Is A Soundcard An Audio Interface?

hi welcome to stamp sound please consider subscribing to the channel so is a sound card and audio interface technically speaking sound cards follow the same principle as audio interfaces while audio interfaces became the favorites of studios and recording musicians sound cards are most famous with gamers and audio files around the world the physical differences between them are that sound cards are internal and audio interfaces external both serve the same purpose in their own way what is a sound card a sound card as its name implies is shaped like a card and installed inside your computer what it does is simply replace the integrated sound card that comes on your motherboard to process audio better sound cards are internal devices that go well with pc style computers because you can exchange them by just removing the side panels of your pc tower most sound cards actually have their connection spots on the back which are not handy for a home studio or a studio in general the ability to process sound is focused on other tasks that are not converting analog to digital and back to analog as accurately as possible the way that sound cards are made and the companies behind them have different audiences for audio interfaces it is not unusual to see a supercharged gaming computer with a massive sound card that even has a fan of its own this is because most sound cards have their own buying audience which is audio files and gamers what is an audio interface an audio interface as basically an external sound card focused on converting audio from analog to digital the most accurate way possible it is also a device with comfortable and accessible inputs and outputs that will help your computer process the incoming an outgoing audio so you can record digitally what you play analog and also hear analog what you reproduce digitally inside most audio interfaces what you have is a sound card in a box with specific components dedicated to audio recording this being said if you add an audio interface to your computer and hook up a pair of speakers to it what you have is a sound card since it will handle all of your computer's audio instead of a huge fan for it what you'll have are dedicated inputs and outputs for microphones state-of-the-art preamps and firewire usb or thunderbolt connections similarities and differences between sound cards and audio interfaces i have written a guide for beginners on getting started with audio interfaces you can read it on stampsound.com similarities between sound cards and audio interfaces there are plenty of similarities between sound cards and audio interfaces let's see some of them they process audio both audio interfaces and sound cards process audio for your computer replacing the integrated sound processing capability of your computer's motherboard they have an integrated dac dax stands for digital audio converter and since you plug either speakers or headphones to both they need to have a dac to feed analog devices such as those with digital audio coming from the computer they can be replaced unlike the integrated sound processing power in your motherboard you can exchange a sound card or an external audio interface in the case you need or want an upgrade a great audio interface to get started with is the focusrite scarlett 2i2 it even comes bundled with the incredible ableton software and has phantom power built in check out the focusrite scarlet 2i2 in the description of this video differences between sound cards and audio interface there are plenty more technical differences than the ones i'm about to name here but you get the idea flat response an audio interface is designed and created to feed flat audio to flat monitors the more true to the original it can get the better the quality on the other hand sound cards have a distinct sound because they are made for music listeners movie lovers and gamers it is not uncommon to find a distinctive low frequency boost in the response to make those rumble sounds more real and the bottom end of recordings more powerful watching a movie with a flat audio interface and flat response monitors is way more boring than doing so on a sound card with a 7.1 home theater believe me design and placement while the audio interfaces are external and designed to have as many inputs and outputs as possible to accommodate other studio gear sound cards are built to be internal and focus on audio processing rather than inputs latency since sound cards are not designed to process a lot of audio going and you can get some latency when hearing the recording in real time the existence of pcie sound cards that are wired straight to the motherboard makes this issue less noticeable but is still something that can happen on the other hand sound interfaces from the lowest budget have zero latency because it is paramount for recording phantom power in case you are not familiar with the term phantom power is 48 volts of current that condenser microphones need to generate sound at an audible level most audio interfaces offer this kind of feature because they are designed to have condensers plugged into them on the other hand sound cards do not offer this feature because it is not needed to fulfill their duty i have written an article on phantom power you can read it on stampsound.com can you use a sound card to record music to a computer the answer to that question is an absolute yes if you have the budget to start with an external audio interface like the scarlet solo then that is 100 the correct path to follow on the other hand if you don't have the budget to buy one don't let that stop you from getting started with your dream check out my article on whether audio interfaces make a difference you can read it on stampsound.com is my dac an audio interface too finally i wanted to address this question that i have been getting a lot too the answer is a definite yes a dac is a digital to analog converter that is present in many more devices than you thought to begin with every time that you plug your headphones into your cell phone there is an internal dac transforming digital data coming from your music player phone call or instant messaging platforming to the speakers of your headphones also when you speak into the cell phone's built-in microphone or the one on your headphones the internal dac transforms it into digital information for your phone to process it this is not so different from what an external audio interface does just that it is simpler and you might not have noticed it ever before for those of you who are audiophiles reading this you know that you can buy better quality dacs to be able to hear your music in better quality which is closer to vinyl or tape or whichever means of analog recording and plane you favor a dac is definitely an audio interface moreover all the audio interfaces and sound cards we have been discussing so far have a dac of some sort to be able to feed sounds to speakers final thoughts sound cards and external audio interfaces coexist in the world the same way that flat response studio monitors and regular speakers with definite equalization do they excel at different things and hence you get to choose what you want it for using an external audio interface with state-of-the-art ad da converters and eight inputs to play call of duty online is just as much of an epic fail as trying to record music with the latest sound blaster sound card check out my article on using an audio interface without studio monitors you can find it on stampsound.com you can do it with both but you'll be investing money in a rather inadequate way happy recording for more free helpful information please visit stampsound.com

Channel: Stamp Sound

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Id: JGYV3d66LnA

Length: 8min 7sec (487 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 29 2020