Subject:Audio Cards that work well

Posted by: Paulie

Date:6/3/2003 4:33:12 PM

Hi,

Time to ditch my Audigy EX and get a new sound card. I am a big fan of ACID. Can anyone recommend a card that works really well with ACID. I need at least:

High Quality Audio pre amp
direct monitoring
Phantom power for my condenser mic
Midi input

I got an M-Audio DUO but didnt realise that it dosent support direct monitoring.

Thanks
Paul

Subject:nice looking mic preamp

Reply by: gunhed

Date:6/3/2003 6:46:04 PM

This isn't a sound card, but I've been looking at a nice mic preamp - the Edirol UA-700. It samples 24-bit, 96k through the USB port, has two mic inputs, phantom power, all sorts of nice effects, including compression and de-essers, and sports COSM features. Check it out:

http://www.edirol.com/products/info/ua700.html


By the way, I'm also looking for a good sound card recommendation. My Santa Cruz card was working great until the 4.0c update...

Subject:RE: nice looking mic preamp

Reply by: MacMoney

Date:6/3/2003 8:26:06 PM

Any of the Echo cards.
MOTUs are cool if you get the 2408MkIII

George Ware

Subject:RE: nice looking mic preamp

Reply by: RasKeita

Date:6/3/2003 10:02:45 PM

M Audio Delta 66 Omni Studio

Subject:RE: Audio Cards that work well

Reply by: fhodshon

Date:6/4/2003 9:05:45 AM

i use an M-Audio 2496 with great results.

my next choice will be an Echo MIA-MIDI, better specs, better connectors, at around the same price as the 2496!

f

Subject:RE: Audio Cards that work well

Reply by: spongebob

Date:6/4/2003 10:00:35 AM

The echo card sounds good, but where would you go for support? I did a search and found alot of retailers, but no company site.

Subject:RE: Audio Cards that work well

Reply by: Spy

Date:6/4/2003 10:08:53 AM

"The echo card sounds good, but where would you go for support? I did a search and found alot of retailers, but no company site." www.echoaudio.com

P.S. I use a MOTU 2408 mk3 core system (bit pricey) with no problems.




One Love, Spy!

Subject:What other brands are good?

Reply by: gunhed

Date:6/4/2003 1:28:32 PM

I saw some good recommendations for pro sound cards from M-Audio and Echo, but are there any other brand names worth checking out?

Out of curiosity - what are the main advantages, hardware-wise, of a "professional" card over a "gamer" card?

Subject:RE: Audio Cards that work well

Reply by: glyptic

Date:6/4/2003 2:07:13 PM

Check out Aardvark. Best bang for the buck, and top quality too. I use the Q10, and it's excelent. Anly flaw is when you open up DX effects it stutters for a second. But sound quality is top notch. Very flexible too.

Subject:RE: What other brands are good?

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:6/4/2003 2:12:58 PM

There's RME, MOTU, Terratec and Digidesign.

The main advantage? I'd say driver performance is much better overall. Their installation routines also don't install bloatware you'll never use and slow down your system. They are as straightforward and barebones as one would want; all the power but none of the fluff.

The Audiophile 2496 from M-Audio, for example, only installs two things for the Audiophile to function: the drivers and the software mixer. (It comes with optional software you can install separately.)

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: Audio Cards that work well

Reply by: fhodshon

Date:6/4/2003 4:09:46 PM

here's the Echo site:

http://www.echoaudio.com/

fred

Subject:RE: What other brands are good?

Reply by: fhodshon

Date:6/4/2003 4:22:08 PM

pro cards generally have better specs, shielding, I/O, preamps, and jack hardware than gamer cards.

often pro cards will have nicely designed break-out boxes that isolate the preamps from the PC, thus lowering noise levels.

check out www.harmony-central.com, lots of great up to date info there on all things music.

more specifically:
http://www.harmony-central.com/Computer/

and

http://www.harmony-central.com/Computer/computerman.html#sou

fred

Subject:RE: Audio Cards that work well

Reply by: kilroy

Date:6/4/2003 5:00:55 PM

The Lynx cards work well, have very good drivers, and they sound stunning. The price is right up there though, and there are no preamps on board.

Creamware's Scope systems work well, are extremely versatile and hugely powerful when used to the fullest. Again, pretty pricey, and you *must* have a very well specified and tweaked core system...lots and lots of (very fast) RAM, a nice wide front side bus bandwidth, and zero cut corners anywhere with system components or it will quickly find those areas and ruthlessly exploit them...always at the worst possible moment.