4 track simultaneously card

[Roaf]

Hey there,
Are there any audio cards/hardware packages for $500 or less that allow simultaneous recording of four or more tracks? I need to buy a laptop for school and I want to also trick it out to record live (drums, bass, guitar, and vox). I am going to get a WinXP laptop.

TIA

Regards,
Roaf

 

[AlChuck]

Many offer 4 or more tracks. See the M Audio Delta cards (Delta 44, Delta 66), and offerings from Aardvark ... there are more...

 

[noisedude]

i've had very good experiences (as have many others) with the m-audio cards. i've not used an external one though, which is i assume what you're going to need.

head into the sound cards forum and see what people have used and like. my delta 44 is my best purchase yet and others i know who've got them on my reccomendation reckon they're mint.

 

[noisedude]

i've had very good experiences (as have many others) with the m-audio cards. i've not used an external one though, which is i assume what you're going to need.

head into the sound cards forum and see what people have used and like. my delta 44 is my best purchase yet and others i know who've got them on my reccomendation reckon they're mint.

 

[Roaf]

Many offer 4 or more tracks. See the M Audio Delta cards (Delta 44, Delta 66), and offerings from Aardvark ... there are more...

I was looking into Aardvark but it seems like people have a real love hate relationship with their stuff...

 

[freeztar]

I love my Aardvark Q10! I also love my M-Audio DiO.

An important thing to remember is that your laptop needs an interface that is either firewire, PCMCIA, or USB. There seem to be mixed opinions on USB (mostly bad, 'too slow'). PCMCIA is good, but there are limited manufacturers (Echo comes to mind). I'd go with firewire if you have a port on your laptop, or can get one installed somehow. That would narrow down the choices a little. Your next deciding factor might be preamps. How many do you need?

Do you plan on mixing after recording? If not, then you could run from a mixer into a good PCMCIA soundcard. That might give you the best quality in the long run (assuming you have a mixer with decent preamps).