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entry-level audio interface/card for DAW?

D

DeerSteak

Gawd
Joined
Aug 7, 2008
Messages
707
Partly because I got fed-up with Logic, and partly because I had fond memories of Cakewalk Home Studio, and partly because I hate being cool, I actually just jumped from Mac to Windows. I bought Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio XL 7, exported a bunch of older projects to MIDI/WAV from Logic, and started importing to Sonar.

Right now, my PC just has onboard audio (Realtek ALC 888) and I'm getting by with ASIO4All. I'd like to get a "real" audio interface with relatively low latencies. I can use Firewire 400 (1394a), USB (which I don't think will get me the latencies I want), or PCI/PCI-e - so I can handle pretty much any recommendation.

I'd like to keep it around $100-125. Unfortunately, everything in that range comes from Creative and ASUS - neither one is exactly known for spectacular low-latency, high-quality recording devices. Unlike alot of folks, though, I have fond memories of Creative with my Sound Blaster Live 5.1, but I hear their drivers have gone into el crapper the last few years. Regardless, low-latency with ASIO drivers (preferably something current so that it'll get Windows 7 drivers) are an absolute requirement. Right now I'm stuck between a Xonar DX and an X-Fi Titanium of some sort, but I'm hoping for an alternative.
 
The M-Audio Audiophile 2496 looks like it would do you nicely. Can be found for $100. Google around.
 
What are you trying to receive in - just MIDI? 1/4 inch? Line Level?

If you can boost your budget a tad some nicer stuff can be had (obviously).

One suggestion is to go to Musicians friend or AMS and check out their interfaces and sort by price.

I'm sure you can get a Berry USB / Firewire mixer that accepts MIDI in / out for your price range. I hear they aren't bad.
 
I've got MIDI under control - I've got a Yamaha UX-16 USB MIDI interface for my Yamaha keyboard and I also have an M-Audio Oxygen 8 (2-octave portable keyboard controller), so I'm OK there.

The biggest priority is recording acoustic guitar - I neglected to mention it in the OP, but I need some sort of recommendation for a mic pickup, and whatever pickup I...er...pick up will probably influence what I need for recording. I'd LIKE a no-latency monitor interface, but I'd also like a million dollars. I'm realistic that within my budget (which I can stretch a bit, I suppose) I won't get something that nice.

Output isn't too shabby using ASIO4All - Sonar reports that when I set the ASIO control panel to 256 samples, that overall latency is right around 10ms (420-ish samples). That I can live with as long as monitoring the guitar isn't significantly longer.

edit: zzounds has a Behringer Firewire interface that looks like it MIGHT do what I want, but I don't know anything about Behringer. The reviews seem promising though.

edit2: that thing only has line-level input, no mic inputs, so nevermind.
 
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I have a m-audio fast track USB that's set to 128 samples with 0 buffer underruns until I start loading up multiple copies of heavy hitter VSTs(think anything made by Arturia, some of the stuff from Waves.)

I generally use it as an interface for live shows to run Native Instruments Vokator for real time mic usage and it works great.

You can also set it based on whether you want to hear playback or a direct monitor of your input which will have zero latency, or you can mix playback with the monitor so you can hear what you're playing over but just hear your input with no latency.

The one I have is the lower end model, and it retails for around $100 IIRC, probably cheaper now. http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrackUSB.html

Alternately you could consider getting a nice PCI card and a small mic pre-amp and/or mixer then run it into your soundcard. This would probably be the ideal scenario for a home studio unless you need something portable. Currently I use an M-Audio Delta 410 and I love that card. I got mine for retarded cheap when it was EOL, maybe you can pick one up still.
 
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holy cats, Musician's Friend has the FastTrack USB for $70. Electronics Showplace (where my Oxygen 8 came from) has the 2496 for $87.

Anyone use either of these with 64-bit Vista? I want to be able to use all 4GB of my system RAM and be sure I can stick with 64-bit going to Win7.

Also, any recommendations on a mic pickup for acoustic guitar? I have an Ibanez entry-level something-or-other (edit: I think this is it) that doesn't have a pickup that I got as a gift. I've been taking lessons for about 3 months, and I'm getting to where I'd like to start using it to record but I don't want to put $300+ into an instrument with built-in mic pickups yet - I want to be sure this is something I stick with first. So I'd rather make a smaller investment into a separate pickup.

AAAAND while we're at it, how about a desktop speaker set recommendation? I do some gaming, so I'd like them to be general-purpose speakers if at all possible, but I don't have the space/desire for surround. 2-channel stereo is sufficient, or a 2.1 set. Was thinking of Logitech Z-2300 speakers, but I can be talked out of them. I already have a nice set of headphones, some Sennheiser EH-250s that I really like, so I'll keep those.
 
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Yep, the Fast Track USB works just fine under Vista64 and Win7x64 for me using the Visat drivers. Only thing I've run into is that MIDI settings in general under Vista are kind of a PITA but since that's not driver related that's neither here nor there.

If someone can say for sure that the Audiophile 2496 works well under Vista64 then if I were you I'd go that route but keep in mind you would need a pre-amp for your mic.
 
That looks like it would work, but on second though you may be better served for what you're doing with the Fast Track USB considering it will let you monitor the line input directly and mix it with the playback so that would in effect get you zero latency monitoring for your recording purposes and it also has a pretty decent headphone amp in it as well.
 
Yes the 2496 works in Vista 64 and more importantly, 7 64.
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Thanks criccio, that's handy. :)

I'm with you, nathan, I think the FastTrack USB is going to be probably my best bet. no-latency monitoring will be nice, too. I'm not new at all to MIDI stuff, but I'm kind of new to real audio recording.

Did you see my question about speakers? I tried to ninja-edit an earlier post but it appears you'd read it pre-edit and was replying while I was editing.

What I think I'm going to do is go with the FastTrack USB for recording and some sort of "general purpose" PCI discrete card for some better quality audio playback, using either ASIO4all or native ASIO drivers. I've seen a couple of X-Fi cards in the FS/T forum and I might just grab one since their price is certainly right and they do have ASIO support for Vista 64. The only piece I'm clueless on is speakers.
 
There are other people in this forum who could point you at speakers better than I could, I do know that my M-Audio AV30s do the trick for my hobby setup. The options go as far as the money you're willing to spend.
 
Oh yes, I'm willing to spend money but I need to have it first. LOL

Thanks for letting me pick your brain so far. I'll keep a watch here to see if others have speaker recommendations.
 
FWIW I picked up my Fast Track USB in some sort of "Studio in a Box" offered by M-Audio that contained the USB interface, a pair of AV30's, a halfway decent mic with desktop tripod, and all the cabling for around $100 on sale at my local Guitar Center about 6 months back. Not sure if it would still be available, but definitely worth looking into.
 
I don't have a budget for monitors just yet; I'll have to see how tight my wife's fingers are around my wallet once I get the audio interface and PCI card ordered...but I am going to have to check out that package and see if my local GC has something similar. That'd be too damn good to pass up.

Dumb question: will I need some sort of amp for a set of monitors, rather than some general-purpose PC speakers?
 
Monitors generally come in powered vs passive versions. Powered monitors have integrated amplifiers, passive monitors require an external amp.
 
Yup, hence why I said "active" monitors. Meaning they are self powered. Perfect for a small DAW setup. Technically what they are designed for.
 
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