sound card which one is the best lets cut through the hype

[darrin_h2000]

yamaha dsp factory

this seems like a pretty powerfull card and i have some money on one at the local mars it listed at 1100 dollars but its being blown out at 249 for it and the 250 dollar breakout box . i read on a thread that alot of the members had ran out to purchase this when the yamaha dsp factory thread was started.
i guess i was turned on by the 6 huge chips on this card the echo cards have one and it does everything on the card witout taxing the cpu. after looking at the specs on the other cards i could read about the dsp factory really stood out.
is anybody using it? does it rock, or suck?

 

[wormhole70]

Yamaha DSP Price Drop

Go with what your wallet says. Yamaha is a good choice. Like anything else, be sure that it has future support. The huge price break may seem like a steal but then who's benefiting from the steal...Yamaha or you? Know what I mean? Roughly over a year ago, I thought I would purchase the Yamaha but then I decided to feel out what was going on out there in terms of other evolving software and hardware. Yamaha has gotten rave reviews in the past but where is it today and what about tomorrow? Be careful...
Is it compatible with future OS such as Windows 2000 and beyond. Are there any driver incompatibilities. How long will yamaha suppot the product and what may Yamaha produce next that may make you wish you had waited a little longer. Sound cards have gotten cheaper all the way around and don't think Yamaha doesn't recognize this. At it's first release, there wasn't much out there to compete for the price. All I'm saying is don't make any hasty decisions, that's all. If it suits your needs, then go for it!

Peace!

 

[nattn]

my take on this

In my limited experience, I have found that to have a quality sound, you have to get a card that has some sort of break-out box like the Delta 66. Coupled with the delta it's nice to also have a good consumer internal card to use for midi and/or Soundfonts.

I started recording with a soundblaster live card & was dissapointed with the excessive noise I was picking up when recording analog from inside my computer. As soon as I switched to a Delta card with the breakout box the noise has been eliminated. It is the best investment outside of a good mic that I have made to date.

I kept the Soundblaster card in my puter for it's midi and soundfont capabilities. The total price? about $350.00 retail.

Is the Delta / Soundblaster combo the best audio solution out there ? probably not. But for me, it is a pretty darn good one.

 

[MrBoogie]

nattn, the delta 66 is a good sounding card, but it has nothing to do with the breakout box. The breakout box is simply a way to bring the connections out in front where you can get to them. There's no electronics in it.

On the other hand, cards like the Delta 10/10 have the converters in the breakout box, and that is what's supposed make some difference. I don't know if the
difference is audible or not. I've read posts that it makes
little or no difference, but then some say it does.

i have a Delta 66 and think it is the best card for the money for me. I got it for $299 several months ago when stores around here were still getting $399 for it!!!
I'm still very happy with it. It definitely is NOT the weakest link in my home studio.

Romeo

 

[thebear]

Ummmm.....The Bear wants to hear about ALL the Different cards out there....

I thought that this was gonna be like...I have this card or that card....How about we all talk about some of the different cards out there? This could be a smokin thread but I don't know about anyone else out there but a "base" price of 4k is way OUT OF MY leauge for a sound card, I am having a hard time justifying a grand for a keyboard!!!! . And I agree, you get what you pay for.

If you guyz want to war it out, how about a spinoff thread? Title:SPINOFF-PARIS VS THE WORLD COMPETITION.

Now...I, as the little caption below my name reads, I am a "NEWBIE", but I have learned a ton of info on this site, I am actully getting the hang of this digi-world, not up to par with you dig-gods, but learning. I have a SB Platinum with the LINEDRIVE and I really like it. I paid 150.00 at a computer show for it, and for starting out it is most cool. I think that the mixer, source selection interface sucks but I learned HERE how to use it better, and it works pretty well.

How about the Aardvark cards, any body got info on the performance? I have been looking into them, W2k drivers not out untill this summer some time.

Peace, Pot, Microdot...not neccesarily in that order, but to each his own!!!!!Later

And uhhhh....whoever set up the poll should lay off of the last two choices......LOL C'ya

 

[wormhole70]

Aardvark NOOoooOooO

Aardvark is trying very hard to stay above the water. Yes, it boasts 24/96k...Yes, it boasts non-proprietory DSP but I've heard nothing good about the converters and Mic-pre's. I took a gander at the Aardvark several months ago...infact, I was about to lay down the money until I read a review that gave it an average rating for sound and then a salesman at Guitar Center detered me from it as well. He said that a few customers complained about the noisey Mic Pre's which confirmed the review I read. At the time, the Aardvark was a bit more pricy than the Gina 24/96 I bought...the salesman could have sold it to me anyway...know what I mean.

 

[skippy]

Rgrettably: I don't think that there are many people on the site who have direct, personal experience with more than just a few sound cards. That makes it hard to have a meaningful conversation about "the best soundcard". Gidge pointed out the URL for the best overview resource on the net in an earlier post: http://www.pcavtech.com . I used that resource when planning my DAW and picking the sound hardware.

Go there, look through the reviews, see which ones offer the featureset that you require, and rate well in the test data posted there.

The real issue is that everyone will require something radically different in their setups. Some need multichannel audio I/O, some really don't (stereo will do), some need more MIDI, or more DSP, or more _something_. Others need less. My rig probably wouldn't work at all for 90% of the people here- but it works just fine for me. Can I help you pick a card in a meaningful way? Probably not: I don't know what you want to do, but I'll bet a beer that it's different from what I'm doing...

