Sound cards

[Lunch Money]

Not to continually harp at you, Uncle E...

But while a UAD-1 is an unbelievable solution for the price, and compared to other units of the same calibre it's a steal-- it's still $900 US. I mean... come on! You can't keep recommending stuff and justifying it because of it's usefulness alongside thousand-dollar equipment. I was willing to admit that I didn't look into the 1212 enough to realize it was affordable, but this one I KNOW is expensive.

You have to stop to consider the user's needs and budget. If the user, for example, just wants to have some fun and craft some songs for his wife/girlfriend, and experience the joys of creating music, they surely don't need to be continually thinking about "pro" performance.

I had a lot of fun with a Tascam 244 Portastudio... 4 tracks and NO outboard effects except guitar pedals.

If I turn around and realize that I've spent $4,000 in gear just to make a handful of tunes for me and my friends to enjoy, then I've done something wrong. As it is, my friends usually can't believe I concocted my songs at home in a computer room. And with what? A 2496 and a Behringer UB802.

You don't need all that gear to make music.

Greg

[C00kie]

Hear hear!

I started by adding a second SoundBlaster (very cheap OEM version) to my system. THE cheapest way to have 4-in / 4-out. And had a LOT of fun with it, although it's not the optimum ofcourse.

Whatever works ...

[freemansss]

try rme hammerfall dsp9632 and live happy during next 5-6 years with your soundcard (or alternatively look for creamware studio project)

[Sascha Franck]

While I'm totally perplexed as to how this is relevant (you'll need converters when using a Mackie 1202, too, right?)

Maybe I've been a bit unclear.
In case I'd get a channel strip (instead of a mixer that is, for the money I'd have to spend, for the certain uncomfortable things I'd have to deal with (routing, repatching things) I would at least expect pristine quality. That includes bypassing any converters of relatively cheap soundcards.

Seriously, in case I'd recommend a combination for a small home setup, it would ALLWAYS be a small mixer along with a reasonable soundcard.
Another variation would be a soundcard with breakout box and integrated mic pre's - but personally (for the allready mentioned reasons) I can only say I couldn't live without a small mixer - and I've been working on all the mentioned setups (and still am) a lot.

In case I had these things covered I would eventually think about a dedicated channel strip.

this does remind me to mention the new Alesis USB mixers. For $150, they've got an 8-channel mixer with effects & a usb interface so that no soundcard is needed between it & the computer.

Hmmhmm... I am the very first to believe that you can get truly great results out of cheap equipment, but this seems to be a bit too cheap to me. 8 A/D converters, a mixer and FX for 150?
I'm sure there must be something where Alesis is saving money. In case the converters/pre's are reasonable it'd be a kickass solution though (at least from what it reads like).
In any case, I'd wait for reallife user reports before buying anything such as that (as with anything driver related).

btw, channel strips are great but I personally don't think they're very necessary these days with the quality of plug-ins we have available. I prefer to focus my money on getting the best preamp/DI possible & then use UAD-1 plug-ins for compression & EQ.

2 things:

1) I think channel strips are of great use, especially those featuring a proper compressor (and maybe a de-esser as well), especially when recording highly dynamic signals such as vocals or acoustic instruments.
Even when using 24bit there's still chances you can't get as much level into your recording as you''d like to.
Recently I've been working a lot with an SPL and a dbx channel strip, and while I wouldn't need all the features (and therefor would buy something simpler in case I needed it at home), the quality of the recorded signals is stunningly great, bypassing all consoles and soundcard converters (especially the dbx seems to have a great converter).

2) As Greg allready mentioned, we need to put things in perspective.
The original poster asked for some relatively simple soundcard/setup - so anything such as a UAD card is way out of reach.
So, my recommendation would still be some card with proper drivers, along with a small mixer - not necessarily a Mackie, but as said, their pre's just sound pretty good. But a Behringer might do a reasonable job as well, especially one of those with their latest series of pre's.

[Uncle E]

You have to stop to consider the user's needs and budget.

I did, my UAD-1 comment was in direct response to Sascha's high dollar channel strip comment. You do make a great point that not everyone needs pro-level gear but, at the same time, what's wrong with getting pro-level gear for a consumer-level price? A Tascam Portastudio certainly costs more than an E-mu 0404 so wouldn't you recommend the better sounding 0404 to a new user? Also, Voxengo's plug-ins sound phenomenally good for very little money.

btw, we sell the UAD-1 Project Pak for $359 to forum members. Just making a point, I'm not trying to sell you on it or anything.

Portastudios make great writing tools &, with hard work, a good engineer can make just about any gear sound cool. The difference is that really great gear can make your recordings sound great without making you work for it, thereby leaving you with time to work on other projects & concentrate on being creative.

[Lunch Money]

I hate Portastudios. I'd recommend a DAW over a Portastudio any day.

Good price on the Project Pack.

Cheers!
Greg

[axedog]

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Hi Guys,
thanks for all the advice. The E-MU 0404 and the Audiophile 24/96 are the same price here in the UK - they're both £69.00 (GBP) at http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk (http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk)
On paper, the E-MU sounds like the better card. One of the strong points for the Audiophile is its stable drivers. Are the E-MU's drivers as good?
Cheers,
Axe.

[ericj23]

ive got one fo the biggger emus and ahve changed to from an audiophile - so I feel in a good place to comment

the audiophile drivers were defintely better - gigasampler drivers (if that matters) 1 ms latency no crackles - except when using my powercore

the emu ones are stable at about 5-7 ms - which is OK - no giga drivers but no crackles with my powercore

but the emu ones occasionally crash and they are far more complex - the patchbay thing is very flexible tho and comes recommended

in truth emu will be providing a major drivers overhaul in the next month - vst fx, better wdm etc. id ask again then - cos the m-audio drivers have been much the same for years !