Help with selection of a good PCIe audio card

R

RonE

New member
I'm hoping someone has some suggestions about which sound cards are recommended. I have a fairly new HP Pro3500 64-bit multi-core PC running Win7 Pro 64-bit, with 8Gb of ram and a separate 7200RPM HDD for audio capture. I'm not new to this PC recording thing; but my last computer was running WinXP and had standard PCI slots, and I was using an M-Audio 2496 which worked very well.

So...

My first attempts used the on-board RealTek audio chipset, which was fine for frequency response; but had a noise floor that was only down about 40 dB. Not acceptable.

First I tried an ASUS Xonar DX, which might have worked (but probably not) if it hadn't been for a requirement of a specific power supply connector which my PC did not have, so I replaced it with an ASUS Xonar DSX, which has slightly lower SNR than the DX. BUT (and this pisses me off!), there's a delay of about 100mS in the audio line in, which renders the interface useless for any meaningful recording purposes. A quick search of the Asus support forum revealed several other inquiries into this issue, and the response from ASUS was that there wasn't anything they could do. The Xonar (and presumably other ASUS sound cards) all did the same thing and they had no plans to address it!

There are a lot of other choices; but can anyone here recommend a PCI Express (PCIe) audio card they KNOW doesn't have this little 'flaw'? I've used Creative Labs stuff in the past; but I don't know about any of their newer stuff.

TIA!
 
What is it you are trying to accomplish? If you are looking to record at high quality, you need to forget about an audio card, and get an audio interface.
 
Buy hardware that's actually designed for recording. With the exception of M-Audio, the manufacturers you've listed are pretty much gamer hardware. If they work for recording, it's mostly luck.

These days, cards are mostly used for extremely high-end stuff where you're going to need dozens of simultaneous inputs. For everything else (and, to some degree, even for the high-end stuff), the trend is towards more mobile-usable interfaces running over USB, FireWire, or (occasionally) Thunderbolt.

Parallel PCI is dead, and PCIe (at least as far as cards are concerned) is well on its way.

My advice would be to use the PCIe slot for either a dedicated USB card or a TI-based or Lucent/Agere-based FireWire card (but absolutely *not* a USB/FireWire combo card—those chipsets are almost universally crap), and then buy an interface that connects to it. Using a dedicated USB or FireWire card should significantly reduce the problem often faced by external interfaces—the inability to avoid sharing an IRQ with something ghastly. :)
 
Thanks for the inputs. I have a USB audio interface; but there's a LOT of noise on the PC side (you cannot hear it when listening on the interface's headphone output). Guess I'll try a dedicated USB card in the PCIe slot next.
 
Don't ask me why, but for some reason, I've always had an issue with USB interfaces and noise. It's like being buss powered causes a noise issue (which may just be a problem with myself, but I've had a couple friends with the same issue, so who knows).

PCIe isn't going to help, I don't think... Personally, I suggest just getting a firewire interface. You can buy a firewire PCI card for like, $20 on Newegg if your PC doesn't have a firewire port. Someone on here that's had more luck with USB interfaces may be able to suggest a USB alternative if I'm just completely nuts on the USB/noise issue. I've heard a LOT of good things about the TASCAM US-1800 on here.
 
Hi Ron,
I have two computers with 2496's. One XP home which has two cards in it and a W7/64 with one. I wanted an M-Audio PCIe equivalent but they ain't doing any!

In fact you are pretty much stuffed for a "pro" ee soundcard. ESI have a couple then there is EMu 0404 (but don't go there) Top bllx is RME. Only two ananlogue ins and outs but ADAT expansion. Lot of bread tho'.

But what was that usb AI you tried? I have used several over the years. M-A fastrack pro, Tascam US 122 and 144, Behringer* BCA2000 and top of the lot a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 which at 101dBFS is actually 4dB quieter than my 2496. None of the above have ever been a bother. NB. Win 7 treats some usb audio sources as microphones! Dig into the sound setting and chop the gain.

*Even the UCA 202 is MORE than good enough for analogue dubbing!

Yes, use the slot for a usb card but if you don't already have it, maybe go for usb 3.0?

Dave.
 
Thanks Dave. You know, I hadn't paid enough attention when looking at the Win 7 description of the USB AI. It did call it a 'microphone', and pulling the level down (to 5/100) took away most of the noise. I was able to adjust the mixer gain to compensate, and it works pretty well. It's a Behringer (UCA 222), and is going to be replaced, probably by a Tascam. The USB card is indeed 3.0, and uses 'external' power (from an available SATA tap) to ensure adequate 5V support for the USB ports.

I should be good to go early next week. Thanks for pointing out the 'microphone' thing. ;)
 
RonE said:
Thanks Dave. You know, I hadn't paid enough attention when looking at the Win 7 description of the USB AI. It did call it a 'microphone', and pulling the level down (to 5/100) took away most of the noise. I was able to adjust the mixer gain to compensate, and it works pretty well. It's a Behringer (UCA 222), and is going to be replaced, probably by a Tascam. The USB card is indeed 3.0, and uses 'external' power (from an available SATA tap) to ensure adequate 5V support for the USB ports.

I should be good to go early next week. Thanks for pointing out the 'microphone' thing. ;)
Click to expand...

Very welcome Ron,
What, btw is that usb 3.0 card please? I have one coming from Amazon, don't really need one but it was only £8 so I though I would give it a try.

Any reason for fixing on a Tascam AI? Nowt wrong with them of course but if it has enough I/O for you I urge you to investigate the NI KA6.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Very welcome Ron,
What, btw is that usb 3.0 card please? I have one coming from Amazon, don't really need one but it was only £8 so I though I would give it a try.

Any reason for fixing on a Tascam AI? Nowt wrong with them of course but if it has enough I/O for you I urge you to investigate the NI KA6.

Dave.
Click to expand...

The USB card is the StarTech.com 4-port USB 3.0 PCIe card (also on Amazon). Forum won't allow url's until I've made 10 posts, so...

I looked at price/perf on many of the higher-grade USB AI's (including the KA6), and the Tascam ended up at the top of the pile. I've had good luck with other Tascam gear in the past, and this one (US 200) has all the I/O I need. I have all my signal sources running through a decent mixer, so all I really needed were two line-level inputs and a stereo out.
 
Problem(s) solved!

Got the StarTech USB 3.0 host and the Tascam US 200 installed and working. All of the issues I was having are solved, and the setup sounds really good. Even the wife noticed the improvement. The ASUS PCIe card is going back (which pretty much pays for the hardware that replaced it).

Now to get back to composing and recording my new 'suite'. :cool:
 
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