omni studio vs direct pro 24/96

Pros for the Omni Studio
1. Channel inserts
2. 2 headphone outs with independent volume nobs

Cons for the Omni Studio
1. No midi

Pros for the Aardvark
1. 4 pre-amps
2. Midi capabilities
3. Shielded PCI card

Cons for the Aardvark
1. No volume control for the headphones
2. No channel inserts

These are just off the top of my head. Others can add/subtract to this list. I opted for the Aardvark, and I love it. Look at your needs and go from there. Both get great reviews. Try the search function, as this has been covered a lot in the past.

BTW, welcome to the board!
 
I personally like the Aardvark drivers better than M-audio. I'm a Sonar guy, and I liked Aardvark's whole AWDM back in the day. Back in the Cubase days, I really liked M-audio's ASIO, and I think for M-Audio, their ASIO is slightly better than their WDM.

My opinion to you is to research on the combination of the sound card with your particular software.
 
If you have a VIA mainboard chipset you are probably better off with something other than M-Audio as many have problems with this combination (although I have an Abit KX7-333 mainboard (VIA KT333 chipset)) and haven't had any problems that couldn't be fixed by using a fixed IRQ for the soundcard.

I'm very happy with the Omni personally, athough I have zero experience with anything else. It does everything I wanted it to do and I bought a seperate MIDI interface for not much money.

I have found M-Audio's drivers somewhat lacking, but I found a set that worked OK for me and stuck with them. ASIO seems to be a good thing.
 
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If you can get access to a Firewire port I'd look at the Presonus Firestation. It has all the capabilities that these two have plus the ADAT I/O. May be worth checking out.
 
Sorry, Johnny, gotta veto you there. The Firestation is a discontinued product, and for good reason. Poor drivers, no WDM, and who else out there actually has mLan gear and uses it. Presonus is supposed to be coming out with the Firepod soon, anyways, and that has 8 mic preamps and no ADAT. Who knows if that will actually have decent drivers shipping with it...
 
I have the Firepod ..... a very ncie piece of work. Eight sweet preamps, and very stable drivers for software ... so far!! I wasn;t fond that it came with Cubase as I am not using it.... I am too happy with Sonar 2 and 3 to change.
 
I own an Aardvark 24/96, and overall it is a great system. The only thing I don't like about it is the gain controls for the inputs. If you record any type of brass instruments or jazz settings where things can suddenly get loud, it is a bear to try and lower the gain by grabbing the control panel with your mouse. Plus the gain is set up in 3 stages, rather than in one continuous level. So if you've maxed out the setting for close mic, but still need more gain, you have to change it to far mic, then quickly pull it down. The Firepod looks intriguing because all of the gain controls are on the front of the unit. With all those bad things about the gain control however, the 24/96 does have excellent sound quality, great drivers, and you would not go wrong with that interface.
 
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