Soundcard advice please.

[Mr Fruit]

Ok, I'd like a bit of advice please.

Ive got a set up with mostly analogue gear, but still waiting on some repairs to my fostex 8 track, so I want to temporarily use a pc.

I have a fostex 812 mixer.......

I dont need a fancy card, as I want to get back to the 8 track as soon as possible, and i dont need any external plug in boxes as my existing mixer should do that job. just need a simple, clean as possible card to input the mixer to, and output to my power amp.



I have a 5 year old pc, pentium 2, 2600 processor, with soundforge and cubasis on it.

will this card be ok to plug my mixer into, to work with cubasis?

any potential problems?

Am I being niave? is there more to it than that?

audiophile card:

 

[Waffleness]

I would aim to record all of the outputs from the Fostex. I would look at finding an 8 channel interface, then patching the fostex into it 1 to 1. This will give you greater control.

If you are really set on just recording the LR output, then that card will do a good job. You have quite an old computer, so I am unsure whether USB will be fast enough (I assume it has 1.1) so you may as well forget USB sound cards.

You could always buy a firewire to PCI card, and an 8 channel firewire interface. I have never done this, so can't recommend it, or confirm it works as easily as that

Good luck

 

[Mr Fruit]

Thanks for the advice!

I presume an 8 input soundcard would be significanly more expensive though?

the audiophile cards are around £50 new, on ebay.

I was not intending to use a usb soundcard, I was going to use a pci card type........I presumed the above card was pci......

 

[Waffleness]

Thanks for the advice!

I presume an 8 input soundcard would be significanly more expensive though?

the audiophile cards are around £50 new, on ebay.

I was not intending to use a usb soundcard, I was going to use a pci card type........I presumed the above card was pci......

Yeah you are correct, its a PCI card. If you budget is below £100, I would stick with the card you mentioned.

 

[2Kickdrums]

USB 1.x wont cut it; USB 2.x will do the trick. Firewire is even better depending on the version.

Any sound card with RCA (line) level inputs with > 90 dB singal to noise
ratio is going to sound very good.

I'm going to plug the Audigy 2 sound card again:

24-bit ADVANCED HD™ audio, 108dB SNR clarity across 8 channels, and is the only available PC platform to deliver Advanced Resolution™ 24-bit DVD-Audio playback in 24-bit/192kHz stereo and

Check it out; shouldn't be too much out of your budget:
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Labs-Platinum-Internal-70SB035000003/dp/B0000CD0BU

http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/audigy2zs/

 

[TimOBrien]

Here's a good guide and tested suggestions:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

(You REALLY want to go read through all of Tweak's Guide...)


Here are two articles for hooking up mixers to soundcards:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/how_to_hookup_a_mixer.htm
http://www.ethanwiner.com/mixer2daw.html

 

[Mr Fruit]

Ok, thanks for that information, im going to read it all now, though I just read all of tweaks article, and i must say i am not much wiser. So be prepared for more really stupid questions.

 

[Mr Fruit]

USB 1.x wont cut it; USB 2.x will do the trick.

Any sound card with RCA (line) level inputs with > 90 dB singal to noise
ratio is going to sound very good.


http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/audigy2zs/

Sorry, Im sooooo new to digital recording that the above quote goes right over my head.....

Does the audiphile (m-audio) 2496 card have usb 1 or usb 2? or am i even asking the right question?

Ok im off to read the article on hooking up a mixer.....

 

[Mr Fruit]

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496.html

 

[ocnor]

I dont need a fancy card, as I want to get back to the 8 track as soon as possible, and i dont need any external plug in boxes as my existing mixer should do that job. just need a simple, clean as possible card to input the mixer to, and output to my power amp.

That M-Audio card will work fine for what you are doing. I'm not sure why everyone is trying to make this more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[Bristol Posse]

The question of USB 1 or 2 or FireWire is irrelevant in this case since you are looking at a PCI card which is not connecting via either method.

The m_audio card you mention is fine for what you want to do

 

[Mr Fruit]

Thanks guys.

 

[dgatwood]

In terms of sound quality, your best bet is probably FireWire gear. The PCI gear is almost exclusively pre-2k designs that haven't been updated to take into account improvements in converter technology over the last decade or so. The USB stuff... if it works, great, but some of it can be rather cranky.

 

[Mr Fruit]

My computer is around that period, about 2001, its a pentium 2 , 2800 processer, with 500 meg of ram, so pci is probably comparable technology.....not sure it would have the guts or inputs to run firewire stuff, Ill bear in mind what you say though and do a bit of research.