Seeking Suggestions for New Soundcard

[squagmire]

I'm looking for advice / recommendations / warnings about soundcards for home recording. I record mostly acoustic guitar and vocals into Cubase SX3, with Reason, Battery and other VSTs to fill out the remaining sounds. I've got an Athlon 5200+ PC, and a few requirements I need to meet:

1. I want a PCI card, and only one PCI card (only one empty slot left in the mobo).

2. The card has to have a breakout box of some kind, so I don't have to be digging around in the dust behind my desk all the time.

3. I need at least one optical or coaxial digital input (to record output from an Edirol SD-80).

4. I want to avoid the use of Firewire. I bought a Mackie Onyx 1220 with Firewire card earlier this year, and though Mackie isn't keen on publicizing the fact, users in their forums will confirm that it doesn't fully cooperate with Windows Firewire drivers, particularly during playback.


I've been looking at the E-MU 1616M PCI, but I can't tell what the difference is between the M and non-M versions. I'm also suspicious of anything vaguely Creative-related, after numerous bad experiences with Audigy 2, 4 and X-Fi cards (far more time spent troubleshooting than recording).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you have to offer, even if you're just pointing me to another thread...

 

[danny.guitar]

EMU makes great cards. I was going to recommend the M-Audio 24/96 but I don't think they sell one with a breakout box.

I wouldn't be too weary of EMU/Creative. SoundBlasters are great cards, just not meant for recording. And they can be a pain in the ass when trying to record with them.

The recording cards (EMU 1212M, 1616M) are good solid cards from my experience. I've only heard of a few people having problems with them and that's normal for every brand.

It might just take a little while to get familiar with the PatchMix software mixer it comes with.