Soundcard or onboard sound for video capture?

[Orientation]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpalomaki

Ability to quickly move for use with newer system and use beyond simple audio capture argues for the Behringer. I am not familiar with the specific MB you have, and have no idea whether or not it will mate happily with your other peripherals.

You will probably want a separate hard drive for video capture/storage, one that does not contain the OS or software you will be using.

I was thinking of buying an external hard disk drive, but then again it should be compatible with Windows XP.
More precisely a 2TB Seagate Expansion. It seems I'll have to change the partition to BMR in order to properly work with XP, as I already have a 1TB WesternDigital which was not recognized by XP.

I'll try to make a capture with my current hardware and post it here.

[bar72]

I'd leave the MAudio card out, there's no input Gain Control via Software / Windows Mixer and due to it being a 24/192 card and having a really low noisefloor (-105dB), it records at around -20dB. These cards are designed that way by default as gain is usually controlled by a preamp or mixer which lies in the signal chain before the MAudio.

The Behringer isn't much better and the volume control does not affect the RCA jacks on the back, you'll have to use the Behringer app for this. The volume pot only controls the main out jacks. Even though there are two pairs of RCA connectors, the A/B switch does not switch between them. The supplied ASIO driver is also a POS, always dropping off my DAW so much so that I got rid of it.

I digitize a lot of Vinyl and can highly recommend either a Tascam or Focusrite soundcard but they ain't cheap.

[Orientation]

Thanks bar72, very informative answer.
So just to be clear, with the Behringer I had to connect my speakers to the jack out, otherwise if I connected them to the RCA out, the signal would not be amplified?
Go ahead and throw some suggestions, it's always good to know what equipment is best, even if I can't afford it.

[bar72]

If you want to control your Gain Output to an Amplifier or Active Speakers, etc then you'd have to get TRS to RCA Adapter plugs. This would give you control of the Gain heading out, via the "Main Out" jacks to the Amplifier (Highlighted in White in below picture).

If you wanted Virtual Dub / VirtualVCR, etc to capture the audio from a VHS transfer then just route the RCA leads from the VCR to Input 1 & 2 which you can control via the Gain 1/2 rotational knobs on the front of the unit so you'd manage to control what was going into the PC (Via USB) but not what's running through to the RCA Outs (Unless you install their bloaty software). Gain control is a must with music as if the recording coming in is "Hot" and you have no Gain control, you'll trip the amplifier circuits or induce clipping (bad).

If you wanted to attach, say, a PA / cassette / DAT recorder / Amplifier to the RCA Jacks (Highlighted in Yellow in below picture) then you'll have no control to anything connected via the RCA out's so you would have to either use the Behringer Software on the PC or have a mixer controlling the signal coming in via Input 1 or 2.

I can only assume that the RCA Out's are simply a passthough from the input on the hardware's internals to cut down on production costs? While not a dealbreaker, Gain control on RCA Out's is pretty much standard and essential if you use the card for routing a CD / DVD Player / Turntable, etc as not all vinyl / cd's are mastered at equal levels.

While it's just a case of an additional piece of Software running on the PC, I don't like having more than I need running when capping anything so I'd give it a swerve but that's only my opinion of course.