Sound card question

V

velvetomatoe

New member
Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum and I just had a few questions. I'm looking into buying a new sound card to upgrade from the original Sound Blaster in the computer. I am running Adobe Audition 1.5 and the music I play varies from acoustic + vocals to Full band drum machine songs. However instead of using the d. machine I would like to break out into being able to record full kit stuff, thus I need more simultaneous input capabilities. What are some cheap yet effective solutions to my problem? Thanks in advance as any help is greatly appreciated. :confused:
 
Probably the cheapest that will be able to do a full kit is the M-Audio Delta 1010LT, but if you want to use more than 2 channels you have to have external mic preamps. A good solution for the preamps is to use a small Yamaha MG series mixer for its preamps.

The Delta 1010LT goes for $220 at Zzzounds.com and most other places:
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--MDOD1010LT

If you put that together with the Yamaha MG102 10 channel mixer you get a total of 6 preamped channels and still have some for line ins (like from keyboards or drum machines or whatever).

The MG102 gives you 4 preamps for $100:
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--YAMMG102

The next step up on the mixers is the MG124 which gives you 6 preamps for about $200:
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--YAMMG124

This is probably the cheapest way to do it, but you will still have decent quality. If you don't understand some of this or have other questions, go ahead and ask!
 
excellent! Thank you very much for the speedy reply. I'm sure I'll have more questions upon further inspection. But as of right now sounds like a great solution!
 
the 1010lt is a great option, but there are others out there. Another way to go would be a card that accepts an ADAT lighpipe input. One line of cards I've been interested in are the E-Mu cards.

You could buy the 1212M which gives you 2 line inputs and an ADAT input for $200.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/242512/

Then you could buy a behringer ada8000 which would plug into the ADAT input and give you 8 separate pre-amp channels for another $225
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=rec/search/detail/base_id/105839

You'd have 8 mic inputs and 2 line inputs, plus the berry can take line ins (I think) for a total of $425.

Buget-wise, this gives you roughly the same pricing as the 1010lt with the mixer with 6 mic pre's. There could be some debate as to sound quality. Some would say that the converters on the E-mu card are superior, and others would say that the pre-amps on the yamaha mixer are better than the berry pre's. Personally the average person probably wouldn't be able to tell a difference, but I could be way off. Pick your poison, I guess.

Just letting you know your options. By the way, the 1010lt would give you more outs, if that's a concern.
 
the 1010lt is a great option, but there are others out there. Another way to go would be a card that accepts an ADAT lighpipe input. One line of cards I've been interested in are the E-Mu cards.

You could buy the 1212M which gives you 2 line inputs and an ADAT input for $200. There's a terratec card that does ADAT in for just over $100.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/242512/

Then you could buy a behringer ada8000 which would plug into the ADAT input and give you 8 separate pre-amp channels for another $225
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=rec/search/detail/base_id/105839

You'd have 8 mic inputs and 2 line inputs, plus the berry can take line ins (I think) for a total of $425.

Buget-wise, this gives you roughly the same pricing as the 1010lt with the mixer with 6 mic pre's. There could be some debate as to sound quality. Some would say that the converters on the E-mu card are superior (though if you do go with the berry, the conversion will happen in the ada8000, not the card), and others would say that the pre-amps on the yamaha mixer are better than the berry pre's. Personally the average person probably wouldn't be able to tell a difference, but I could be way off. Pick your poison, I guess.

Just letting you know your options. By the way, the 1010lt would give you more outs, if that's a concern.

By the way, buy this stuff used if you can - save a ton of cash.
 
BJW said:
There could be some debate as to sound quality. Some would say that the converters on the E-mu card are superior, and others would say that the pre-amps on the yamaha mixer are better than the berry pre's.
Click to expand...

If you use the ADAT Lightpipe input on the E-mu card then you are using the berry's pre's AND converters, and I can guarantee you that the berry's converters are crap.

I compared the ADA8000 with a Presonus Digimax LT. Some people complain about the Digimax's quality, but regardless of your opinion on that, the Behringer sounded absolutely horrible compared to the Digimax.

Behringer makes some good things, like headphone amps and whatnot, but I have absolutely no faith in their preamps or A/D converters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top