December 13, 2013
   Having recorded instrument voices from the Roland Integra-7 synth module via USB to the SONAR Producer 8.5 tracks, will I need to replace the computer's soundcard with something more substantial to hear the professional quality sounds of my Integra-7 upon playback?  If so, can you recommend an appropriate soundcard?  (Note: I am currently using an HP desktop with Windows 7 O/S and the stock soundcard that came with the computer). 
   Thanks for your response. 
Richard  

 For non critical listening environments, no, But for more critical listening, say in a studio, for editing and running soft synths and adding efx with the plug ins, I say yes. 
 
Example, I use a plain everyday Asus netbooks 1/8 mini jack for playback of my Wave backing tracks through a PA system for my live gigs. It sounds like any good quality CD player to me.
I also play my home stereo and watch movies via a Sound Blaster card on an old office PC.
 On board sound cards are not all the same. My Asus was a lucky break. I had an Acer that was real noisy and hummed.  You want to test your on board sound card first, I set Wave Lab ( any wave recorder will do)  in "record mode and nothing plugged in, look at the level meter and phase scope. Some laptops and desktops will show as high as 30db of noise. The Asus was almost dead quiet. Just a fluke I think. 
My home PC has the Sound Blaster which is a big upgrade from a MO sound chip but still useless for Sonar recording. 
For recording and using plug ins you need the ASIO drivers. Otherwise you'll have all sorts of issues. But playback will work, if the card is quiet. 

Danny Danzi made a very interesting comment last week on another thread.... basically most car systems are tailored to the compartment space they are in... A quick "test" to see if you should adjust anything "system related" is to export your project and play it in a car.
 
As long as you can achieve the "final result" you want, how you do it is sort of immaterial. The car concept was very insightful in my opinion.