious for latency. i don't like the 1337 haxx0r drivers, either. they surface functionality in weird places and not all apps will talk to them (opinion copyright 2003)

the sb live with an E-MU synth??

anyway i checked the KX site and the Salvinorin card is not supported.

For all those people that have a pc with an onboard or preinstalled SB,Kx is a pretty thing to avoid to directly trash the card.

If you have a Sb live then,you will notice that it's equipped with the E-mu 10k1 chip,the same used by

E-mu 1212,1616 cards..

actually on my fac-totum pc i got my SB live going with a latency of 10ms|512 samples. Rock solid,with all sort of audio softwares,Reaktor heavy patches included.