Hi - I'm hoping someone in this forum will be able to answer this query.
We have a USB-6212 BNC DAQ device that we are using to record audio data from multiple microphones. My question really is about the process by which the digital data is saved. Once the voltage data is received by the USB-6212, is there any interaction with the sound card of the laptop on which it is being recorded before the data is logged? Or am I in effect bypassing the sound card by using the USB-6212? Note here that I am only interested in recording the sounds, not in playback.
The reason I ask is because I am trying to improve our signal quality (i.e. improving the signal-to-noise ratio) to enable us to record lower-amplitude sounds. I have read that low-quality sound cards in most laptops can raise the noise floor. Thus I want to know if upgrading the sound card will produce any improve in SNR with the set-up I describe above.