New Sound Card

[Hazen]

Ok I have an Audigy 2 platinum, please don't all stone me at once.

What should I look at for an entry level "serious" "designed for music" card?

Apologies for raising what is probably a perennial question but I couldn't find an FAQ like that available in the Mics section.

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My current System:

Dell Inspiron 3.4GHz + 2gig ram
Cubase SX
Audigy 2 Platinum Midi and Audio interface - Asio drivers: 40ms latency
Fatar Studiologic II midi keyboard
Steinberg The Grand
NI Massive
Windows XP SP2
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[Hard2Hear]

do you need any certian i/o or is this purely for playing virtual instruments?

 

[Hazen]

Good point.

Ideally I would like A line in for the guitar, xlr for the mics (preamped?), midi in/out/thru for the controller keyboard and modules.

 

[Hard2Hear]

So 2 inputs with preamps and midi i/o?

To get preamps, that mainly means a firewire device. Do you have firewire on your computer? We've had lots of success with the Focusrite SaffireLE and the Yamaha GO46 as budget devices ($200-250). If you're not as limited on budget and just need balanced connections, or don't have firewire, an RME 9632 PCI card will give you the best possible performance and conversion that is top quality($500).

Depends on your budget and exactly how you want to do it.