Soundcard for mixing

C

ctepher

New member
I want to find a good sound card to use for mixing. I will be recording tracks on one computer, in the rehearsal studio and I will be taking them home on a firewire harddisk to mix them on my home PC in Nuendo.

I want to find a card that will allow me mix with relatively low latency.

It MUST have XLR outputs or some kind of outs that can connect to real monitors.

Must work with Nuendo.

Optical in/outs would be nice, but not a huge concern.

Native DSP would be a plus, but the computer is very beefy (1.6 GHz / 768 MB RAM), so it's probably not necessary.

It would also be nice if it had a couple of XLR or 1/4" ins so that I could also use it to record ideas and solo stuff at home.

And of course, price is always a concern, so the cheaper the better. Let's say under $300.

Can you guys help me find the right card? Post links if you can.

-Steve
 
under 300.. that ain't gonna happen.. i was about to say the motu 896 but thats way out of the price range....
 
Sounds to me like you're looking for the Echo Mia. It's a sub $300 card with 2 balanced 1/4" (you don't really need XLR, just get the appropriate cable) ins & outs plus SPDIF.

It doesn't have any onboard DSP ('cept for its internal mixer), but then you're getting up in price.

Other contendors would be m-Audio's Delta44 and Delta66.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I don't need an audio interface, this card will be used for mixing tracks that have already been recorded. The main things I need are low latency, and XLR or 1/4" blalanced TRS outs. The cards you guys have suggested seem like they are designed for tracking, aren't there any cards that are designed specifically for mixing?

What about the E-MU 8725, it's got on-board DSP, and 1/4" TRS outs, and it sells for $100.

Does anyone have any experience with this card?

-Steve
 
ctepher said:
I don't need an audio interface, this card will be used for mixing tracks that have already been recorded. The main things I need are low latency, and XLR or 1/4" blalanced TRS outs. The cards you guys have suggested seem like they are designed for tracking, aren't there any cards that are designed specifically for mixing?

What about the E-MU 8725, it's got on-board DSP, and 1/4" TRS outs, and it sells for $100.

Does anyone have any experience with this card?

-Steve
Click to expand...

It is a SoundBlaster with a different name (E-Mu is owned by Creative) - the latency will truly suck

It is also discontinued and has no support in terms of updated drivers.

Do yourself a favor and buy something that is still being made.
 
Any soundcard will hook up to monitors with the correct cable(s).
It sounds like you basically just need something to produce sound, with a couple different input options, since everything is already recorded. Is that about right? I know it's not considered a serious soundcard, but for the price the simplicity of your needs, I would at least check out the SB live platinum... Cheap and easy.
 
subtractor said:
Any soundcard will hook up to monitors with the correct cable(s).
It sounds like you basically just need something to produce sound, with a couple different input options, since everything is already recorded. Is that about right? I know it's not considered a serious soundcard, but for the price the simplicity of your needs, I would at least check out the SB live platinum... Cheap and easy.
Click to expand...

Read his initial post - he wants low latency. My Audiophile does a much better job with latency than the SB Live that is also in my PC.
 
D/A converters are *just* as critical as A/D converters. Just because your tracks are already recorded doesn't mean you want to make mixing decisions based on the output of a soundblaster. Not that the soundblaster sounds that bad, it doesn't. However a better soundcard will sound considerably better...I know this because I A/B my SB Live and my Delta 1010 all the time.

There are no "mixing" cards. Basically I recommended the MIA because I know it has decent converters and its I/O is limited to a single balanced 1/4" stereo pair, hence the price is fairly low.

Another good card would be the Delta44. It has a couple extra ins & outs that you don't need, but its price is friendly and it's all balanced 1/4".

The Audiophile is another good choice, but it uses unbalanced RCA connectors. This might be suitable for your needs, depending on the input requirements of your active monitors (I assume they're active since you mentioned going directly from the soundcard to the monitors).

Latency probably isn't a huge deal. Anything under 80 to 100ms feels just great for mixing. Any card that can do ASIO will do (I'm assuming Nuendo does ASIO).

Slackmaster 2000
 
I think Brzilian was right. Looking at your post, you're not that newbie who still works with SBLive!. Save couple hundred more bucks, you won't be sorry for long time. Audiophile can be done right now.
 
What does latency have to do with monitoring prerecorded tracks? If he is just mixing and monitoring then any card will 'work'. Obviously more expensive cards will have better convertors but latency is only an issue when overdubbing.
 
Latency

Possibly the problem is that the latency will also affect how long the audio output takes to respond to changes in the internal mixer/FX etc.

Is that reasonable?
 
Latency is never an issue with overdubbing unless you are processing effects on the incoming audio.

Latency is in fact *only* an issue when mixing for most people. Like I said, any card that will do < 100ms will feel just fine for mixing. Anything more than that and it becomes very hard to make fader moves or any kind of adjustments quickly and accurately.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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