I don't have hands-on experience here, but if Ned is suggesting fibre-optic
because of the idea that it will allow a very long cable run (and so allow
you to keep your PC well away from the mic, perhaps even in a different
room), I'm afraid that AFAIK fibre-optic audio connections use cheap
'plastic' cables, with very limited range (only a few metres) rather than
proper glass fibres (which would go for km's).

Sound quality wise, it has been shown in a few cases that a well designed
sound card can exibit a very respectable signal to noise ratio ( > 100dB )
without having to resort to external convertors. If you're interested, I can
quote specific examples.

Most of what I know (besides from hands on experience) comes from reading
Sound On Sound magazine. The entire contents of all but the most recent 3
issues are kept online. The web site is www.sospubs.co.uk  -  I just went
there and did a search for 'soundcard guide' - out of the first page of
results it looked to me like a good many of them may be relevant to you.

Feel free to ask me about any aspect of music recording with PCs, either
here or off-list.

HTH,
Nick Brown




----- Original Message -----
From: "Ned Konz" <ned at bike-nomad.com>
To: <squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 10:01 PM
Subject: Re: [OT][Q] multimedia hardware recommendation (please help)


On Monday 22 July 2002 01:51 pm, Norton, Chris wrote:
> Would the "noise" problem you spoke of affect recording quality?

Only if you have the computer in the same room as a microphone.
It's cooling fan (mechanical/acoustic) noise I was referring to, not
electrical noise.

You might consider getting one of the isolated audio cards that use a
digital (possibly fiber optic) link between the input circuitry and
your computer.

Or a USB one, but I don't know how well those work.

--
Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com
GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE