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Are soundcards required anymore?

At what level of audio production is a soundcard needed anymore?

Modern motherboards have onboard audio and there are even some with SoundBlaster onboard and SPDIF. CPU and bus speeds are incredibly fast such that dedicated processors on a sound card aren't perhaps as necessary as they used to be. Audio devices can be connected via USB or Firewire directly to the motherboard.

Building from scratch with experience - Input required

Hello forum!

First let me say that I'm very excited that this forum exists. After trolling a little bit I can see that the moderators and many users here are exceptionally well-informed, and I can't wait to begin the dialogue with other musicians who are trying to record well to help each other get the exact sound we want.

disk space required for 3 minutes of uncompressed WAV files

Storage Space Required - 3658.4 MB (3.57 GB)
This is the approximate amount of disk space 3 minutes of 37 track uncompressed WAV audio requires at 192 k / 24 bits.

Data Rate - 1219.48 MB/minute (20812.46 KB/second)
This is the total data rate of 37 track uncompressed WAV audio at 192 k / 24 bits.

So what equipment do I need for this?