Best soundcard for my budget?

E

Euthanasia

New member
yo mates :-)

I gonna have some money soon and i want to buy a new soundcard... so:

top price is 500$, it has to have an external I\O (like the firewire cards...) if it's a pci... firewire will be good as well, and i think usb will not...
it has to have an internal mixer! my options(add some if you want):
Motu Ultralite
http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/ultralite/
M Audio Firewire 18/14
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_...e1814-main.html
Echo Layla3G
http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/PCI/Layla3G/index.php
Focusrite Saffire
http://www.focusrite.com/productdet...?id=38&iRange=5
Presonus Firebox
http://www.presonus.com/firebox.html
Edirol FA101
http://www.rolandus.com/products/pr...02&ParentId=104

I have a PC, not a mac. so i need something that fits.
an it's strong enaugh...

please help me choose the best, or/and tell me what to stay away from...
thanks...! ;)
 
two build in preamps will be fine.
and the motu you said is over my budget.

the tascam is oo big for me, and i dont know how good he really is... tell me if you can...
 
I have the layla 3G for about two months now. Its been great, very stable, and plenty of I/O. I cant really say how the preamps stack up to anything else because Im not very experienced with pre's. Im using samplitude 7.2 and have been recording 8 tracks at a time without a problem. If you need 8 ins its definitly a great souncard. A great thing about the Layla too is that it has everything, ADAT input, SPDIF input, work clock, midi, inserts on the first two channels and 8 assignable outputs so you can expand your setup if you need to without getting a new soundcard. I mainly record drums and having the ADAT input was one of the deciding factors for me so I can gradually add mics as my budget and skil allow.

A friend has had the Firebox for about 7 months now and it too sounds great and has worked very well.
 
Had a Firepod last year (probably same sound as Firebox) and tracked a demo project with it. Worked well - low latency (recorded eight channels at a time), and the pre's are pretty decent. I'm now using a Echo Layla 3G, and went back to them because I've had good experiences with their products in the past (Echo MIA and Gina24). The 3G sounds great and the pre's (two of them) aren't too bad, but I used my Yamaha mixer pre's with it so it's not an issue and will someday get some better pre's to use.

The 3G has great converters and I've been really pleased with both the A/D and D/A conversion. Clear high-end, and no muddy bass. Great for the $$$ they are charging for it - dare I say a steal?
 
warble said:
The 3G has great converters and I've been really pleased with both the A/D and D/A conversion. Clear high-end, and no muddy bass. Great for the $$$ they are charging for it - dare I say a steal?
Click to expand...

They're cheap in part because everyone is clearing them out. They're clearing them out because the PCI standard is being phased out, and thus it isn't a good long-term investment. Stick to FireWire interfaces. You'll almost certainly still be able to use them in ten years. The same likely isn't true for PCI.
 
Maybe PCI is being phased out, not a concern of mine at this point. At the time I purchased my Layla 3G, it had great features at a great price. I wanted Word Clock in/out, ADAT, and S/PDIF. The Layla offered all these, and offered them in a great sounding interface.

So do you think that between the audio interface manufacturers and the motherboard/PC manufacturers that they are going to put the screws to all the PCI interface users? Just curious. My guess is that some interface manufacturers will offer a break on upgrades to "newer" technology units, but at this time, I'm not concerned.

I've seen the PCI vs. Firewire debate here too, but I guess I'm not losing sleep over it all.
 
warble said:
So do you think that between the audio interface manufacturers and the motherboard/PC manufacturers that they are going to put the screws to all the PCI interface users?
Click to expand...

I own a FirePod because my Delta 1010LT won't work in a PowerMac G5 quad already, so yeah. To some extent, I do expect PC manufacturers to "put the screws" to PCI users. In my world, it has already happened.

