Card for recording studio

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dodecapus

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
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I'm looking for a sound card, or some other card for a decent amateur recording studio.... Suggestions?
 
You sound hesitant to recommend. :) You're happy with the ESI stuff, but could be better?

Also, wildfire, any comments on personal experience with your suggestions?
 
dodecapus said:
Also, wildfire, any comments on personal experience with your suggestions?
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Well the real question is, what do you really need? Do you need a high-definition input? Do you need multiple (more than 4) channels? Do you need to be able to play games on it? Are we talking glorified PC sound card ($200) or prosumer ($500) or serious work ($1k+)?

I haven't ever bought from E-Mu but I almost did. I've heard lots of good things about them, their link to Creative is the only reason I don't own some of their stuff yet. Feature-wise and price wise they work out.

I have all sorts of M-Audio gear, all of which works fine, though none of it will blow your socks off. They're like Behringer only not crappy... it's cheap workhorse stuff.

I have older Mackie gear that I'm not a big fan of, though build quality is top notch. They've done a lot of expansion lately and I don't know how their newest kit works out.

The MOTU 828 series is great, though you're doing Firewire then (which may or may not be an issue), and their gear is kind of expensive if you're not doing audio for a living. Everyone I know loves them. The last time I played with one was the MkII. If I had to pick one device, It would probably be the 896HD, I just haven't needed that many input channels yet to have bought one. If you're doing that many sources, live, simultaneously, you're probably not going to worry about prices so much. Digital makes everything so much easier.

The one thing I really never did like is the hardware that comes with ProTools (both old and the new M-Audio sourced one), but that's simply because it's overpriced, and the PT argument itself is another flamebait discussion for later.

I have some Behringer gear also for throwaway applications and pretty much that's what it's good for, not because of sound quality but because of build quality. I think I've lost at least 50% of their stuff to failure. Between them and Nady my graveyard pile is growing, but you get what you pay for. Neither make sound cards but the Behr do have USB-based mixers which apparently are kind of spotty, and I admit to being tempted by them for convenience given the prices.

I'm getting kind of tired of the PCI thing. Though you tend to get more I/O for less, it's a serious PITA to be tethered to one box, especially if it doesn't come with a rackmount box and you're playing the 'crawl under the desk with a flashlight' thing just to swap out one cable. At least with firewire you can move the box around, unless it's a rackmount-unless-you're-nuts like the 896HD. For a dedicated studio, that might be a non-issue if you never have to travel.

I've basically used whatever gear is around or available. It's not so much your sound card as how you use it. :) Invest in good quality recording equipment and compare S/N ratios on the soundcard box later. Watch out for latency with USB devices. Do you have any special needs? It's basically a matter of finding your price point, your number of needed inputs/outputs, and finding a vendor that makes the interface you want in the color you like. Most of work is digital, and you can buy a nice DAC/ADC if you need one.

Your mics and recording techniques are probably going to be a bigger concern than the card itself, especially if the PC is in the same room as the artist.
 
Well, I am just a hobbyist. I sing, play guitars, keyboard, drums..., and have written and recorded 6 or so songs with a group of friends. Haven't sold anything, just like to write. I have used protools on a mac, but didn't like it much. And the last thing I tried was an opensource thing called Audacity on my PC. I still have much much much to learn about recording techniques and mics, so consider me a beginner hobbyist willing to spend $500 or so on something. I game, but i use onboard sound.
 
dodecapus said:
You sound hesitant to recommend. :) You're happy with the ESI stuff, but could be better?
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Sorry i confused you, but english isn't my native language.
no i'm happy with the esi stuff and quality is very good,
i think it's a good value for the money.
 
I'd suggest trying out various DAWs before you commit to any piece of hardware. All competent DAWs will support ASIO, as will any competent interface, but it might be helpful to pin down your preference before making a hardware commitment. There's a semi-helpful article at digitalprosound here.

Adobe offers a free trial of Audition, and Steinberg also has a demo version of their Cubase SX DAW, which would generally be my preference of the two (though Nuendo is a fair bit more powerful). You can use ASIO4ALL to be able to use your onboard codec with these apps for trial purposes. You might also be able to check out various other DAWs -- like Pro Tools -- at Guitar Centers or what have you. Check out Logic at Apple Stores if you're into that idea (they also host basic classes that cover Logic).

dodecapus said:
I have used protools on a mac, but didn't like it much.
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Just out of curiosity...what didn't you like about it?
 
Well, it was about 5 years ago that I used protools for a couple projects. I used it on a friend's mac, and it was very unstable. Of course that might have been his mac, or a corrupted install, I'm not sure. Was back before OS X was out :-p So that left a bad impression of it. I should look at it again, but the general interface seemed clumsy too, which has probably been corrected since then.

Thanks for all the help. I"ll look into these suggestions and ask more later :-p
 
ESI, Audiotrak, the M-Audio 2496 a friend of mine has to do all his home recording when he can't get to the studio. You can go up to things like RME or MOTU - but the prices will probably give you heart failure. Check out Zzounds, just to "window shop", they have DAWs, PCI, USB, Firewire, you name it!

Note that M-Audio does not have the world's best track record for support (according to my friend who has the 2496), and none of the first 3 companies are quick to release updated drivers. Don't know about any of the other companies.
 
As a hobbyist like yourself, I have been using the M-Audio Delta 1010 for about a little over three years now, with my only complaint being forced to wait forever to Vista drivers. I started off with an E-Mu card and it left a very bad taste in my mouth, crappy drivers and even crappier support. In speaking with musicians who are more serious about recording than I, the MOTU stuff is great on a Mac but spotty on a PC, I have no personal experience with MOTU products and it may just be their pro-Mac bias coming out.
 
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