$4 USB Sound Card

[Grape]

Hey guys, look at what I came across.

http://www.shopacc.com/details.php?pID=external-usb-sound-card

I was thinking I could do a lot of money saving and buy 3-4 of these, hook them up to a multi USB console, and cheap my way into doing multichannel recording.

What do you think?

<33 Grape

p.s. I'm a little worried about CPU maxing out on me AND the mic inputs might not be stereo..

 

[jasonbmerrill]

first off

it is unlikely this is any better than any onboard sound, probably high latency --

not to mention you can usually only use one soundcard at a time efficiently.

perhaps ASIO4ALL could work.

you realize they dont have a line in right? Onboard mic inputs are crap. And i dont mean "not the most anal high end gear, crap" i mean "sounds muffled, distorted and filtered ALL the time to an extreme amount" crap. Not really ANY mic inputs are stereo. I think you should do a little more research into computer recording before you commit to anything

if these had line in jacks, then it might be worth the effort. maybe. however, its not even worth the 3.99 * 4.

 

[pandamonk]

You be better with 2-4 of these, but tbh it will be a bit of a waste of time. These soundcards will have terrible latency.

The cheapest interface(soundcard) i'd recommend is probably the behringer uca202, but you know what behringer is like!

The cheapest way to get 4 in/outs is either 2 uca202s or ESI Maya USB. I don't know how good quality either of these will be and you still require preamps.

The Lexicon Omega might be the cheapest 8 channel interface and it has 2 preamps.

 

[dgatwood]

You'll get insane latency (like a quarter second in all likelihood), and there's no way to use more than one at a time because there's no way to get them in sync with one another.

I've used similar devices before. They just aren't usable for anything beyond hooking up a turntable or cassette deck for making MP3s of old recordings, and not particularly great even for that. Save your money....

 

[TimOBrien]

Even if you can get the drivers to play nice with each other
(ASIO only lets you use ONE asio driver at a time...)

EVERY electronic component has a crystal clock beating like a heartbeat.
Each one of these crystals is slightly unique.
So before long with each one beating a few milliseconds different from each other,
they'll start to drift apart and your tracks will end up all over the place.
(Thats why pro studios use wordclock generators to lock everything to a SINGLE time signal.)

But go ahead.... you might waste so much time and get so frustrated that you'll give up and find another hobby. More glory for the rest of us....

 

[Grape]

Thanks for the replies guys, and uhh.. nice to meet you too Tim?

I'm not the smartest guy when it comes down to soundcards, so I figured I might ask you guys for advice =]

I've been looking into the whole deal with firewire vs usb.
If i wanted to go firewire, would I have to buy a firewire/pci AND something to connect my sound to the firewire or are there things like firewire soundcards?

<33 Grape

 

[buckkillr8]

Just a firewire card, firewire cable, and your interface. You wouldn't even need the card if you already had a FW port, but it's safer to have a FW with a good chipset.

 

[dgatwood]

Just a firewire card, firewire cable, and your interface. You wouldn't even need the card if you already had a FW port, but it's safer to have a FW with a good chipset.

Actually, probably just the card and the interface. Just about any interface you buy will come with a cable.

 

[buckkillr8]

Actually, probably just the card and the interface. Just about any interface you buy will come with a cable.

True

 

[Grape]

Okay so I was doing some browsing for the interfaces and all I can say is.. out of my budget. lol

I think I'll just stick to the USB interfaces, I won't be doing anything big time with my recordings.
Are there any decent interfaces with 2-4 STEREO channel inputs?
All the other ones were simple mic/instrument inputs, which are mono.

I'd like to have my drum cymbals be stereo. =]

<3 Grape

 

[mattr]

Are there any decent interfaces with 2-4 STEREO channel inputs?
All the other ones were simple mic/instrument inputs, which are mono.

I'd like to have my drum cymbals be stereo. =]

I don't know what else you are expecting other than 'simple' mono mic inputs? This is all you're going to find. If you want stereo, you use two of them...

In which case it sounds like you're looking for an 8 channel interface, and unfortunately even the bottom end of these don't come cheap.

As for an affordable USB interface, how about the M-audio Fast Track Ultra? It only has 4 mic preamps, but probably along the lines of what you're looking for.

 

[Grape]

I don't know what else you are expecting other than 'simple' mono mic inputs? This is all you're going to find. If you want stereo, you use two of them...

In which case it sounds like you're looking for an 8 channel interface, and unfortunately even the bottom end of these don't come cheap.

As for an affordable USB interface, how about the M-audio Fast Track Ultra? It only has 4 mic preamps, but probably along the lines of what you're looking for.

Ahh, I didn't know that.
Well.. maybe just a multi-line in soundcard would work?

 

[jasonbmerrill]

just do two mono inputs

into one stereo track

easy to do in most programs in sure, including reaper.


this is just the way it is.