Cubase and AtariST vs LMMS sound quality (pc) question

Anything that doesn't fit into other topics goes here!
While watching some vids of people making covers at home with a Tyros 4 or 5 , I noticed that the sound is way better then what I get out of LMMS.

Then I realised why.

I ones had an Atari ST computer and borrowed a Yamaha midi keyboard (synth)
Because the keyboard made the sound, not the Atari, it sounded very good.

Every song made with lmms and or fruity loops, sounds like its made on a pc. Phun intended.

Then I realised, I cant expect an onboard sound chip on a pc mobo of 80 euros, to produce the same sound quality as a Yamaha keyboard nor a Tyros-5.

What is the best possible sound quality you can get from LMMS, or in other words, if you get a professional soundcard, will the songs sound better. ( The prices did not make me happy, saw one with Linux support 500 euro, there was also one listed of 2000 euro. Thats, LOL, over twice what my pc has cost to build. I do understand you would need good speakers or headphone with this too.

Or should lmms hurry up with midi out, so we can plug in midi devices, so we don't have the pc produce the sound ?
Overall, the answer is no. Spending time to create/use high quality presets for the virtual instruments you use will always be more important than the soundcard you have, unless the soundcard is extremely old.

The reason that the Tyros-5 may sound better is because it comes with many built in presets that sound great out of the box. Also, these keyboards typically sample pre-recorded sounds that are of very high quality. They sound better because they do not require the user to program patches, like what you would have to do in a program like LMMS. Aside from that, because the presets are already built in, your computer will not have to spend extra time synthesizing the sound from scratch. However, to say that sound made by computers sound "computery" is unfair to people that spend large amounts of time programming and patching presets for software synths. There are many, many software replicas of hardware synth boxes and keyboards as well.

The bottom line is that sound design is always more important than soundcard specifications, as long as the soundcard in question is recent. The only side effect of a bad soundcard is high latency, because the program is what makes and plays the sound, and the soundcard's job to keep up and send the sound from the program to your computer's sound jacks. I'm sorry to say, but if your computer is not very powerful in the first place, buying another soundcard will be a big waste of money.

The super simplified answer is that a modern soundcard wont typically affect the quality of the sound you hear, it is up to the user practice good sound design and use/create good sounds from the start.

Here is a song I'm in the middle of completing. It is made in LMMS, using nothing but my own drum samples and the built in instrument TripleOscillator. I created all the TripleOsc presets used in the song myself.
https://soundcloud.com/stakeoutpunch/sf ... em/s-07o7h

It's currently private so it will more than likely be deleted within the next few days when I release it publicly.
Not sure what consider as powerfull, but I have a phenom II X4 3.2 ghz. ( quadcore )
And I am currently not using a soundcard.

Your song does sound good. :D
Phenoms are pretty good. If your PC can play back sound you have a soundcard...

Thanks about the song, it's almost finished
Some mobo's have onboard sound, thats what I am using, I do not have a separate sound card.
I'm talking about your integrated soundcard. If the motherboard is relatively modern then your built in soundcard will be sufficient.
Thank you, its relative new its has 5.1 or maybe higher sound.

Need a job first, but still I want two thing music related. First a new headset, and or headphone.
And a soundcard.

It has to with a soundblaster soundcard in my last pc.
This onboard sound is fine, but I cant shake the feeling the soundblaster was sligthly better.

But from this topic I understand it does not matter that much for lmms.
There is also the question of whether or not the soundcard is coloring the sound. You want a soundcard that plays back your sound exactly how it sounds. Some user-grade soundcards mess with the sound so that it sounds nicer, but that is not good for music production. For example, if your soundcard boosts the bass, you will make the song thinking that it has more bass than it actually has.

I would avoid getting anything until you have an extremely solid reason for getting it. You'll save lots of money that way, trust me :-)

The sound card interface I use is the Tascam US144 MKII. It is very solid, offers completely flat (as it should be) sound, and has multiple inputs and outputs for my mics and speakers.
You can render a song with LMMS (or any other DAW) even without any soundcard at all and it will sound exactly the same as if you had a high-end soundcard. The soundcard isn't the same as a video card, there's no actual sound rendering being done in the sound card. All sound is rendered by the software synths in the CPU, the sound card has no effect on this at all.
diiz wrote:You can render a song with LMMS (or any other DAW) even without any soundcard at all and it will sound exactly the same as if you had a high-end soundcard. The soundcard isn't the same as a video card, there's no actual sound rendering being done in the sound card. All sound is rendered by the software synths in the CPU, the sound card has no effect on this at all.
I'm not sure who you are talking to, me or GPS, but I was only talking about playback within the DAW :D