As with any big-ticket item, you need to have a very good idea of what you want before you start writing checks. Other than getting an idea about what other folks are doing, it'll be hard to make that idea gel in your mind by reading this thread. Hope that helps...

 

[twist]

Good points Skippy. But assuming I have a pretty good idea of what I need as far as features, and I've narrowed the field down to just a few choices, how the hell am I ever gonna pick one without being able to make comparisons?

That last post was the first negative comment I've ever heard about the aardvark. Until now I've read a lot of positive reports around here.

I mean all I've got to go on is the spec sheets, (and they're all pretty similar within their respective price categories), and whatever reviews I can find links to, (usually from the manufacturers' web site ), and no one ever gives a bad review!

Seems to be a $500 crap shoot.

Does anyone have an opinion on either the "Seasound Solo EX or the WAMI Rack? They both seem pretty cool, but how come I don't hear much about them?

I had even more trouble finding any info on the Hoontech, and only 2 dealers in the US.

Twist

 

[skippy]

No problem there, then: you've cut the field down to 4 finalists, and now you're looking for concrete info on any of them. That'll work, of course, since anyone who has positive or negative comments on those 4 will chime in.

What typically won't work is to be completely open-ended about it: " I need a sound card, what should I buy?". The field under question is so large that it's completely impossible to simply shoot in the dark and provide any meaningful help, without taking the risk of guiding a newbie off into making a purchase of the wrong box.

Anyhow, that's my point: If you know roughly what you want, folks around here can help and are typically happy to contribute anything they can. However, the way this topic was begun implied a much larger field of play, if I remember correctly...

 

[wormhole70]

Buying a Sound Card

I'm no expert but I would have to agree that deciding on a sound card is subjective to an individuals needs. What I would say is that I wouldn't necessarily take the plunge into the latest and newest product line without getting professional consultation from the vendor. It seems like every few months or so, there's a new company emerging boasting the best specs with ,"Virtually Zero Latency..., Real Time DSP etc." As far as a breakout box is concerned...ofcourse that is the way to go. Get you inputs and outputs as far away from your computer as you can if your recording analog. Lightpipe and SPDF doesn't really matter.

gotta go!

 

[Yadi]

wamirack

While I haven't heard any real world comments (i.e. this bbs) from users of the wamirack, it appears to be one of the most attractive for my needs. 24/96 capable, good specs on the converters, multiple midi ports, multiple in/outs, digital in/out, claims to be gigastudio ready. Not a bad price either...if memory serves (less than layla24).

I'd buy one in a heartbeat but I just want to hear from one...just one real user on this Korean made equipment and whether it is realiable and worth the price.

I've only read reviews (which I rarely rely on) and the reviews are good.

I am about 1 month away from dropping the cash on my equipment (painting the newly built basement studio now).

 

[Kaydis]

In a way this discussion has so far neglected a whole set of options. If your getting into the high end area it's typical to go with out board converters and some kind of digital interface or sound card. This is the approach you find at many high end studios and is the ultimate in "putting together your own system"

Converters are made by quite a few companies Apogee is one industry favorite, and Lucids latest pair of sterio 24/96 converters is very popular. Other companies include Prism, Wiess, RME, db Technologies, Mytek, Benchmark, dCS, and many others.

Digital interfaces are available on a variety of sound cards and are also made by a lot of companies. One favorite seems to be RME's Hamerfall, which is both cost effective and high performance.

You might also need other hardware such as something to generate and distributing a word clock, a mic preamp and other odds and ends.

This is the same equipment used by many high end studios and its getting into the price range affordable (barely) by meer mortals.

 

[JerryD]

Newbie reply. So this doens't really count anyway.

I went with the Lynx one. I like it. Of course I have never heard anything else. The quality is there though.

On the other hand I took some advice and bought a NT1 mic. Don't bother. Er.... I mean "you wanna buy a mic?"

 

[darrin_h2000]

rode nt1 i tried that one at musicians friend clearance center and the plastic lightweight design looked like it was a toy and there was some warm noise to it.

so i ended up with a nady sm900 and i have no complaints here but its not the most popular mic in this bbs. since starting this thread i have gone and purchased a hard disc recorder a korg d8 and with all my outboard effects and equipment. i may get a m-audio pedophile (or was it an audiophile) because my pc is now for loops in acid 2.0 and midi sequencing and burning my cds.

the d8 was only 275 bucks with about 10 hours on it. so i could not pass it up.

as for nashstudio .Icould only wish for a budget like yours. but it would go for the roland 24 track stand alone with a monitor output,$3400. a alesis tannoy bundle. anp and studio monitors $300 plus a rode ntk abot 400.smackers. for the same money as paris this can be had. not bad shopping here.

my layment for pc recording was it is a good medium if you cant afford the hardware . whyget software to do the job of hardware for the same price?

please understand its just a question im not ragging on paris. but touching knobs and faders is like comparing real sex to cyber sex. my mouse can only satisfy me so much id rather do my wife.

 

[Kaydis]

Hmm. There's nothing inherently magical about hardware. By September EMagic and Mackie are supposed to have available a control deck for Logic's Mixer functions. If I really want to twiddle knobs I'll just buy the knobs. I wouldn't be surprised if I could assign those knobs to any functions I want. I'm convinced that computer based recording in one form or another is the wave of the future. The movement in recent times has been more and more away from hardware. As computers gain in power I'd expect that trend to continue. The door has just barely begun to open expect to be amazed in the future.