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What's a good bare bones soundcard?
| Message Board > Music Chitchat - Heavy > What's a good bare bones soundcard? |
| The Box Drone User Info... | Ok, I need to get myself a new soundcard. I recently picked up an M-Audio Audiophile USB, and although it had alot of really nice plugs, and made a very obvious improvement to the quality of my recorded sound, there were some seriously annoying things about it (no control over input volume and no live playback of inputed audio - both of which my shitty onboard soundcard can do), and so its now sitting in a box in my closet (if you know something I don't, I'd be more than happy to sell it for cheap) I've also had extensive experience with the Soundblaster live audigy or whatnot, and I have no complaints abou it. Problem is, the thing costs a good $200-300 and I get the impression that at least half of that is going towards features that would only really be cool if I was going to use it for games. I basically just need something that will be awesome for hiss & latency (although I've never had noticable latancy issues with my shit onboard card), preferably quarter inch & those stereo jacks I've never bothered to learn the propper name for, and midi would be a plus, but not nessescary. I don't give a shit about 5.1 or 7.1 or any of that fancy "hear the demons sneaking up on you in your sweet ass games!" shit... I don't give a shit about certified THX playback bullcrap, I just want good clean inputs, and nice crispy (2 channel) stereo playback. Any suggestions? Oh yeah, and if you can tell me where to pick one up or order one here in town, that would be wicked too. - Wed, 20 Apr 2005 4:41pm | ||
| Uzer User Info... | If you are needing a card for recording music, I wouldn't go with Soundblaster. If you want to play games, Soundblaster is the way to go. The most solid card I ever had was an old Echo Gina. I don't know how their new stuff is, but the one I had was rock solid, great drivers, great compatibilty and stable. You might look into the Echo Mia, it's probably about the same price as Soundblaster, but with better converters and true 24/96 support. I currently have an Aardvark, awesome converters and sound, but the drivers are a little sketchy with non asio programs and the company recently went bankrupt. Are you sure the Audiophile doesn't let you control input gain and doesn't allow direct monitoring?? That's hard to believe. - Wed, 20 Apr 2005 5:03pm | ||
| Gman User Info... | Well, my browser crashed while checking the support section of http://www.midiman.com, so I don't know the specifics on the AudioPhile, but I have used both the Delta 66 and 10/10 and BOTH support input levels *and* direct monitoring. So I dunno what you were doing there, but I'm going to assume the problems were due to user error. The MAudio cards have good DA/AD converters and are generally excellent quality. Some folks bitch about having glitches or timing problems, but some folks don't really understand that you shouldn't have things like a TV Tuner card in a computer you're multi-tracking on. - Wed, 20 Apr 2005 5:46pm | ||
| Gman User Info... | Well never mind. I checked the online manual and it makes NO reference to direct monitoring or input levels. At one point, it does note that there may be some problems monitoring if your audio application is not correctly configured, so perhaps it's true that the card actually does not have internal monitoring. Seems kinda stupid if you ask me! - Wed, 20 Apr 2005 6:03pm | ||
| Mi*coll* User Info... | I own a Delta 1010, and it has served me very well. Sounds pretty good to my (inexperienced) ears. As far as the features you are after: it has the ability to monitor live, and has a -10db/+4db switch for each of the 8 I/Os. I think there was a used one on here not long ago for $400-ish. However, the 1010 does not have preamps, so if you don't already own external mic preamps I would recommend going with something like the firepod that does. That one runs around $800 new at L&M I think. - Wed, 20 Apr 2005 6:42pm | ||
| lonemonk User Info... | As far as total bare-bones goes, I used to have excellent results from Ensoniq AudioPCI. It was a shitload quieter than a Soundblaster and unless I was doing a lot at once the latency was almost never an issue. Regrettably, Ensoniq was bought by Creative and this card became the SB128PCI. (And it immediately gained about 15-20db background noise, etc.) I used to be able to buy the Ensoniq cards for about $45.00 I bought a used SeaSound audio system @ L&M which has treated me well in recent years. It has 0 latency monitoring and a sexy rack mount control box with XLR and 1/4" inputs, 2 headphone jacks with independant levels or each, LED level ladder (switchable to monitor input or output). Sexy little unit, except that I've heard SeaSound is also out of business. I've heard the Delta1010 is very good, and I used to have the 20bit version of the Echo Gina (2Ins, 4 Outs) but the drivers were a little strange. The ultimate for me would be this thing http://www.edirol.com/products/info/r4.html attached to the computer via digital cable. Its also a 40GB USB drive and a portable 4Track 24/96 standalone recorder. I heard somewhere it was roughly $1200US, but for what it does I want one! - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 8:46am | ||
| ML7Mike User Info... | you can get Soundblaster Live Value card for like $40-$50 or Audigy Value for about $100. - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 9:08am | ||
