Cheap soundcards...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roel
  • Start date Start date
Roel

Roel

That SMART guy.
One of my friends is looking for a soundcard in the more expensive Soundblaster-price range... He wants to do midi stuff with it (need decent working midi port), internal sounds maybe (he's got a yamaha expander, u50 or something, he can live without internal sounds, but they're welcome anyway, I guess.), and he wants to be able to decently record vocals and guitars with it.

As for my interest in it :D: I want it to have a digital input, so we can transfer tracks between the pc and my VS1880.

He has a celeron 600. Or at least, he thinks he has. :)

I would investigate it myself, but my interests are in higher end stuff... So, what do we buy?
 
1st...

Go ahead and post your financial figures, someones going to ask anyway. On cheap soundcards, I have no clue. On good ones, I might be of some use. What kind of digital outs does your device have? S/pdif? Important information here! :)
Peace,
Paul
 
Financial figures... expensive soundblaster range... That's about 200$ or 300$? You can promote more expensive cards too, don't know how much he really wants to pay... He knows that you get what you pay for, but hasn't got any clue of what is available. Neither do I, certainly not in that range...

The VS1880 has spdifs... optical and coax.
 
For about $400US, you can get this:

http://www.lynxstudio.com

The Lynx One card.

Has midi I/O, but no onboard synth.

Has S/PDIF AND AES/EBU (for when you make the jump to a more professional interface) I/O

Has Word Clock I/O.

It is 24 bits!!!

This is a fine sounding card and blows away most others in converter quality from what I have experienced.

A good buy.

Ed
 
Thanks ed, looks good... That's the kinda posts I'm looking for. Only thing that bothers me is that the dude will probably have better A/D than me. :( Minus one future customer that is. But he can hire my mics and pres. That's money without working... Sounds good.

Might be to expensive tough. And don't know how much he would like an internal synth. (The expander he has isn't all that great, maybe not worth carrying around from his rehearsels. But he can come and hire mine. :D )
 
Just checked the price of the lynx one on a local internet music store... They go at 822 EURO here!!! That's about the double of the price over there! Sheeezzz... And way above our pricerange... Darn... :(
 
Roel that Delta Audiophile will be a step down converter-wise from the LynxOne, but has similar features (24bit 96khz, midi in and out but not an onboard synth, digital ins/outs)...It goes for $159 US at bayview pro audio....the next step up would be the Delta 66 which goes for about $300-$325 US but has 4 in 4 out and has a breakout box.....
 
not sure, but doesn't the Audiophile and the Delta 66 share the same kind of convertor ?
 
Yes, same converter, but I believe the Delta 66 has the converters in the breakout box while the Audiophile's is on the PCI card, so the 66 will have a tad cleaner sound...but the Audiophile is still a fairly quiet card....
 
Ok... Checked the prices of M-audio cards. They are all kindof in our range, I guess. But! Delta 66 and delta 44 have no midi? He really needs the midi thing. That's why he started looking at this in the first place. (Think I'll even have a hard time talking him into buying a card with no onboard synth. Altough maybe he doesn't reallize it even exists... :D )

And the delta 44 hasn't got s/p dif. That's what I need him to get, so that isn't an option. :D

Guess the audiophile comes out as the cheapest and more versatile solution. Limited in number of in/outputs, but he'll just be recording his synths, guitar and vocals on his own, so he doesn't really need more inputs. And he can always come to my place.
 
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