I'm so confused. Please help me decide!!!

[TU BE]

OK, here's the deal. I was originally looking into something such as a Tascam US122 (224 etc) or M-Audio Duo, Quatro or whatever. Basically looking for a USB inerface card. I've been hearing of people having some problems with them. Popping and crackling noise and whatnot.

Would I be better off going with an internal audio card such as a M audio 24/96 and a nice little 4 or 6 channel mixer for preamp???

Also my computer has a Celeron processor and most of these internal cards are reccomending Pentiums. The Celeron HAS been upgraded to something like 300Mhz yadda, yadda, yadda. I just bought this PC from a friend at work and he does alot of video editing, so shouldn't the Celeron be able to handle any audio duties as well?


Thanks for any help.

Jason


BTW- I'm not looking to record more than two tracks at once. I'm just a bedroom guitarist.

[christiaan]

If you're just going to use it with a PC, go the internal route. Cheaper and more reliable.
As for the Celeron 300... It also depends a bit on the rest of the computer specifications... You'll be able to do some basic recording with that but that's about it. A handful of tracks, definately no plug-ins. It's a dinosaur. Celerons perform not that far behind genuine PII's but it's just old and slow and it doesn't even meet the Audiophile's system requirements (>PII-400).
I do think you can use the audiophile, but probably only @ 16 bits, not 24.

Personally I'd say you should get a better PC first before you spend money on a (semi-)professional soundcard. You'll not be able to use it to its full potential, like a Ferrari engine in a Volkswagen Beetle. The PC doesn't have to be the latest and the greatest but preferably from this century.

[TU BE]

Well, I'm not sure on the 300Mhz deal. I just bought the computer from the guy and quite frankly can't remember the specs he told me. That was pretty much just a wild guess.

It's HIGHLY upgraded as far as the processor and RAM. I showed him the system requirements of the Tascam US-122 (when I was highly considering it) and he assured me that I'd be pleased. He also told me that for his video editing he tried out a Pentium 4 and his upgraded Celeron was just as fast if not a little faster.

[christiaan]

Oh, if it's a P4-like Celeron, it should be fine. I'll ignore what you said about 300MHz, that's obviously not correct then.

[TU BE]

Originally posted by christiaan
Oh, if it's a P4-like Celeron, it should be fine. I'll ignore what you said about 300MHz, that's obviously not correct then.

I just found out it's more like 700Mhz and about 380Mb of ram. Shouldn't be any problem with the 2496 with those specs, right?

[nopoetic]

im actually in the same situation you are in on decideing what to get to record with my computer, luckily my only problem is the sound card needing to be upgraded. personally, i need to record around 10 tracks at once, so im going with the M-Audio Delta 1010 Soundcard and a Mackie DFX-12 Mixer and then get the mics to record each channel with. for only 2 tracks, i'd suggest going with a M-Audio sound card, maybe not the 1010, but something with around 6 channels and a Mackie DFX-6 which costs about $190. use Sonar or a similar program to record it. i'd go with more channel capibility cause you may need it later on if you decide to add different instruments etc. its always helpful to be prepared and the extra cost isnt much.