-- email from Kenneth

Q: I was wondering what's the best sound card on the market. I want a hiss-free sound card because I would like to record my music and have the cleanest possible sound... I heard the Creative Live is one of the best.

A: This seemingly simple question has an involved answer. (It may even require the help of this glossary of radio terms, courtesy of Recording Engineers Quarterly.)

Recording to your computer is a problem. A PC is a very high RF (radio frequency) environment, meaning that the analog sounds you record can be contaminated by RF waves inside the PC. The power supply, CPU, cards and other pieces conducting an electrical current will all produce or conduct some amount of RF, so any analog signal going into the sound card will be bombarded with RF.
To get the best possible sound recording into your machine, the signal must be digital prior to entering your system.


It is almost impossible to create or record sounds on a computer without some added noise (hiss, cracks, pops). To get the best possible sound into your machine, the signal must be digital prior to entering your system.

Unfortunately, most sound cards today are designed for the consumer market and not intended for serious high-end digital audio production (no matter what manufacturers say). Even the much-vaunted Sound Blaster Live! by Creative Labs is shunned by professional recording engineers. Simply put, cards that you see at CompUSA and Egghead are meant for games and PC multimedia, not home recording.

Sound cards do exist that are geared for PC recording, but don't be surprised by the cost or the need for additional equipment to create a high-quality digital audio studio.

Short of that, recording in digital sound best minimizes degradation. Cards such as the Sound Blaster AWE introduced the Sony Philips Digital Interface. This connection, developed by Sony and Philips, keeps an audio stream in digital form without loss when it's converted to analog sound and then back to digital (say, a CD to a Digital Audio Tape). With this interface, the only analog wave produced comes from playing the sound through speakers. Also to consider for clean digital audio transfer are ADAT optical connections.

So what makes the best recording card? Believe it or not, no card. This may seem odd, but the best way to record sound and then store it to a hard drive for editing is through external rackmount units known as DA/AD (Digital to Analog/Analog to Digital) converters. These provide superior signal-to-noise ratio because they are dedicated to the task and, most importantly, don't sit inside the computer and are not subject to the hums, crackles, and pops from the monitor, disk drives, or power supply. However, you would still need a S/PDIF, AES/EBU or ADAT digital I/O card or compatible sound card for DA/AD-to-PC interface.

Some recommendations for DA/AD converters:
Frontier Design Group's Tango and Zulu cards. Both need additional I/O cards. The Tango can use AES/EBU connections, and both can use ADAT connections:
  • Zulu: the more affordable AD/DA unit
    • Price: $598
    • signal-to-noise ratio: 98 decibels


  • Tango: professional unit
    • Price:
      • $698 (0 in, 8 out configuration)
      • $798 (4 in, 8 out configuration)
      • $898 (8 in, 8 out configuration)

    • signal-to-noise ratio: 98 decibels


For sound cards:
  • Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live!
    Cons:
    • SPDIF locked in at 48 KHz
    • Only one pair of stereo I/Os
    • Signal-to-noise ratio:
      • Analog to Digital: 73 decibels
      • Digital to Analog: 69 decibels

    Price: $90 for value edition, $185 for full edition

  • Digital Audio Labs CardDplus
    Cons:
    • record/playback only
    • no MIDI

    Price:
    • CardDplus (analog I/O only):$795
    • The I/O CardD (digital I/O, must be used with CardDplus): $295
    • The Digital Only CardD (digital I/O only, stands alone):$495