| The Box Drone User Info... | Gman & Uzer: Yeah, it seems absolutely preposterous that the Audiophile won't let me control gain or do direct monitoring, but I can't figure it out for anything. I think it straight up says that you can't control the input volume, but when you instal the stupid thing, it compleately replaces your windows volume control panel with this dumb ass box of it's own which will only let you mute and unmute the inputs and outputs. As for the direct monitoring, I don't know what that's all about. I solved the problem by running everything through a PA and then sending it into the soundcard, so I could hear what i was doing, but still. Dumb ass. another thing is that the most recent windows drivers available are from like, 4 years ago. I think it's really meant for Mac use... tons of up to date mac drivers. Of course, there's always the distinct possibility of user error, but I think I've already tried everything within my power and it's time to give up and move on. - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 9:37am | ||
| The Box Drone User Info... | http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_ca/AudiophileUSB-main.html That's the card I have. Mine might be an older model, but it looks & sounds like the exact same one. - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 9:49am | ||
| Brumy User Info... | m-audio delta 1010LT ITs awsome!! it changes the song, if you have the firewire also, or are able to use pro tools with the delta1010LT then your set..i just abught it but i want pro tools but its amazing just with cakewalk or protracks. - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 10:47am | ||
| Brendan User Info... | The Edirol UA-25 is an awesome little USB card, with front panel monitoring knobs, and great sounding pres considering it's $285. Tascam also has one for around $200, although I can't remember the model 'cause I'm not at work. They're both worth looking into as a step up from the audiophile, and both have better coverters than a Soundblaster..... - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 10:55am | ||
| cooper User Info... | The Tascam interface Brendan is referring to is the US-122 and is the one I have. I love it and have had zero problems with it on my Mac. Unfortunately, others have had numerous issues with it, but they seem to be mostly PC users. - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 11:56am | ||
| The Box Drone User Info... | That little tascam sounds wicked as hell... I like the external USB idea too, becasue i plan on switching over to a laptop as soon as possible. I'll have to do a little research on it's windows problems though. - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 12:25pm | ||
| Ian johnson User Info... | e-mu's make pretty sick cards i have an e-mu 1820 its intence 18 ins if u include midi and all that other stuff and 20 outs its got 8 quarter inch inputs it a tank i would recomend it costs like 600 hundred bones though but they have smaller models if u dont care about recording like 8 tracks at once (drums this is very important) - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 2:15pm | ||
| [+} User Info... | i have the UA-25, but i never use it because of the latency. i'd configure it, but my computer is finnicky as-is. - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 5:26pm | ||
| Mi*coll* User Info... | How many in/outs do you want, anyway? - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 5:48pm | ||
| _Griphin_ User Info... | Sound Blaster Live Value (Black Card), worked for me for over 4 years, and I've done a ton of audio work with it. - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 6:21pm | ||
| Mi*coll* User Info... | check this board out: http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?f=14 - Thu, 21 Apr 2005 6:57pm | ||
| stringbender User Info... | I am sure you CAN monitor your input with that card. Using that on-screen mixer, you need to play with the routing panel. One panel is only for muting/unmuting, setting levels. I am not in front of my PC right now, so I don't have access to the panel,but does the USB version have the M-Audio Control Panel (in your system tray)? I don't mean the control panel that is located in your Windows control panel, but in the system tray. One tab of it is the monitor mixer, another tab is the patchbay/router etc. If you have this, it can be done very easily. All you have to do is go to the patchbay/router page, and where it has the column labelled "H/W OUt 1/2", or "Line OUts", select "Monitor Mixer". Now your monitoring page will control the levels balancing input volume and output volumes . - Fri, 22 Apr 2005 7:33am | ||
| The Box Drone User Info... | Well, it does have the systray icon, but theres only one tab that merely has enable/disable buttons for the various inputs. There are also no volume level controls whatsover, and the manual actually straight up says that the only way you can control the volume level is with the knob on the front, and that you can't control the input volume without a seperate pre-amp. It then goes on to tell you how wonderfull M-audio's preamps are, and how you should run out and buy one. None the less, if and when I reinstall the damn thing, I'll take another look. - Fri, 22 Apr 2005 9:59am | ||
| stringbender User Info... | One way you could operate is using input monitoring on your software (Cubase and Sonar do this), however, then you enter the latency territory, if you can't get your latency under 4-5ms you really can't use input monitoring, because everything will sound chorused, or worse, delayed. The Audiophile 2496 PCI card allows for direct input monitoring, and it is cheaper, but it isn't portable. It is a pretty good card, I have used one for 3 years now, and at 96KHz, 24 bit sampling, it has great sound. The Firewire version is a bit more money, is portable, and will allow for the direct input monitoring. I would avoid USB soundcards in the first place. - Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:08am | ||
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