Posted by Laine Williams on July 27, 1999 at 17:15:20:
In Reply to: Re: Hardware for recording audio? posted by Guy on July 13, 1999 at 16:16:36:
: : I've tried recording straight to my soundcard in the past but the results were less than pleasing due to an intolerable signal to noise ratio level.
: : Help.
: : Greg
Right. Internal puter sound cards have unshielded components and
signal traces onboard, in what is the most "noisy" EMI environment
of all the other cards, cables, chips, etc. What with the sound
card sandwiched in between high usage cards like SCSI controllers,
video cards, etc. it's no wonder the S/N ratio is lousy.
That's why pro class users generally opt for an outboard ADC
(Analog to Digital Converter) unit, often in standard rack mounted
config, which then sends only a DIGITAL data signal down a cable
to the Puter.
Also (as others have mentioned), QS users should seriously consider
the options now available to use ADAT "light pipe" interface boards
in their puterboxes since they are STATE OF THE ART technology that
is IMPERVIOUS TO EMI & RFI interference, yielding the best possible
S/N ratio during the signal transmission stages.
Note Alesis (as well as other brands) have such a ADAT light pipe
interface in PCI slot format on the market. I emailed Alesis about
theirs, and they confirmed that that card is applicable & useable
with the QS 6/7/8 synths, even when theirs no ADAT in the system
(which is my case).