A soundcard question in regards to playback

  • Thread starter Thread starter Projbalance
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Projbalance

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I'm not doing the actual recording on my PC, just the "mastering" work. The opinions I'm soliciting are about soundcards strictly for processing, editing, and playback. Are there any that are more desirable for this function, or will a higher end Sounblaster do the trick?
 
Soundblasters are plain horrible. For a starter, get yourself an Audiophile 2496. you will definitely love it.
 
Agreed - don't waste your money on a Soundblaster - the Audiophile 2496 is a good (but still cheap) option, it has a stereo in/out and a SPDIF in/out.
 
Been looking at the 2496. Read some good things, but I've also read that they used to have some pretty major issues, and none of the threads or articles about them seem recent so I don't know if they've resolved them or not.

What about the stuff from E-MU, Creatives pro line? Anyone heard anything?
 
I have a 2496 on one box, and I haven't had any issues... mind you, I don't demand much of it! :D
EMU makes a decent interface too (from what I've heard) in the same price range, the 0404 - although I've never owned one...
 
I truely dislike these "flip a coin" scenarios. I wish these companies would actually make noticably different products so the process of choosing could be streamlined. Thanks goodness it's just for post- production work cause much of what I've heard comlpained about is the recording features. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions guys!
 
For what you are doing, you are concerned with the playback quality, so although you don't care much about the A/D conversion, the D/A conversion is important as it affects what you are hearing, and what you are hearing affects the decisions you will make during mastering. Likewise, you'll want to make sure your monitors and acoustic environment is up to snuff.

If you were doing photo editing, you wouldn't want to be doing it on an old 14" CRT with a bad picture and a low-resolution graphics card?
 
If you just put the mantra in your head "Creative = gamer", you'll be better off....
 
What major issues with the 2496? Till now, i havent received a single problem with it..i love it. and the 2496 is great if u have an outboard mixer for all the instruments,mics etc.

Before, i used to be quite biased with soundcards when i owned an Audigy..but after couple of recording 'sessions', i realized how gruesome it sounds. audio playback and midi sucked crap literally and technically. There were constant crackles and pops in the audio and i couldnt even concentrate on making the music at the first place! talk about latency! really bad timings...
 
studiomaster said:
What major issues with the 2496? Till now, i havent received a single problem with it..i love it. and the 2496 is great if u have an outboard mixer for all the instruments,mics etc.
Click to expand...

I have read of isses with poping noises in the record/playback, channel dropouts, IRQ conflicts, bad drivers.

Believe me, what I've heard about the E-MU was even worse.
 
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