Reece

Digital recording on sound card

I purchased a C Media sound card mainly to be able to pass a digital signal out to my receiver, but I was also interested in passing a digital signal back into the cards optical input to record music for mp3 mixes.

When I tried this (using the recording program that comes with the card) the resulting wave file sounded terrible. Could it be just a matter of changing recording programs or is it something with the card itself?

I thought since I was just passing from one digital medium to another it would not affect the quality of the sound file......am I wrong in thinking this?

Reece

Judging by the many spidif sound card owners I know there must be others that have tried this...

Doesn't anyone have a solution or a suggestion?

Rob Gillespie

If you connect up to your digital-in and just play (not record), how does it sound?

Reece

Rob...

There is a analog connection that I use to monitor the sound going in to the card and it sounds okay when I send a digital signal through it. However when I play back the same signal after recording it, the sound is equivalent to an mp3 at the lowest bitrate. I'm now in the process of searching out and trying different recording utilities trying to resolve this.....I hope I can make this work.

Rob Gillespie

Reece, if you've hooked up the digital connection then I would have though you'd be able to hear it without routing through an analogue input.

Open up your sound card control panel (double click on the little speaker icon in your system tray or go through Control Panel) and make sure your digital input is enabled. Now play a CD or something through it - can you hear it? Once you've got that sorted, then it's time to look at the recording software.

Reece

Thanks for the response Rob....I probably didn't explain myself well. This analog connection is for the purpose of monitoring the digital connection. I had already configured the sound card to send and receive digital signals and I tested it by sending signals to my receiver and then back into the card and both ways work. This card works great if you just send the signal out, but I'm thinking more and more that it is the recording software that's the limitation for sending the signal back in then playing it back. I asked this same question on the AVS forum and I only got one response so far from someone that has this same card and eventually gave up trying to do what I'm doing.
I'll keep trying and see what happens....Thanks Again.

Reece