sound card reccomendation

[electronicdreaming]

hey everyone
i am giving the family pc back to the family......and building my own, currently! and anyways, i have been using a soundblaster live!platinum for my music, and it came with a live drive interface, which was great. it featured a mic input and midi in and out. perfect for what i do.......i use one synthesizer in MIDI sequencing, and a mic for vocals. simple i know. but anyways, since i'm going to let my family keep that cpu and let my brother have the live drive and card, i was wondering if i should upgrade to a better card. i do simple stuff as you can see above, ...i just need a MIDI in and out, and a mic in.......but if anyone has a reccomendation of a card that would allow me to get better quality, i'm all for it. under $300 (if possible)
thanks, have a great day
justin

 

[c9-2001]

if your a hobbist keep the soundblaster live!platinum, if you want to do something with your music i'd upgrade to a nice 24 bit card.. if you want quality with a cheap price look into the audiophile...

 

[electronicdreaming]

yeah!

c9, thanks! i'm totally checkin it out. looks like a great unit at a great price. thanks so much...........later!
justin

 

[j]

Do you have any kind of preamp? The Omni Studio from M-Audio might put you over budget, but it's got some nice preamps. It doesn't have midi, but if your brother doesn't really need the soundblaster, you can keep it for midi...Of, course the Audiophile should work fine too, it has midi...but it doesn't have a preamp , which you will need for vocals.

One more thing is that if you are using the synth on the soundblaster you may have to get something else if you get the Audiophile. As far as I know the audiophie doesn't have a synth, though it does have midi in/out.