Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Champion + Rode NT-2A (howto?)

P

ProJee

New member
Hi,

I'd like to purchase Rode NT-2A condenser mic and connect it to my PC... somehow. (never used condenser mic with external phantom power before)

I have Creative X-Fi platinum Fatal1ty Champion series soundcard, equipped with the front panel, which has a mic input with pre-amp.

What would you recommend?

I could:

a) buy a phantom power and connect the mic output into the soundcard's preamp.. but I'm not sure if the preamp has enough gain/quality.. I can hear noise when the knob is at >80% of its max. position - I think it's even if there's no mic plugged in.

(the X-Fi should have 109dB signal-to-noise in the tech. specs, maybe it's not valid for all inputs?)

b) spend some more money (up to $250) for some kind of external USB soundcard with phantom power and HQ pre-amp... but these (AFAIK) have higher latencies and maybe lower sound quality than my current soundcard - dynamic range of the mic is 140dB. M-Audio MobilePre USB which i've checed out recently has dynamic range 88dB, so the Mic would be an overkill (?)

c) any other solution.

I would simply like to get most of that mic without losing the quality somewhere in the input chain... and avoid spending money for something, that has lower quality than my current soundcard..



thanks
 
Option B FTW.

I don't know where you heard about the latencey issue but it's BS. Any interface with it's own ASIO driver should perform at least as good as the x-Fi.
 
the very best thing you could do, would be to rip that crappy soundcard out, and invest in a real soundcard designed for recording.
 
WELL, YOU KNOW.....
i had to find this out the hard way, when i purchased a dell computer a few years back, intending to use it as a recording unit.


i'm just trying to help shorten the learning curve here.
 
Generally, "consumer" sound-cards, even very good ones, are not specifically designed for anything other than casual sound capture.

Before connecting a phantom power supply to to rode, you would need to know: A) how the X-Fi would handle a balanced input signal, B) that the X-Fi definitely has DC blocking capacitors rated to handle +48VDC, and C) that the X-Fi would provide enough gain.

I think that you will get better results with a USB interface, with built-in microphone preamps and phantom power, and good driver support. Have a look at (for example) the M-Audio Fast Track Pro.

Other than that, if you give some details about your project needs, I'm sure others will provide more substantial information.

Paul
 
thanks for your opinions!

Other than that, if you give some details about your project needs, I'm sure others will provide more substantial information.
Click to expand...
It's mainly intended for recording spoken word into amateur movies + some trance vocals. I don't need multitrack recording, maybe later - 2 mics simultaneously, but that's the maximum.

I think I'll check out some of the USB soundcards (maybe the Fast Track Pro proposed by PRHunt), but any other recommendations are welcome.
 
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