Minimum hardware for 'professional' audio input/output?

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Elledan

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2010
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For my (smallish) game development company I'm looking for an affordable audio solution for a few systems which are used for the audio processing and such. What'd be the cheapest options to get 'professional' quality sound reproduction and recording options (5.1 would be preferred)? The quality of the drivers is a big factor too, on platforms like Windows, Linux and possibly OS X.

I know that I could just get an M-Audio solution (PCI(e), USB or Firewire) and be done with it, but I want to ensure that I'm not wasting my money on an overkill solution :)

Right now the systems we have running have mostly onboard audio chips like the ALC888 (HD audio) and one with a Creative card (X-Fi or so?), the latter causing lots of issues already with the mainboard it's installed on or so (squeeling noise which can only be solved with a reboot).

So anyway, what are my options here? :)
 
Elledan said:
For my (smallish) game development company I'm looking for an affordable audio solution for a few systems which are used for the audio processing and such. What'd be the cheapest options to get 'professional' quality sound reproduction and recording options (5.1 would be preferred)? The quality of the drivers is a big factor too, on platforms like Windows, Linux and possibly OS X.

I know that I could just get an M-Audio solution (PCI(e), USB or Firewire) and be done with it, but I want to ensure that I'm not wasting my money on an overkill solution :)

Right now the systems we have running have mostly onboard audio chips like the ALC888 (HD audio) and one with a Creative card (X-Fi or so?), the latter causing lots of issues already with the mainboard it's installed on or so (squeeling noise which can only be solved with a reboot).

So anyway, what are my options here? :)
Click to expand...

Is the X-Fi installed on an NVIDIA chipset by chance?
 
Elledan said:
Yes, it is. From reading forum posts it appears that this is a bad combination :)
Click to expand...

Yup, NVIDIA chipset don't fully comply to the PCI standards(timing issue AFAIK).
Their PCI-E bus seems to work better.

And to think Creative chaugt the flak for NVIDIA's bad engeneering.
 
Elledan said:
I know that I could just get an M-Audio solution (PCI(e), USB or Firewire) and be done with it, but I want to ensure that I'm not wasting my money on an overkill solution :)
Click to expand...
There's certainly nothing overkill about M-Audio gear. If you're serious about sound for your titles, you need to be serious about spending money on the right equipment.

What exactly are your requirements? You want recording (from what sources? Mics? Line-level devices?), playback and 5.1 capabilities. What software are you using? Is ASIO a requirement?

Atech said:
And to think Creative chaugt the flak for NVIDIA's bad engeneering.
Click to expand...
Supposedly.
 
phide said:
There's certainly nothing overkill about M-Audio gear. If you're serious about sound for your titles, you need to be serious about spending money on the right equipment.
Click to expand...
That's true enough :)

What exactly are your requirements? You want recording (from what sources? Mics? Line-level devices?), playback and 5.1 capabilities. What software are you using? Is ASIO a requirement?
Click to expand...

Only our composer guy would need serious recording capabilities (MIDI interface and multiple line-ins), the rest would be fine with stereo-mic input and 5.1 sound reproduction.

So, PCI(e) or USB/Firewire and which brand? I haven't heard great stories about Creative drivers and especially their support for older (1-2 generations) hardware. I can't use my SB128PCI and 512PCI cards in WinXP anymore, for example.
 
Paradoxically, I can't really begin recommending specific brands and hardware interfaces unless I have some sort of budget. You can get by with the absolute minimum, which I don't recommend, or you can reach an overkill point. The overkill point is hardly a "lot" of money, of course. So, basically, I don't want to recommend Brand X if Brand X doesn't make what you need and you end up undershooting. That sort of thing.

Generally speaking, I prefer RME's Firewire interfaces, but that's as far as I'd prefer to go until I get more details like what bit depths/sampling rates need to be supported, what platforms (Mac, PC?), whether Pro Tools is a requirement or not (makes things much more complicated) and so forth.
 
24-bit DACs would be welcome on at least the cards used for playback. Let's say that for the sound guy's system the budget is about 200 - 250 Euro. An external sound 'card' would give less noise than an internal card, right? Firewire seems to be the right interface to use over USB (latency and such). The sound guy's system already has a FW 800 interface. 24-bit sampling depth seems to be the way to go here :)

We work mostly on Windows, though OS X support would be a bonus. Pro Tools is not a requirement.

In concrete terms, how bad is an onboard chip (like the ALC888) in terms of sound reproduction? Any references? :)
 
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