The thing is, parallel PCI is hard to work with. It has distance limitations of something like two or three inches from the controller. That's hard to work with, and significantly limits possible board layout. Complex layout problems = increased R&D cost = increased board coast. Now a lot of that work is probably unchanging from rev to rev, but it still means that you have spots on your board where that chip has to be or else things won't work. This can increase the cost of laying out other devices.

And in the medium term, the costs of PCIe cards and chipsets is likely to end up cheaper than parallel PCI due to quantities of scale. For every board sold without parallel PCI hardware, the per unit cost of PCI increases. Moreover, manufacturers are moving from AGP to PCIe, so they will be adding PCIe hardware anyway. By using PCIe exclusively, they actually get to eliminate less hardware than with a hybrid design, which means significantly lower cost....

Those factors, plus the desire for higher speed and the near total lack of cards in the average desktop machine with the increased integration of common devices into the chipsets means that PCI isn't that important to most consumers, and thus I'd expect board designers to go with whatever is cheaper for most of their boards.... Thus, I'm expecting it to become a high end/boutique feature pretty quickly.

While you'll probably be able to get them for a decade (except on the Mac), expect to pay a premium and be more limited in terms of what CPUs you can use with them. Thus, if you're deciding whether to pay more for a FireWire interface, it's important to realize that it's an issue of front loading versus paying a portion of cost with each motherboard upgrade, and that the PCI route will eventually exceed those initial cost savings. It's all a numbers game based on how long you expect to own the interface and how quickly its value will plummet if you eBay it in five years versus today.


warble said:
Just curious. My guess is that some interface manufacturers will offer a break on upgrades to "newer" technology units, but at this time, I'm not concerned.
Click to expand...

Digi might. :)
 
I'll give another vote of confidence for the Echo Layla 3G.

I've used both the PCI version and the Firewire version -- the AudioFire 8.

And they sound excellent, are easy / intuitive to work with, and are rock-solid from the driver standpoint. Echo, as a company, deserves a lot more credit and publicity than they get.
.
 
Euthanasia said:
and wht do you think about the EMU 1820M?
Click to expand...

Try a search on that one - either here or Google. I've read some favorable reviews on the net (for only the "M" version) about them. One thing that seems to stand out in regards to headaches is the "PatchMix" software that comes with it. I've never used it, so I can't vouch for the headaches myself, but it seems that it's a confusing design for users to get used to.

I'm still sticking with my Echo recommendation even though PCI is apparently on it's way out ;)
 
thanks dude :-)
exept than asking here, i searching for alot of places...

i think the echo layla3g will be good... but i have a friend that have the gina and he had to replace the preamp because suddenly it stoped working.
dot really sound reliable... what do you think?
 
Euthanasia said:
thanks dude :-)
exept than asking here, i searching for alot of places...

i think the echo layla3g will be good... but i have a friend that have the gina and he had to replace the preamp because suddenly it stoped working.
dot really sound reliable... what do you think?
Click to expand...

Don't really know. That's one person I've heard having issues so far - at least issues with an actual part of the hardware itself. Only other issue I've read about was a driver issue relating to the midi in/outputs. Seems that midi wasn't working as it should, but that should've been resolved in a driver update. Echo is known for solid drivers.

How was your friends experience getting the Gina fixed? If Echo handled it well, that would work into my consideration for buying an interface from them.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Euthanasia
and wht do you think about the EMU 1820M?



"Try a search on that one - either here or Google. I've read some favorable reviews on the net (for only the "M" version) about them. One thing that seems to stand out in regards to headaches is the "PatchMix" software that comes with it. I've never used it, so I can't vouch for the headaches myself, but it seems that it's a confusing design for users to get used to."
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PatchMix is a funny thing. It's confusing....yet so simple!
For me the key was finding the right session to start with....once I did, I was off and running.
PatchMix rules! VERY flexible.

I highly recommend the EMU 1820m ($499)
Awesome converters...the 2 mic preamps are pretty good, and quite usable.

Have had no driver issues with the device.
 
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