Hi,

I have an SB128
sound card , and
cool edit pro as a recording software.

There's something
I don' t understand :


When I was using win98,
noise floor was at -72db...

Now, I'm using XP and it's
something like -50db !!!
(i use cool edit 's function
"monitor record level" to check this)

I haven't touched the connexions !
I'm using the same mixer settings.

I want to go back to -72 db !

Do I need to re-install win 98 for that ???

hihi...yes you do if the wdm drivers are different than win98 vxd drivers ....

i have a same card and i say wdm drivers are different...i have both win98 and w2k installed...

i cap from win98....but if you can't notice anythign wrong with the sound,why bother?

hm.. why not try recording from the Mixed Output, and in your playback mixer mute everything exept for your line-in & master, using this method I can achive a noisefloor of -74.3 using sound forge / win98 / sb128. hope it works in 2k/xp

depending on the condition of your soundcard (and mobo) you can change the character of the noise several ways.

i've an onboard "soundMAX" chip, which is constantly "motorboating" from the interference caused by all the little gadgets on the mobo. sometimes you can stress the CPU in just the right way that the noise all but vanishes. (i used to be able to do it by freezing 1 instance of cooledit and recording in another, but that doesn't seem to work anymore).

there are other factors like how powerful your box's power supply is, how big it's capacitors are, how clean the power source is, etc etc etc. just by turning on my TV (in another room) i can eliminate a lot of the noise, as somehow it cleans the mains power (???)

of course, it's probably overall a better solution to get yourself an external card and enjoy the benefits of being outside the computer.

if you're desperate, you could reinstall as a dual boot system with XP and 98... (linux anybody?)

ohhh..my...god.....
stressing the cpu in a right way....
and you said i was funny.....<wink>

anyway he didn't gave enough data..it was something that he "saw" and that made him "think",and now he's not "sure"....hheh

what exactly is the problem?does it sound bad,or you just want that red line where it was....

mug...make him dynamics expander!
that should keep him calm and happy....

hehe... yep.. sounds dumb. but if you've got a noisy soundcard you'll be familiar with the different noises, or lack-of-noises it will make depending on what you do. i can't offer a particularly scientific explanation, but that i have a noisy system. perhaps as different components draw different amounts of power, the CPU fans change speed (same power source after all), or if something graphically intensive comes up, the GPU takes over and the loads change another way (rotating a viewport in 3dsMax makes a hell of a noise)

if you want proof, i can simply hit record in cooledit and play with some programs. minimizing and maximising makes some strange noises. almost comical.

and a noise floor of -50 rather than -75 is _definitely_ an audible difference. with headphones it can drive you mad.

(what's with the dynamics thing?)


[edit]

wow! it's surprisingly difficult to record the noise as it comes thru the headphones. strange. makes ABX'ing difficult if one can't lay down the effect they're describing. i got close by running a lead from headphone out to line-in.

this of course means that it's not such a bad thing for recording (my soundchip's been doing this for ~2 years, and i honestly can't hear it when i'm not just recording silence or something approaching it). i predominantly use my line-in for making CDs of LPs, or grabbing bits off the radio, cassettes, etc. nothing with a really low noise floor. however, i can hear the motorboating on _really_ quiet bits while playing back on something other than the same card (playing back on the same card adds noise over the existing noise, causing it to phase and flange slightly)

@ mrbruno: it might be worth recording ~5 sec of this noise floor and posting it here (lossless of course... FLAC or APE)

i might do the same

no,no i believe you...i just said that you're a freak...just like i am...
cpu doing different job si making different EM waves...

dynamics?
-50 is less than -72....
-72 has wider dynamic range

ah! i thought you were dissing my AGC script (well, that's like fish-in-a-barrel, really. that script could crash anything)

i really would like an explanation of the noises the computer makes though. some of the sounds come out of the case itself. maybe i should trawl through some hardware-geek forums.

YOu should not be getting any artifacts when using other processes, yes the noise floor may go up and down in response to usage of various components or power source issues but your artifacts are in indicating that something is wrong.

My old rig was a win2000 rig and once I added RAID things went sour.
Please head over to amdforums.com and check in the audio forums there...in the stickies I have a post under the same user name. I had the same problems you did
...I would minimize or maximize windows etc and cause articfacts in playback...I wouldn't settle for it and neither should you.

There are all kinds of things that can cause your problems:

Smooth Scrolling
video card hogging pci bus (try powerstrip)
IRQ issues
Moving paging file

the list goes on and on.

Most sound cards today have shielded A/D converters so don't think your going to gain much (except for USB headaches) by going to an external card. A new sound card with newer drivers may simply do the trick, otherwise there are things you can research and try.

Feel free to ask me for help but I don't know how much use I'll be ....it's been a while!

DC