Sombody shoot me!!! Soundcards!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter PRiZ
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PRiZ

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Take me out of my misery!!!
It's been a month and I still havn't decided...
If you KNOW a soundcard that is good recommend it.
If someone disagrees with that person argue until you come to a conclusion...Use any information you have attained don't restrict yourself to yours only.
I would probably get the Delta 1010 if it had a MIC option, but it doesn't, so I cant, and that goes for basically every good card out there...
Here's what I'm looking for:

- High specs 24/96 etc (but known by experience, not off some companys claim for fame)
- A MIC input, with preamps, phantom power and all that good stuff that will give me as good quality as any prosumer would want.
- I/O's atleast enough for a pair of monitors, a keyboard and an effects machine, all I need. (no instruments needed)
- ASIO driver ( for Reason which I'm getting, but the more drivers the better etc)

Thats it folks...
Right now I've been looking at the Aardvark direct pro 24/96 ( I've heard enough bad about this to dought it, and I read an interview I can't find anymore that didn't sound to impressed and when an interview is actually not a yes man, you know it's ify...)and mayby the C-Port by hoontech...(this didn't seem like it was a super good sounding card, and I was paying for I/O's I didn't need etc).

Lastly I'm willing to spend up to a 900 canadian, that's about 600 US....and I'm producing hiphop with vocals.
Please, help...This site deffinitely seems like the best so far for that, I actually get response(s) in the same day.
 
why are you interested in REASON? if you care about vocals, reason is not the way to go....unless you want to sample and sequence everything...
 
THe inbuilt pres on soundcards with pres are mostly no good anyway, so save yourself some headache and get a good card and a good outboard pre
 
thanks...

Okay! I got questions for you all...
Cyan..."so save yourself some headache and get a good card and a good outboard pre"...Do you mean an external soundcard, that is what I had in mind, or did you mean get an external soundcard and another external machine for the MIC called a pre, oh yeah please don't use slang like that it confuses me, you meant preamp right?

J..."why are you interested in REASON? if you care about vocals, reason is not the way to go....unless you want to sample and sequence everything..." If Reason isn't good for vocals what should I get...? I'm sure reason can do more than sample and sequence everything...?explain?

Sonusman...I've looked at the Lynx one before it seems good, I don't think it had MIC capability.

I'm not sure, but is the best way to go really just to get a souncard and then get a whole other unit for the MIC...?

I still need suggestions and help for the first question.
P.S. I'm not being lazy, I've been searchinf for the right card for awhile, I'm not trying to make you all do my work...thanks!
 
hi PRIZ,

perhaps i was too quick to dismiss REASON as an option for music with vocals. REASON has no tracking or recording features for digital audio , because it is designed as a 'rack' containing synths, samplers, drum machines, fx and dynamic processing, plus a mixer and a midi sequencer. one of the main attractions of REASON is that it provides a way to produce an entire track or song ready for mp3 encoding , 'mastering' or whatever...thus, it competes with programs like cubase or logic when you are mainly doing midi and using soft synths. yet, you can only record midi data, not digital audio. the only way to get your own digital audio into reason is to load samples into one of the sound modules.

however, propellerhead also make REWIRE. a utility for using REASON , and other programs, like REBIRTH , with sequencers like cubase, or logic which have multitracking capabilities. so if you use rewire , you could use cubase to do the vocals, or any program that works with REWIRE.

i have used reason, but not extensively. if you are interested: it might be possible to record a vocal track in another program and load it into reason...i don't really know what the parameters are in reason for this kind of thing...it surely wasn't designed for it. howerver, i recorded some guitar tracks and loaded them into fruity loops (which also lacks digital recording)) so that i could use sequenced drum beats and real guitar tracks, and mix it in fruity loops...it worked pretty neat, but i just did it for fun.....everything synced up pretty well...what i did was load a loop from fruity loops into acid, record a guitar track, loop the part of the track i wanted to use, then with the acid 'mix to new track' feature, i saved the selected portion of the track as a new wav file...i then loaded the wav into fruity loops as a 'sample', i use quotes cause some of the samples were many measures in length....like i said this was just for fun...results weren't always satisfactory , and it can get tedious....

later gator
 
thanks...

I got some questions...
Does midi sound any worse than digital, when working in softsynth's etc? or is it just another form of memory or something?
Also with the "rewire" program does that let another program like cubase join into the reason software and work parralel to it (like I could record vocals in cubase while playing the beat in Reason etc), or does it just work like I can transfer what I do in reason over to cubase and then drop vocals..
While I'm asking, what's the best overall vocal recording program, or does it have to be a certain specified program that works with reason? I think you already answered that, but I'm not sure.
Multi-tracking, I'm not to sure what this is, what process it is or how it works...?
I don't see why Reason would use digital samples, but wouldn't work in digital...?
You probably don't have the answers for most of this since you havn't used Reason much, but if you do etc...I'd like to read'em.
 
to answer your questions in order of appearance:

midi is totally digital. if you are mixing or tracking on a pc you are using some type of sequencer for midi and/or a multitracker for recording digital audio....midi files are distinguished from digital audio files (wav files) mainly by their small size, and the fact that midi files cannot be listened to without a sound module that accepts midi information, or maybe the borg can listen to standard midi files. so midi doesn't sound worse than digital audio...this is not the way to compare the two.

rewire should allow you to use reason and cubase 'parallel'...this was what the whole idea is about..however, i haven't tried to rewire reason to cubase.....

there are plenty of good programs for recording vocals and other digital audio tracks

on a pc everything is digital...when people are talking about midi they use the term 'sequencer' where someone recording wav. files uses 'multitrack'...
 
That was extremly helpfull!!!

Sorry about asking about rewire there's no pont in asking, I can get a page of explanation right on their site. I don't know if I have any more questions, finally! been a while since I could say that...Thanks!
 
I would not be worried about whether your sound card has a mic input. Get a seperate mic preamp. Or if you think you may be micing multiple sources at once, get a small mixer.
 
Priz, I answered this on another thread you started and I will say it again. Get the Aardvark LX6. It is the same as the Direct Pro (I have 2 Direct Pros and LOVE them), but it does not have mic preamps. You should get outboard preamps anyway, I do not use the ones on the Direct Pros. The LX6 comes with Cakewalk Pro Studio 9, the full version, and I believe it is under $400. You will simply plug your mic into the preamp and connect the output of your preamp to the input of the LX6 and you're set. You could get a small Mackie mixer which has good preamps and you could actually record 4 tracks simulteaneously if you want to. Anyway, check it out at Aardvark-pro.com. They make good stuff.
 
amen,

I purchased the lx6 as well and it works great, well for me that is. I got it at Mars w/ cakewalk bundle for about $350. I was in your shoes months ago, trying to find the right card for my needs. I mainly work with midi keyboards samplers and drum machines. So it works well for me. I plan on purchasing a mic next for vocals. So all I would need is a pre-amp (I'm leaning towards the audio buddy from midiman) and I'm all set. But whatever you decide, it won't be the end all to your setup, So don't waste time, find something that gets close to what you're looking for, get and don't look back.

Phillymac
 
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