# Can I use external audio interface just to replace on-board sound?



## decredis (Jun 26, 2019)

Hi, dumb newbie question: I don’t do any recording at the moment, just write midi data in my DAW (although I do play midi in through an NI A61 keyboard sometimes), so I don’t need an audio interface for recording from microphone or guitar, say. 

But do I understand right that an audio interface (like a Steinberg UR12) can replace (and I guess, improve on) the functionality of my motherboard’s on-board sound, for playback and exporting of my tracks from my DAW?


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jun 26, 2019)

Yes, that's right.


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## decredis (Jun 26, 2019)

Great, thanks!


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## VinRice (Jun 26, 2019)

It should sound a hell of a lot better too...


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## Fredeke (Jun 30, 2019)

Not only you can, but you should: professional and prosumer sound cards come with ASIO drivers, which should help bring latency way down. (Even though USB is not the best interface for real-time audio latency-wise, it will still be a noticeable improvement - even pros use USB sound cards when that's the only choice, and most are happy with it.)

As for sound quality: It will certainly make playback sound better, but it won't affect your exports in any way.


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## dzilizzi (Jun 30, 2019)

Although Apple audio drivers are pretty good, PC's tend to suck. So an external audio device is really good to have on a PC, especially a laptop where you can't add a better soundcard.


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## Fredeke (Jun 30, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> Although Apple audio drivers are pretty good, PC's tend to suck. So an external audio device is really good to have on a PC, especially a laptop where you can't add a better soundcard.


Just for the sake of finicking: On some laptops you could add an ExpressCard sound card, but I agree it would be overkill here.


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## decredis (Jun 30, 2019)

Hey, thanks for further replies and clarifications!

To be specific about my situation: my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H with Realtek ALC898 onboard audio. I’ve been using either ASIO4All or Generic Low Latency drivers with it. 

I don’t have amazing headphones or speakers (although I intend to get some halfway decent monitor headphones soon) so perhaps I won’t hear the benefit of an external audio interface (like the Steinberg UR12, which I’m considering getting)? 

I understand from what you’re saying, Fredeke, that this is all irrelevant to exporting my projects to wav file. Except perhaps in the case of doing a real-time export? But it will benefit latency in performance, and audio quality in playback (if I have headphones good enough to make it worth it).


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## Fredeke (Jun 30, 2019)

@decredis
You're welcome.

Yes you understood well.

No, real time exports won't be affected either, because they still don't go through the interface: what you hear is merely a copy of the stream being written to disk. That stream doesn't go through the interface, unless you're inserting outboard effects into your mix - which I assume you're not. In fact the insertion of outboard gear is the only case that makes real-time export necessary - otherwise you're just as well doing offline exports. (Ok, some may debate me on this particular point, but that's the general idea anyway.)

In your case, the benefit would be more enjoyment while working, thanks to better monitoring sound. If your speakers and room are really bad, that won't make much difference I'm afraid, but then it won't hurt either. As for headphones... Well, good ones are not that expensive 

I have a Gigabyte motherboard too, though a different model, and I can positively say the onboard sound chip is by far the crappiest I've ever heard! My Soundblaster-16 from 1995 sounded way better.


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## decredis (Jun 30, 2019)

Ok, great, that makes sense. Much appreciated.


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## dzilizzi (Jun 30, 2019)

Fredeke said:


> Just for the sake of finicking: On some laptops you could add an ExpressCard sound card, but I agree it would be overkill here.


I haven't had an expresscard slot in forever. I guess they are still around but not on consumer laptops.


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## Fredeke (Jun 30, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> I haven't had an expresscard slot in forever. I guess they are still around but not on consumer laptops.


Well, no.
I have one on my high-end laptop, but don't use it.
I have an ExpressCard RME interface, but it's in a PCIe-to-ExpressCard adapter in my tower 
I bought it for a Macbook Pro (when they still had an EC port), but now that I'm done with Apple... It's an odd setup, and certainly more expensive than it needs to be - but it works fine.


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## JPQ (Jun 30, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> Although Apple audio drivers are pretty good, PC's tend to suck. So an external audio device is really good to have on a PC, especially a laptop where you can't add a better soundcard.


And older macs audio chips what are motherbrooad are betteer than generic pc chipsets they are level what best intergrated aare pc side are is based what i understanded. but even my not so good ears hear sund differenve beetween my current Roland octacapture and mac mini 2014 late intergrated one and older emu soundcard. last one s most hifi but only stereo i needed also multiple inputs and usb stuf becouse emu is pci card.


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## dzilizzi (Jun 30, 2019)

JPQ said:


> And older macs audio chips what are motherbrooad are betteer than generic pc chipsets they are level what best intergrated aare pc side are is based what i understanded. but even my not so good ears hear sund differenve beetween my current Roland octacapture and mac mini 2014 late intergrated one and older emu soundcard. last one s most hifi but only stereo i needed also multiple inputs and usb stuf becouse emu is pci card.


Well, externals are always better. But the one thing Apple did right was the sound drivers. Okay, maybe not the one thing.....


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## Fredeke (Jun 30, 2019)

Sound quality depends mainly on the hardware. Drivers affect latency and stability.
Apple's hardware sound chips were top quality (for their kind of products) in Jobs' days.


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## PaulieDC (Aug 5, 2019)

Yep. Even my cheesy Dell PC they provide at my day job has some of my own peripherals attached, for music listening: Steinberg UR12 and a pair of iLoud monitors.


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## DaddyO (Aug 6, 2019)

In case it helps, Decredis, as a hobbyist on a budget I can recommend the iLoud monitors mentioned by PaulieDC. I had to downsize from my original JBL LSR 5-inch set because my desk space became more limited. The iLoud's do fine when you take into account what they are.


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