Help? - S7.02PE with Onboard Realtek problem!

personally i think that £200 is not going to really gain the respect of your peers. you should definitely be looking for something in the £1000 range. £200 might get you an interface worthy of using sonar producer (instead of home studio, like you should be using) but your peers will still shake their heads sadly while you are off in the coffee house posting bad but funny jokes.

Why is this drivel being posted in the coffehouse. Some moderator should move this to the Sonar Producer & Studio Forum so that it can be moved to the Hardware Forum where it belongs.

Glad to hear yours works, mine never would. Probably due to different Mobos. Which is the problem with all those other posts you speak of. Driver! take me to the speakers!

ORIGINAL: Guitarhacker

Jon.... assuming this is not a joke.....

Here's the solution.... don't tell anybody..... oppps...... too late.

Would that involve me not speaking?.... That's kinda hard for me...

I'm being a bit light-hearted here sure but I'm not joking this IS my situation.

Crg, I understand that not everyone gets them working well but I'm never as bold as to TELL folk what they need, I just say what I did to get mine working I just wish some other folk could extend that courtesy to me sometimes. Some of the comments I've had about this have been truly unbelievable.

Sure I could remain all meek about it but when I see someone being kicked to touch for daring to attempt to use their on-board chip I get all protective and feel compelled to shield them from being treated as lesser beings and attempt to correct some of the myths that are often levelled to defend what I often perceive as newbie bullying.

Technically the HD specification is very clear and companies producing codecs for the spec are also clear in indicating the nuts and bolts of their particular implementation so the perceived lesser quality of the Realtek chip is largely mythical or the very least so slight that it is unnoticeable. So if you do manage to get yours working well there is very little to recommend not using it e.g. M-Audio Delta snr 99db (A weighted), Realtek 888 snr 97db (A-Weighted). The DAC's in the 888 chip are fine and certainly choice of monitors and the treatment of the room would be bigger factors when mixing than the chip. The one area where it may fall down is on the ADC's front but I being as I only ever use soft-synths and pre-recorded stems tracking isn't an issue for me. Some claim though that with a decent pre which you'd need for most sub £200 cards anyway there isn't a problem there either.

If I was an audiophile or was relying on my output for my income sure I'd want to spend the plus 4 figures required to gain the extra 10% in quality but for many users the onboard solution (these days) is often perfectly adequate, with Crg's caveat in mind....provided you can get it working.

And thanks Bubba it really helps to know that I'm not on my own.

Realtek, Sigma Tel, Conexant all make HD Audio compliant chips and Vista has a generic HD Audio driver too which isn't available in the older XP, which may be worth a try if the 'OEM' driver bloat gets in the way of it working.

HD Audio is an Intel spec that's been adopted and integrated by MS in Windows only since Vista and the newer ALC889 chips already being produced offer a SNR of 110db which exceeds most of those sub £200 cards now, most of which haven't been significantly updated in the last 5 years, as well as many other improvements like standard dual SPDIF channels etc, etc.

I totally agree Garry, if you just enjoy having good gear or you have a real need because you are charging clients for your services then why not go the full measure.

Sure you can get to the shops in a beat up ol' van but it's a different experience in a shiny red ferrari no doubt and I appreciate that. All I'm saying is that in all the cases I've come across so far you'll get little or no further forward with a budget interface and I'm talking this sub £200 price range here and the analogy becomes like going to the shops in a brand new Fiat as opposed to a 5 year old low series BMW. It's cheaper to run shiny and current and really does perform the equivalent role albeit with a little more noise and reduced comfort.

When you start getting into spending more money then the increased usability and features start arriving and don't get me wrong there's plenty of gear that I covet myself....unfortunately I'm on disability presently and the stuff I'd really like, well, it's way out of my league (just now...).

What I do object to however is the few precious people (fortunately a minority though they do tend to yell the most) TELLING me what I'm hearing and experiencing with my current set-up isn't true, when it clearly is. Also if anyone is like me and went full stretch to get the best sequencer they could afford it may be awhile before they can run to the extra expense of something that really does raise their capability to a better level....the most oft heard argument in the Producer forum is "why spend all that money on a sequencer and play it back through a 50 cent chip" which is a complete nonsense really when that 50 cent chip is acquitting itself quite admirably among the £200 range hardware.

I'm always looking at ways of 'managing up' gear wise and to my mind my present priorities would be some half-decent monitors which would add some real benefit...so all donations gratefully accepted...

But certainly I have nothing against those enjoying and appreciating what they have and I'd be completely submerged in great gear given the opportunity, but it would be stuff that makes the cut and offers genuine improvements like I'm sure your set up does (or in this instance will before too long...).

I guess too I'm trying to stand by the little guy a bit, and I've recently gotten quite a few emails of support for my stance on this issue from folk who are actually afraid of saying what they use and how to get it working because of some of the 'Billy Big Balls' attitudes of a few individuals from the upstairs forum.