RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip)

Post
millerbill
Max Output Level: -69 dBFS
2005/04/27 10:35:16
This problem on-board sound chip seems to cause MC users a lot of problems. In my spare time I'm going to try to find out more about why it is usually so bad.

Those who have the AC97 may not know that RealTek has released new drivers. I doubt they will solve anyones problems; however, when in doubt install a new driver [was that Bill Gates or Bill Shakespeare who said that?]
RealTek Drivers
post edited by millerbill - 2005/04/27 12:03:58
Peter Rabbit
Max Output Level: -64 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2005/04/27 11:08:28
Thanks millerbill.

I have the onboard RealTek AC 97 soundcard. For general computer functions it worked just fine. But using it for recording digital audio is another story. The problem I was having was that when recording through the mic it would pick up the other audio tracks and bleed through to the recording track. It was faint but very noticeable. And it wasn't because of the mic picking up sound from the speakers. It would even do it when I disconnected the mic. Also the Realtek doesn't have a MIDI interface.

Anyway, after over a week of trying to solve the problem, I finally gave up and installed a Riptide Conexant Audio soundcard that I swiped from an older computer I wasn't using. Although the MIDI was working fine it had its own problems recording audio and I finally just recently broke down and purchased a Delta66 which seems to be working perfectly. I use the Delta for audio and the Riptide for Midi. I have disabled the RealTek audio.

Anyway getting back to the RealTek, after searching all over the net I discovered that many others were also having problems with their RealTek AC 97 soundcards. There seemed to be an abundance of problems and mine was only one of the many. I'm convinced that there is no solution to these problems and it's just best to get a different soundcard if your computer has one of these RealTeks.

Just my 2 cents.
millerbill
Max Output Level: -69 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2005/04/27 12:00:07
Right Peter - Googling doesn't seem to bring up much relevant information - basically you find gamers happy and everyone else wondering what's up. One of my favorites so far...

"AC97=Sonic Hell.....
Sorry but it's an ultra-cheap sound solution aimed at office pcs that maybe need to play Email beeps. It's the sound equivalent of WinModem, were a lot of the processing normally performed by the souncard is done by your CPU instead, with what passes for the soundcard on your motherboard being little more than a physical interface.

At it's absolute best an Ac97 card will be a major disappointment."

I have found references in other programs to the exact same things we hear on this forum:

Strange noises that never end.
Bleeding tracks and on and on.

Our recent rediscovery of the Full-Duplex requirement for Music Creator sent me looking for the AC97 specs to see if Duplex could be a problem, never found complete specs on this "wonderful standard.'

I believe my search is over - our recommendation seems to be

Replace the AC97 with a better Sound Card.[/size]

If you do, remember that Onboard audio should be disabled if you have a sound card installed.
post edited by millerbill - 2005/04/27 17:52:27
My Cats Pet
Max Output Level: -88 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2005/04/27 12:23:08
The shame of it all is that, apparently, even high end laptops from manufacturers such as Toshiba seem to always ship with the on-board AC97 chip set as the sound card. I had a Toshiba that, as detailed in my earlier posts, promptle stoped working a few days after the 12 month warranty was up. In dealing with the AC97 chipset, I found that with MME drivers selected, MC was completely unusable, as the latency level that one would be able to achieve without dropouts was very high. Since the Toshiba laptop that I had had one of fastest Wintel laptop processors available, I could only conclude that it was a driver/chipset issue. I did contact RelTek directly (speaking Chinese helped me with that - they're in Taiwan) and the sent the latest WDM driver to me. That apparently helped the latency and performance issues but, as noted by Millerbill, the AC97 chipset apparently does not independently support MIDI - so I lost MIDI usage as a tradeoff.

In general, if you are going to do music on a laptop, you have to go into it knowing that the on-board chipset is unusable and should plan on buying an external audio/MIDI interface and overriding the chipset OR buy an Apple Powerbook.
joeh20_444
Max Output Level: -73 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2005/04/27 13:07:59
Hey,

When using the AC'97 chipset on a Sony laptop, the line-in w/o anything plugged in brought up about a -45 db noise floor. Obviously something was wrong, but nothing should ever get a noise floor that high. Condersor mics don't bring up the noise floor that much. Honestly, though, I never recorded a single thing on my own comp's AC97. I disabled it on day 1 and went and bought a new card. Its a shame that these cards are the "stock" computer cards, but in all honesty, sound cards aren't selling points, so why should comp makers put in good ones?

Joe
Robomusic
Max Output Level: 0 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2005/04/28 00:11:53
One must remember that these are after all sound cards! Not recording interfaces, we must face teh fact that if we want pro or close to it results. we need to gear up and buy products designed for what we want to do.
den121961
Max Output Level: -88 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2005/04/29 13:09:06
I used my onboard 97 for a long time, because I couldn't justify spending money on a new one when that was working OK. I finally got a new one (AUdiophile 2496) and I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. What a difference. I wish I had the time to rerecord everything I did on the 97, but I guess I'm stuck with it. Now I can sympathize with Iron Butterfly I'm sure. Get it sooner rather than later if you can.
millerbill
Max Output Level: -69 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2006/09/27 20:49:53
bump
Beagle
Max Output Level: 0 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2006/09/27 23:29:27
a lot of laptops these days also ship with a conexant (as does mine) and they are just as bad as the realteks. pretty much any sound "chip" on the laptop is going to produce about the same results for the biggest portion of users. the conexants and the realteks are basically the same thing when it comes to recording...they're not designed for it and they may not work (and probably won't work well if they do).

thanks for bumping this one - millerbill - good advice!
cmcanote
Max Output Level: -90 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2007/08/07 15:08:50
Well, I'm recording my music on a separate Boss component. I really only wanted the Music Creator 3 for mastering. The conflicts I'm having with the Realtek AC97 don't have anything to do with sound quality in recording or playback. The thing that irritates me is that the folks that wrote the Music Creator 3 software should be aware of the fact that most new laptops ship with a Realtek AC97 or similar soundcard. I shouldn't have to be a programmer to make their software work!?!

millerbill
Max Output Level: -69 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2007/08/07 18:17:51
My friend, I am not a defender of Cakewalk, however, to blame them for conflicts or problems caused by hardware or drivers doesn't make sense.

If you're having conflicts - isn't BOSS also supposed to also have the answers. Shouldn' they also be aware that
most new laptops ship with a Realtek AC97 or similar soundcard.


Not trying to get on your case. We can possibly help if you tell us what's going wrong.
cmcanote
Max Output Level: -90 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2007/08/07 21:55:50
I hear ya millerbill but my Boss component is a separate component that records and then creates wav files and then transfers them over on a USB cable. It's a digital recorder. There's no conflict there.

The conflict appears to be with my sound card but I can't figure it out. My laptop is only 6 months old and I've never had any problems with it. I've bought other software programs for various other reasons and you load them up and they work. They have built in mechanisms to deal with conflicts and I am able to run them. This is the first problem like this that I've ever had with this laptop or a software program. I've gotten two responses from tech support that took 3 & 5 days respectively to get back.

See the CAKEWALK (NOT RESPONDING) thread. I'm not the only one with frustrating unresolved sound card conflicts.

kavonkavon
Max Output Level: -89 dBFS
RE: RealTek AC97 Sound Card (Chip) 2007/08/08 04:14:30
I have to agree with the soundblaster recommendation, very happy since I installed it and don't use the realtek thingy anymore. go for it dude
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