Looking for a decent audio card

[PromotieX]

Hello you music wizards,

First of all : I'm totally new here, so don't kill me if I do not immediatly get all that there is to know about this forum.

Situation : I need your knowledge!

I'm a piano player and I 've got a few synths (Korg Triton for example), drumcomputer and some mics.

What is my plan :
I would like to record my creations, mix them and burn them on a CD. I'd like to do this through my computer using a decent sound or audio card. So that I can get a professional sounding result.
I will work with Steinberg Cubase SX 2.0.

How?
I bought myself a new computer with a state of the art motherboard, Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1 Gb DDRAM and 2 hardrives with about 150 Gb total memory capacity.

What type of audiocard would you guys recommend to me? I would appreciate your motivation.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ragata]

Well, it would appear as if you will mostly work with midi, am I right? In that case, latency will be your biggest issue, I think. Perhaps a creamware luna II would do the job. They're quite common(ie. likely to be found second-hand) and not expensive. Or perhaps a usb midiinterface would do the job. Steinberg has made one or two I believe, which are supposed to work great with cubase.

I'm not a midi-man myself, but that setup doesn't seem too shabby

Oh, you might want to hook up your synths to a mixer as well. IF you'll be making purly electronic music, a line-mixer would do(they're cheap too). But you mentioned some mics, so maybe a soundcraft spirit, or a mackie mixer would be more appropriate.

hope it helps,
Ragata

 

[Broken finger]

sound card.........

Any of the Dekta products are my suggestion. I've got a "44" and the latency is no problem. also has a mini "mixer" (volume)in it
Can't be good.......be funny!

 

[PromotieX]

Re: sound card.........

Any of the Dekta products are my suggestion. I've got a "44" and the latency is no problem. also has a mini "mixer" (volume)in it
Can't be good.......be funny!

Thanks, I was thinking of something in that direction. Delta 44 or Delta 66 or the omnistudio. One the music stores recommended the echo-mya or something like that to me. But then I have to plug everything into the back of my computer. I'd prefer to use an external box such as the Delta 44.

Thanks for the suggenstions

 

[PromotieX]

Midi

Well, it would appear as if you will mostly work with midi, am I right? In that case, latency will be your biggest issue, I think. Perhaps a creamware luna II would do the job. They're quite common(ie. likely to be found second-hand) and not expensive. Or perhaps a usb midiinterface would do the job. Steinberg has made one or two I believe, which are supposed to work great with cubase.

I'm not a midi-man myself, but that setup doesn't seem too shabby

Oh, you might want to hook up your synths to a mixer as well. IF you'll be making purly electronic music, a line-mixer would do(they're cheap too). But you mentioned some mics, so maybe a soundcraft spirit, or a mackie mixer would be more appropriate.

hope it helps,
Ragata

Well, euhm, you're right. I want to work thrue midi to syncronize everything on the computer. However I don't know if it's a good idea to send everything thrue my Behringer mixer. Won't it change the audiosignal? I mean, the equalizer on the mixer will slightly 'colour' the audio and I thought that it would be better if I could directly put my synths thrue a device into my computer. Off course I will need to send my mic's thrue the mixer.

For the midi part, I was thinking of the Steinberg Midex. Any other suggestions?

Anyway, thank you very much for the information.

 

[Beltrom]

Re: Re: sound card.........

One the music stores recommended the echo-mya or something like that to me. But then I have to plug everything into the back of my computer. I'd prefer to use an external box such as the Delta 44.

That suggestion (echo mia midi) isn't bad - slightly outspecs the 44 on audio quality actually. So the stores suggestion wasn't stupid if you don't plan on recording several audio sources to different tracks at the same time. It has eight outputs but they are internal - summed up at the line out.

Check that card out before going the M-audio route. Might be impressed. If nothing else at least it has a midi connection

 

[69ShadesofRed]

Get the Aardvark Q10. Great AD/DA converters, extremely low latency (I have mine set at 4ms and never have had problems), all inputs also have mic preamps the first 4 providing phantom power. It does have MIDI ports, but I've found that a separate MIDI interface provides better timing. Steinbergs Midex interfaces also have special software that supposedly give even tighter MIDI timing when used with Cubase, but I've heard people complain about the build quality. I am using eMagic AMT8 with great results.

 

[PromotieX]

AardvarkQ10

Get the Aardvark Q10. Great AD/DA converters, extremely low latency (I have mine set at 4ms and never have had problems), all inputs also have mic preamps the first 4 providing phantom power. It does have MIDI ports, but I've found that a separate MIDI interface provides better timing. Steinbergs Midex interfaces also have special software that supposedly give even tighter MIDI timing when used with Cubase, but I've heard people complain about the build quality. I am using eMagic AMT8 with great results.

Thank your very much for the hint. There's only one little problem : Aardvark is not available in Belgium. There 's simply no
importer for that utility. However, maybe I can find a way through this stupid situation by buying the card in Germany.

Thanks anyway. I was thinking of buying the Steinberg Midex 8 anayway, it's nice to read that also other people know that type of equipment. Fact is I'm totally new in this computerrecording world so I need all the help I can get.

There are two types of cards in my head:
- The Echo Gina
- The Midiman Delta 66

I will browse a little longer on the internet and I will tell you my final decision.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Doug H]

If you don't need to record a whole pile of tracks at once, and you're not worried you may in the future, lean towards the cards with fewer inputs so you don't pay for channels you aren't using. Put the $$$ into the quality of the card.