On Tue, Jun 17, 2003 at 08:36:40AM -0700, Henry House wrote: > > On Tue 17 Jun 03, 6:59 AM, Henry House <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > > > I think I need a sound card. Criteria: > > > Any recommendations?
Yes... any supported sound card. Tapes have maybe 20 to 40 db signal to noise if you're lucky... any sound card (even a "cheap one") can do better than that. > The main two points seem to be: > 1. Get all analog signals as far away as possible from AC power and any PC > electronics. Yes... using sheilded audio lines will help too. > 2. Buy high-end hardware intended for recording, not gamer / comsumer > hardware. If you're truly doing studio recordings, yes, that'd be preferred. From a standard cassette, any audio card you find will likely be able to do better than the cassette. > Dumb newbie question: is a high signal-to-noise ratio (e.g., 100 dB) better > than a low one? High "signal to noise" ratio is good. More signal, less noise. In reality this is a measurement from the "noise floor", the point at which you cannot discern the signal from the noise, to the strength of the signal itself. Thus, if you have a 0db recording on audio tape, but the noise floor is at -20db or -40db (if you're using good tapes and a good deck), you'd have a 20db or 40db s/n. I wouldn't obsess about spending large sums on expensive audio gear... any card you buy will likely have a 30db or greater s/n (wild guess). Lastly, your source already has a high noise floor (being a cassette)... no amount of expense will change that, save obtaining a better recording from somewhere else. -- Ted Deppner http://www.deppner.us/
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