What I have learned from C&T.

[357MagnumNinja]

Shade7510

also under what conditions would one need to get a decent/very nice sound card?

Seriously? Audio production. That's about the only reason I can think of. Unless you have a game or music that's recorded in 24-bit, 96kHz... Which is still not too common these days. Or if you want special features like SPDIF-in. ...that's not exactly standard on onboard sound.

the limit of human hearing is around 24khz, and you need 48khz to accurately record a 24khz sample. So, typically, 16-bit, 48khz is good enough. the 24-bit MIGHT make a bit of difference... but I can't speak on that aspect, seeing as I've never had a 24bit sound card...

[psychic stalker]

357MagnumNinja

Shade7510

also under what conditions would one need to get a decent/very nice sound card?

Seriously? Audio production. That's about the only reason I can think of. Unless you have a game or music that's recorded in 24-bit, 96kHz... Which is still not too common these days. Or if you want special features like SPDIF-in. ...that's not exactly standard on onboard sound.

Onboard Azalia sound systems tend to have most of these features, so the only reason to get a discrete internal sound card is to get S/PDIF-In.

For audio production, an internal sound card is inadequate - there's too much electrical noise in computers. Instead, you want an external card for that. Turtle Beach makes some nice stuff. USB is also inadequate for this, because USB latencies are too high.

But a USB device generally eliminates the noise issue.

357MagnumNinja

the limit of human hearing is around 24khz, and you need 48khz to accurately record a 24khz sample. So, typically, 16-bit, 48khz is good enough. the 24-bit MIGHT make a bit of difference... but I can't speak on that aspect, seeing as I've never had a 24bit sound card...

Human hearing stops at 20kHz. The human ear is incapable of processing sounds any higher than that.

44.1kHz was chosen because it accurately reproduces 22.05kHz sounds, and it's a nice round composite number (it's the square of the multiple of sequential primes). The Nyquist-Shannon theorem requires that the sampling frequency be greater than double the frequency you wish to sample. The problem with 44.1kHz is that it requires filtering out certain high frequencies due to aliasing. Higher sample rates reduce the amount of aliasing. That's why 96kHz is preferred for high-end audio systems.

16-bit audio is well more than adequate, due to the simple fact that the human ear is simply not sensitive to small differences in amplitude. You can't hear the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit audio. The only reason to use 24-bit is for mixing. When you're mixing multiple audio samples, the math on 16-bit numbers results in a lot of data loss. Working with larger sample ranges provides more dynamic range that won't be lost in mixing. The ideal mixing mode is 32-bit or higher, and 24-bit samples are a good start.

[WWLink]

If you're just listening to music and want to have better sound quality, using your computer's optical out and hooking that up to a good receiver would probably work best.

If you wanted to get really a**l, the best way to avoid noise would probably be to get a battery powered optical receiver for headphones or something. XD

[The20]

Apparently Bings translator speaks Klingon now.
Not sure what to do with that info ...

[357MagnumNinja]

psychic stalker

16-bit audio is well more than adequate, due to the simple fact that the human ear is simply not sensitive to small differences in amplitude. You can't hear the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit audio.

True, but the difference between 8 and 16 is clearly audible. About the only reason to even USE 8bit audio anymore is for simple voice recording where quality is really not an issue. in cases like that, you can settle with 8bit, low-frequency, and mono. save a ton of space where quality is not an issue.
...or you could just use audio compression MEANT for that sort of thing.

[The20]

357MagnumNinja

psychic stalker

16-bit audio is well more than adequate, due to the simple fact that the human ear is simply not sensitive to small differences in amplitude. You can't hear the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit audio.

True, but the difference between 8 and 16 is clearly audible. About the only reason to even USE 8bit audio anymore is for simple voice recording where quality is really not an issue. in cases like that, you can settle with 8bit, low-frequency, and mono. save a ton of space where quality is not an issue.
...or you could just use audio compression MEANT for that sort of thing.

The time is right for a XKCD reference.

[psychic stalker]

357MagnumNinja

psychic stalker

16-bit audio is well more than adequate, due to the simple fact that the human ear is simply not sensitive to small differences in amplitude. You can't hear the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit audio.

True, but the difference between 8 and 16 is clearly audible. About the only reason to even USE 8bit audio anymore is for simple voice recording where quality is really not an issue. in cases like that, you can settle with 8bit, low-frequency, and mono. save a ton of space where quality is not an issue.
...or you could just use audio compression MEANT for that sort of thing.

But it is also possible to encode the waveform on a logarithmic scale and hide the quality issue in 8-bit. Ultimately, though, it's irrelevant. There's a line there - probably around 12 bits - where your ear simply can't hear the difference.

[357MagnumNinja]

The20

The time is right for a XKCD reference.

...I love xkcd, man.

[Disconsented]

Well running my own MC server has certainly been a interesting experience. At least the hosting company has the best Customer Support I have ever had the please of talking to smile

[psychic stalker]

Disconsented

Well running my own MC server has certainly been a interesting experience. At least the hosting company has the best Customer Support I have ever had the please of talking to smile

Speaking of, I need someone to try connecting to the Minecraft server at greyfa.de. I can't tell if it's open. Been having trouble with that.

[Sonic Offline]

psychic stalker

Disconsented

Well running my own MC server has certainly been a interesting experience. At least the hosting company has the best Customer Support I have ever had the please of talking to smile

Speaking of, I need someone to try connecting to the Minecraft server at greyfa.de. I can't tell if it's open. Been having trouble with that.

What's the address? I tried the generally default one and got nothing.


-[edit]-

It's just greyfa.de...


It won't let me connect. It says it exists but 0/20 are online though.

[psychic stalker]

Sonic Offline

psychic stalker

Disconsented

Well running my own MC server has certainly been a interesting experience. At least the hosting company has the best Customer Support I have ever had the please of talking to smile

Speaking of, I need someone to try connecting to the Minecraft server at greyfa.de. I can't tell if it's open. Been having trouble with that.

What's the address? I tried the generally default one and got nothing.


-[edit]-

It's just greyfa.de...


It won't let me connect. It says it exists but 0/20 are online though.

Grr. ******** Comcast.

[Sonic Offline]

psychic stalker

Sonic Offline

psychic stalker

Disconsented

Well running my own MC server has certainly been a interesting experience. At least the hosting company has the best Customer Support I have ever had the please of talking to smile

Speaking of, I need someone to try connecting to the Minecraft server at greyfa.de. I can't tell if it's open. Been having trouble with that.

What's the address? I tried the generally default one and got nothing.


-[edit]-

It's just greyfa.de...


It won't let me connect. It says it exists but 0/20 are online though.

Grr. ******** Comcast.

: I didn't have a problem with it when I used Comcast, but that was also years ago.

-[edit]-

I'm also having problems connecting to Guild Wars 2...

[Disconsented]

psychic stalker

Disconsented

Well running my own MC server has certainly been a interesting experience. At least the hosting company has the best Customer Support I have ever had the please of talking to smile

Speaking of, I need someone to try connecting to the Minecraft server at greyfa.de. I can't tell if it's open. Been having trouble with that.

I just managed to get in without any issues other than 300ms ping.
Please tell me I am not dreaming