BETTER MIXER FOR REALTEK?

[robnokshus06]

Happy New Year!

Following the crash of my XP desktop, I am presently doing production on my Vista powered, HP laptop. My XP machine had an NVidia chipset for sound and had a nice mixer that went along with it. The Realtek "mixer" included with the laptop I find lacking with no input control, line in control, etc...

My question is twofold: (A) Is there a better mixer one can download that will work with the Realtek setup? Also, In looking at all of the notebooks from all of the various manufacturers at Fry's yesterday, I notice that ALL of them use this Realtek setup. Is there a more professional sound card setup one can get in a laptop? Reccomendations? I'm leaning toward replacing the desktop with a more production oriented laptop and would appreciate some input. I'm fairly familiar with soundcards in desktops but laptops are a bit foreign to me (I wouldn't even know how to crack one open).

Any help that any of you could provide me would be greatly appreciated including where to get a nice production-centric laptop. Thank you in advance!

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Here is my observation about sound cards and computers: The DRIVER for the sound card usually determines what the mixer will "look like".... what features it will have. I have an M-Audio 24/96 Audiophile. No matter what software I try to match up with it, there is NO WAY to get a volume control over recording input. You have to be prepared with some kind of external, mechanical mixer to control the recording volume.

My dream is that someone will come back with an explanation of how to do it and prove me wrong! ;D

In recent years I have come across some built-in or original-equipment sound cards in full size machines that are.... well AWESOME is not out of range. But I haven't had that kind of admiration for laptop sound devices.

 

[OttoM]

GRC is correct. The mixer options will depend on the driver and the sound card chip capabilities. Realtek makes a number of different OEM chips and that's why what appears to be the "same" mixer can have different options.

I'd suggest getting a USB card like a Lexicon Alpha or a Yamaha Audiogram3 to get better quality recordings.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Here is my observation about sound cards and computers: The DRIVER for the sound card usually determines what the mixer will "look like".... what features it will have. I have an M-Audio 24/96 Audiophile. No matter what software I try to match up with it, there is NO WAY to get a volume control over recording input. You have to be prepared with some kind of external, mechanical mixer to control the recording volume.

Same deal on my M Audio 192 Delta. Seems crazy that an expensive card like that doesn't have one of the most basic features of all.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Same deal on my M Audio 192 Delta. Seems crazy that an expensive card like that doesn't have one of the most basic features of all.

Ah.... a post by a good Hoosier! I sit here tonight in what the talking heads on TV proclaim as the most extreme weather for Georgia in over a decade thinking: I'm happy I made the decision about a decade ago to endure southern winters instead of Hoosier winters. Throw an extra log on the fire for me.

Yes, you think when you spend a bit more for what, hopefully, is a better card, you would get a feature for varying the recording gain. But I can also visualize a staff meeting at the card manufacturing company when someone says: "If he customer is buying a pro-grade or pro-sumer grade card, we can assume there is pro-grade equipment in the audio chain feeding the card. And in my home studio, that is true. Where the lacking feature bites me in back-side is when I load up my machine and take it on site. I either get a feed from the house system which I may not have control over, or I want to take only minimal equipment and my gain control device that feeds the computer at home really goes beyond my "minimal" description of needs.

Example: the last time I loaded up the full size machine to go on-site was to record a pipe-organ concert for a friend of mine. Two mics. One in each channel. Take the simple RDL two channel pre-amp means less gear to tote into the hall. The four-channel mixer went for the ride instead.

 

[OttoM]

Yes, you think when you spend a bit more for what, hopefully, is a better card, you would get a feature for varying the recording gain.

Actually you CAN get this feature on even relatively inexpensive sound cards today. How?

Get a USB sound card like the two mentioned in my post above.

Most semi-pro-grade USB sound cards have built-in level control pots that don't need a driver to work so they are independent of the computer's volume control. Some even have phantom power and switchable input sensitivity so you can take whatever feed you're given and make it work.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Early on I bought the M-Audio Transit to put in my bag for field-recording. As I pair it up with various machines running various versions of Windows, I have found it's behavior to be similar to the behavior of an unbroken horse. You have to pull every trick in your tool bag to tame it.

I don't do field recordings often enough to get excited about or justify buying one of the newer entries from the USB stable, but I fear each of them will bring some little "bad behavior" with it. Field recordings of one-time events don't give you a second chance to get it right.

I would be interested in hearing what hardware is working well for people in this type of circumstance.

 

[boiseengineer]

Is this a good deal? Anyone used one of these? (sale item so it may be gone shortly)
http://www.bswusa.com/proditem.asp?item=U420

 

[OttoM]

Early on I bought the M-Audio Transit to put in my bag for field-recording. As I pair it up with various machines running various versions of Windows, I have found it's behavior to be similar to the behavior of an unbroken horse. You have to pull every trick in your tool bag to tame it.

That's because the Transit is like most internal sound cards in that the levels are controlled by Windows. Get a sound card that has pots on it to control levels/monitoring and you won't have those kind of problems.

I would be interested in hearing what hardware is working well for people in this type of circumstance.

One more time...

The two cards mentioned in my first post above have worked well for me in live and production recordings.

If compatibility with multiple versions of Windows is important get a card that works off the built-in generic "USB Audio Codec" driver. The Yamaha works for me with that driver.