which soundcard?

F

floppsybunny

New member
i am beginning to set up a computer based studio and am wondering about soundcards specific to my situation (if anyone has any pointers, much obliged!). i have an outboard console (korg d1600mkii) with preamps that i'm pretty happy to do all of my tracking on at the moment, i'll be using my PC (and probably pro tools LE) for mixing, editing and processing.

what i need is an affordable soundcard that can give me: a) stereo 1/4" outputs (balanced) to send to my powered monitors (m-audio bx5s); b) professional quality sound for monitoring and processing.

i'm a bit of a computer recording newb and don't know what effect your soundcard has on monitoring and processing/mixing down (presumably to stereo .wav). i'm wondering if something like the m-audio audiophile 192 (up to 192kHz sampling rate) is sufficient or if i need to invest in a higher quality soundcard for professional quality mixes...? (my midi/synth needs are negligible, i'm mainly concerned that i have enough quality in the soundcard for processing the mixdowns, if that makes sense?)

again, fairly new at this, any input, advice appreciated.

thanks!
 
The soundcard is not used on Mixdown or rendering a project. Or any kind of software-based SRC (Sample Rate Conversion) or dithering.

It's mainly responsible for accepting audio into the computer (converting analog signal to digital format (A/D)) and playing back the digital audio (converting digital back to analog (D/A)).

Most A/D, D/A converters in modern cards are more than acceptable. I don't think the quality of your converters will play nearly as big of a role as what mics, instruments, room, you'll be recording in, etc.

What is your budget for a sound card? You said "affordable" so I would go with the 192 if it has everything else you need.
 
hey, thanks a lot danny. very informative.

ok, so then my only issue is - will the m-audio 192 be able to give my monitors a high quality signal? i'm guessing that sense the hardware on both ends is m-audio and the price ranges are somewhat similar, it's probably a good enough matchup for my situation.

thanks.
 
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