[ARSCLIST] USB music card vs. onboard digitization

[Joel Bresler <joel.br@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear friends:

Over the next half year, I'm going to digitize something under a thousand 
songs currently on LP and 78. I am aiming for reasonable but not 
necessarily audiophile sound quality. For budgetary reasons, I would much 
rather not spring for a separate digitization unit. I already  have an 
external USB sound card, the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ 5.1 
(which I earlier used with my Dell Inspiron to digitize audio tapes.)

So my question: I am told that a computer can be a "noisy" environment in 
which to digitize audio. I'd welcome opinions about whether I am likely 
better off using my PC's sound card (it's a fairly high end HP Windows 
Media PC) or the Sound Blaster USB card, which  would at least sit apart 
from the main unit and might offer a quieter alternative.

Thanks in advance for your comments,

Joel

Joel Bresler
250 E. Emerson Rd.
Lexington, MA 02420
USA

781-862-4104 (Telephone & FAX)
joel.br@xxxxxxxxxxx
back-up email: joelbresler-at-gmail.com