Sound card for a small studio.

It's not bad by all means. However, starting off for a small studio i suggest an external audio interface like the Alesis I|O2 , i have one and it's good quality, simple, easy for midi equipment.
If he wants to connect so many things up then a mixer is advised as well.

You can see here on the right of the picture i have an 8 channel mixer feeding into the I|O2 which is hooked up via USB

IMG_5730.jpg
 
That card would be the wrong choice. There are no mic preamps on that card so mics could not be used with it directly. You would also have a hard time getting enough gain on a guitar for the same reason. You get 2 line level analog inputs and a PCM digital input. That's how they come up with the advertised 4 inputs. What is the budget? Does he need a card or can he use a FireWire interface? I've had good luck with the MOTU 8pre which is FireWire.
 
Phew, it a good thing that I came to this forum.

His budget is $200 CAD ($193.93 US). Currently, his onboard sound card cuts when creating beats using FLStudio.
He currently has a mixer but it's not AC powered.

Also, Audiochris, what's the difference between a sound card and a FirmWare interface? Does the latter provide a better sound quality?

Thanks for helping an audio newbie.
 
Quake said:
Also, Audiochris, what's the difference between a sound card and a FirmWare interface? Does the latter provide a better sound quality?
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The difference is that one lives inside your computer connected to a pci slot and one connects externally to your firewire port. A firewire interface doesn't necessarily provide better sound quality but it's possible as it gets all the audio hardware outside of the electrically noisy environment of your computer.

$200 is pretty low and I don't know that I have anything I can recommend in that price range. The M Audio mobile pre usb might work for you. It's older but I believe is close to your budget. It's only 2 channels in but on each of those channels you get both a mic preamp and a 1/4" guitar input.
 
Now Quake, what exactly is your friend trying to do with this "mini studio?"
 
A13X said:
Now Quake, what exactly is your friend trying to do with this "mini studio?"
Click to expand...

Right now, he became proficient creating beats using FL Studio. It worked as he got more contacts. He now wants to get a better sound equipment. Nothing fancy as it's not going to be a band using various instruments, except for occasional times where he'll use a microphone (and perhaps an instrument in the future) but he at least he wants a better sound card.

I was thinking more in line of a good normal sound card using using a USB input mixer, like rossi recommend with Alesis I|O2.
 
The Alesis I|O2 is pretty much just plug and play, has MIDI, 2 Channels, mic input and the A/D conversion is 24bit/96KHz so quality is good. Ok there are some out there that are 24bit/96KHz+ but the price starts to get a bit silly for a small studio budget.
I've used one for 2 years now and love it.

http://www.amazon.com/Alesis-IO2-Au...cal-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1279092164&sr=1-1

also found this, don't know what it's like but looks good.

http://www.amazon.com/Edirol-UA-25E...cal-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1279092164&sr=1-3
 
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The Edirol unit is solid. I've never recorded with it but I use it for acoustic measurements with Smaart Live. Should be fine for the OP's purposes.
 
Rossi~ said:
The Alesis I|O2 is pretty much just plug and play, has MIDI, 2 Channels, mic input and the A/D conversion is 24bit/96KHz so quality is good.
Click to expand...

Do you use that as your exclusive sound card or do you have a PCI sound card also and use the Alesis as an an "input"?
 
Quake said:
Do you use that as your exclusive sound card or do you have a PCI sound card also and use the Alesis as an an "input"?
Click to expand...

I use that as the "soundcard" (A/D conversion). For all my inputs analogue inputs.

Here's a map

Guitar amp --> Mic --> Mixer --> I|O2 --> Computer (via usb)

I have the Micro KORG, KORG electribe, keyboard and effeects plugged into the mixer also. I use the MIDI ports on the I|O2 to connect up my BCR2000 midi controller.
 
If all he's doing is creating "beats", just about anything with ASIO will work until its time to move to external drum machines, synths, etc.

An emu 1212m will work for now and give a little bit of growing room via the adat input/outputs...
 
Thanks doctah, the EMU 1212m sound card does sound interesting. This thing is, it doesn't have Windows 7 drivers, have you had first hand experience with the sound card?

V2.1 only supports Windows Vista 32-bit and Windows Vista 64-bit as well as Windows XP 32-bit and Windows XP 64-bit versions.
Click to expand...
 
Ronco said:
http://www.alesis.com/multimix8usb20#

As low as $150 in places. Almost certainly a better entry-level band recording solution than any of the above. If you have more of a budget, get the 16-channel.
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What crazy people can sell it that cheap?? Don't get it confused with the other version of the Multimix 8.
The Multimix 8 USB2 is damn good but £250, that's like $380USD!
The pre-USB2 version is cheap (£100) but is crap, noisey and 16bit/44KHz, some driver issues as well. I know, i own one.
 
Quake said:
Thanks doctah, the EMU 1212m sound card does sound interesting. This thing is, it doesn't have Windows 7 drivers, have you had first hand experience with the sound card?
Click to expand...

I have the 0404 and 1212m. No issues in Windows 7 x64 or Windows XP 32 bit.
 
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