Which External Sound Card?
Posted: 25 Dec 2023
Hi there, Merry Christmas to you.
A hardware question for you please, I think I need an external USB sound card but I'm not sure which one to buy.
I used Cubase and CLab notator in the 80s with an Atari ST then fell away from the hobby.
About 15 years ago I got into Reason 5 on the PC (Windows 7) and was blown away with how far it had developed but life took over and again the hobby was shelved.
Yesterday I treated myself to Reason 12 on an HP 600 G4 Mini PC i5-8500T/16Gb/512Gb (Windows 11).
A tiny form factor to save space, purchased second hand solely for that software.
It runs Reason just fine, I bought an AOC CU34G2X/BK Wide Quad HD 34" Curved Monitor and the setup looks great but the quality of the sound output is nowhere near as good as I know it could be.
The speakers are Trust Tytan 2.1 PC Speaker Set which sound very bassy.
I'm considering a pair of Sennheiser 599 headphones too. (Is that good or bad?)
Most of my time playing and composing will be with headphones on, I'll be in my own little world.
I'm thinking an external sound card might be the next best purchase but I'm back to being a noob so any advice or recommendations on hardware upgrades to attain audiophile level sound quality would be greatly appreciated.
I can't call myself a musician, any recordings will be input via mouse or an old M-Audio Oxygen 3 61 key controller which works fine although the keys have yellowed badly. (Retro bright in the post, but if the chemists among you say this is a bad idea, I'll avoid using it.) I think I've sorted the latency issue by using ASIO for all drivers.
One day I might be a pianist who composes electronic music. (I also have the Arturia Keylab 88 mk2 controller on my wishlist.)
Any and all hardware suggestions are welcome.
Thanks a million in advance.
Gordon.
A hardware question for you please, I think I need an external USB sound card but I'm not sure which one to buy.
I used Cubase and CLab notator in the 80s with an Atari ST then fell away from the hobby.
About 15 years ago I got into Reason 5 on the PC (Windows 7) and was blown away with how far it had developed but life took over and again the hobby was shelved.
Yesterday I treated myself to Reason 12 on an HP 600 G4 Mini PC i5-8500T/16Gb/512Gb (Windows 11).
A tiny form factor to save space, purchased second hand solely for that software.
It runs Reason just fine, I bought an AOC CU34G2X/BK Wide Quad HD 34" Curved Monitor and the setup looks great but the quality of the sound output is nowhere near as good as I know it could be.
The speakers are Trust Tytan 2.1 PC Speaker Set which sound very bassy.
I'm considering a pair of Sennheiser 599 headphones too. (Is that good or bad?)
Most of my time playing and composing will be with headphones on, I'll be in my own little world.
I'm thinking an external sound card might be the next best purchase but I'm back to being a noob so any advice or recommendations on hardware upgrades to attain audiophile level sound quality would be greatly appreciated.
I can't call myself a musician, any recordings will be input via mouse or an old M-Audio Oxygen 3 61 key controller which works fine although the keys have yellowed badly. (Retro bright in the post, but if the chemists among you say this is a bad idea, I'll avoid using it.) I think I've sorted the latency issue by using ASIO for all drivers.
One day I might be a pianist who composes electronic music. (I also have the Arturia Keylab 88 mk2 controller on my wishlist.)
Any and all hardware suggestions are welcome.
Thanks a million in advance.
Gordon.