Biab from my Acer laptop sounds bad .help please

Larry Lenhart · Post by **Larry Lenhart** » 26 Feb 2012 3:29 pm

My BIAB sounds awfull thru my guitar amps...i have tried several...my ipod sounds just fine using the same cable. It is very scratchy sounding and not clear at all...I thought it was the out line for the headphones, (which is what i was using), so I bought a box that goes out from the usb port, but same result. So it seems that the sound card must be damaged, altho when I play BIAB thru a small clam shell speakers that I got at radio shack for 20 bucks, its fine, just not enough volume. Sooo....what I guess what I am asking is what are my alternatives...a friend of mine uses his biab thru his guitar amp and it sounds great. This may sound dumb to those more experienced than I, but what am I missing here ?? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I dont know enough about the electronics to know what I should be using. Thanks in advance.

Mike Hoover · Post by **Mike Hoover** » 26 Feb 2012 6:36 pm

if you going from the ear phone jack on computer to amp, if so it may be an impedance mismatch. if you have a CD input on the amp try that. usually if an ipod will play, the computer should also, have seen several players use laptops that way.

Mike

ps have you tried listening to the computer with head phones to see if the sound is ok that way??

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 27 Feb 2012 3:16 am

The first thing to do is determine if it's ONLY BIAB sound or if it's all sound.

If you play regular audio, a commercial CD in the PC's CD/DVD drive, audio from the internet, etc, is it all good, or is it bad too?

If it's all good, except BIAB the problem could be the Microsoft GS Wavetable MIDI Synthesizer. BIAB generates MIDI and that must be converted and passed on to the PC's sound system. First thing is to make sure BIAB is setup correctly for MIDI playback (this is done in BIAB).

Larry Lenhart · Post by **Larry Lenhart** » 27 Feb 2012 7:42 am

Thanks guys for the responses. I am using a PC and I am going out thru the headphone jack. I thought perhaps the headphone jack was damaged, so thats why I bought an adoptor which uses the plug in thru the usb port, but it still sounded the same. I thought that I was getting interference from the local radio station which is about 2 blocks away, as sometimes I pick that up on my guitar amp, but I tried it at another persons house with the same result. I have a rolland cube30 which has an input for cd players, etc, and that also sounds the same. So, I think it must be my laptop itself. I am away from home right now and cant try out some other options, but I will when I return home either late tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for your help and I will continue to try your suggestions.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 27 Feb 2012 8:46 am

I'm in the process of getting an Acer laptop rigged up for playback and the first thing I did was invest in an external Sound Blaster sound card.
To get good sounding playback out of BIAB, you need a good sound card.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 27 Feb 2012 10:11 am

Erv, the first thing is the MIDI synth, not the sound card. The default Windows "Microsoft GS Wavetable" MIDI synth leaves a lot to be desired. BIAB uses MIDI for it's instruments, the better the MIDI synth the better (more realistic) the instruments will sound.

After the MIDI synth, then the audio. I have a low end (i5 CPU) Lenovo "ideapad" laptop that I bought last year. The audio (Realtek) in it is as good as and the same as the Realtek audio in Desktops. The only thing it lacks, for external speakers is the ability for 5.1 audio.

Larry Lenhart · Post by **Larry Lenhart** » 27 Feb 2012 11:27 am

"the first thing is the MIDI synth, not the sound card. The default Windows "Microsoft GS Wavetable" MIDI synth leaves a lot to be desired. BIAB uses MIDI for it's instruments, the better the MIDI synth the better (more realistic) the instruments will sound"

So how do I check the MIDI synth that BIAB uses on my laptop ? If I need to get a better MIDI syth, how do I go about doing this. Sorry for the questions, just not sure where to go from here. I tried using the help feature on BIAB and couldnt find the information.

Again, thanks in advance for any help.

Mike Hoover · Post by **Mike Hoover** » 27 Feb 2012 2:30 pm

under the (opt.) tab, you can check what the set up is. If I knew how to attach a screen shot I would post mine.

Mike

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 27 Feb 2012 3:46 pm

Jack:
Hate to disagree with you, but Erv is right on this. When I first got my Acer laptop, one of the first things I did was go to Ebay and buy an Audigy 2 ZS Notebook card for it. This card(sound) fits in the PC card slot on the side of the lap top and the Soundblaster software is loaded.

Midi drivers for this card are:

SB Audigy 2ZS Synth A
" " " " Synth B
SB Audigy 2ZS Midi IO
" " " " Midi IO 2

Also included is a docking cord which gives you the capability of hooking up speakers up to and including 7.1.

The use of this and BIAB with ForteDXi or similar will enhance your midi output sound.

So, you see, the soundcard can (and does) make a big difference in the output sound from your laptop

It really is too bad that Creative discontinued the making of these notebook cards but if you could find one on Ebay, I would highly recommend it.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 28 Feb 2012 3:12 am

The SB Audigy MIDI synths, I will agree with. They are much better than the Microsoft GS Wavetable. That was what I stated, the MIDI Synths are the first thing. I have a SB sound card installed in a desktop and use the "A" synth.

If you are using the MIDI synth and a "digital" output from the sound device, you are not using the "sound device" for the speakers, whatever you are connecting the digital to is driving the speakers.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 28 Feb 2012 7:22 am

Graham,
That is the card that I've got and I picked mine up off of e-bay also. It has the jacks so you can hook up a sound system to it. Neat setup!