On 11/18/2010 02:00 PM, Tim wrote: > > Though, still "just" a sound card. The advantages of using a real mixer > are many: > > A sound card generally only has one or two inputs, and they only cope > with a narrow range of signal levels, impedances, unbalanced audio, and > have DC voltages on those shitty 3.5mm sockets. Not to mention that the > technical specifications for the inputs and outputs are usually NOT > detailed anywhere. Even outboard USB sound cards can still have noise > issues, since they're usually still powered by the PC. > > A mixer usually has many inputs, that can be used simultaneously, or > separately (and only require setting up the once). The inputs usually > can cope with a very wide range of signal levels, and can be adjusted to > suit, so you can put exactly the right signal level into the computer, > in the first place. Have more sensible impedances, sometimes they're > selectable. Support unbalanced and balanced audio, and have decent > connectors. And you can connect decent microphones instead of those $5 > computer crappies. > > The hard part is finding out which mixers present themselves as a > standard USB audio device, so you can just plug it in and have it work. > Since nothing I've looked at, so far, gives any useful information, it's > down to (a) asking if anybody's got experience, or (b) lugging a laptop > into a music store that's prepared to risk letting me test it. > > Sorry, I mis-read your request as "sound card" rather than "mixer/pre-amp". Carry on then. Nothing to see here :-) -- Principal Investigator Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium http://www.sbrac.org -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
