[Merkwürdigeliebe]

I don't know all too much about them. As of now, I only have AC'97 onboard audio.

I record music through a pc setup including Adobe Audition 1.5 for editing. All the instruments' and mics' outputs go into a mixer, and from the mixer, it goes from right & left channel RCA jacks to a single 1/8" jack (minijack) which goes into the line-in on my onboard audio (the blue input). The quality is less than okay and I'm bothered by the ammount of interferance as well. Overall though, the sound itself doesn't seem to have much presence and sounds muffled.

Anybody know of a good soundcard that will definatley be an improvement over the AC'97 audio's recording abilities? I need something that'll cost more or less $100 Canadian, if possible.

Oh, and btw, I've already tried two cards:

Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! 24-Bit Sound Card
Retail Plus 4 Channel 3D PCI Sound Card

Wasn't happy with both of them and returned 'em.

[mike4realz]

creative labs audigy 2 or x-fi

[BRreed]

anything under $100 is gonna be preaty much a budget card. used for gaming to provide better 3d quality than onboard.
there is a preaty good price jump between budget cards and "good" cards.
you may find another creative card under $100 thats betetr than the live
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102178

sorry for the newegg link, i saw you lived in canada, just useing it as an example.
but you probable wont notice much, if any between that card and the 24bit live! card.
did you notice a diference between onboard and the live! card?
im guessing no, thats why you took it back.
it will kinda be the same with the live! card and the Audigy2

[molsen]

if you didn't get good sound quality with a 24-bit sound card, the sound card may not be your problem.

what's the s/n ratio on the mixer? soundcard?

muffled sound is not a problem of the souncard most likely. you need to tweak the EQ settings on the mixer first. then do a little more tweaking in the software post-recording.

a crappy soundcard will not cause muffled sound, but rather lots of noise/hiss in the background. putting presence in the sound is something you either do with the instrument's settings itself, or in the mixing stage. digital recording doesn't normally have very good presence by itself.

also describe the "interference" you're getting... it's probably not soundcard related either, but it's a possibility. is it a hum? like a 60Hz hum? if so, the problem is not your soundcard, but something with your connections.

[003]

For under $100, get the audigy2 zs, but if you spend just a little more you can get the x-fi xtrememusic, which whoops the crap out of the zs.