Hi,
[Subject line is intended to differentiate this from, e.g., digitizing audio in a *product* as part of normal operation]I need to get some audio samples into a digital form where they can be manipulated losslessly [sic]. But, I'm unsure of the best way to minimize noise and signal degradation.
One approach is to just hire a firm to do this for me. Since it's a "one-time" expense, it's probably easier to just let someone smarter -- and better equipped -- than me figure out how to do this "best".
The problem with this approach is it will eat my lunch (in terms of time and money) if I can't have *everything* ready to go in one big batch. (i.e., a firm would be crazy to just let me walk in with one short sample today... another tomorrow... two more next month, etc. They'd spend much of their time just "setting up" and preparing invoices!) Since much of what I need to do will be iterative/empirical, there might not be any *real* savings with this approach.
Or, I can "do it myself" with a "good" sound card, cables, set-up, etc. But, something tells me this is just *not* going to give me good clean samples. (I can't imagine quality audio in that EMI/RFI-laden environment!)
An alternative is to use some *outboard* data acquisition in the hope that the physical location and absence of nearby noise sources sharing power/ground connections might manifest in better S/N.
To that end, I'm thinking of some crude tests to apply to an "Audigy2" sound card and an "Extigy" box. Both seem approximately comparable in terms of capabilities (24b/96KHz) at least in terms of audio capture.
Any suggestions as to how to give each approach the best possible conditions (i.e., compare audigy2 at its best to extigy at *its* best IN MY ENVIRONMENT)?
Or, is this an unnecessary exercise as the result is already known (to someone)?
Or, some other option that I haven't yet considered?
Thx,
--don