Starting my $500 studio: Classic question, no answer found.

I can only say I have no trust in Behringer products. The EMU-1212m may be good for its class but is still an internal sound card. I have used them but I have never had the quality and flexibility that I have had with external USB or Firewire Audio Interfaces. If you wanted to go Focusrite, I would nod my head vigorously. If you wanted to go the Mobile Pre, I would say "sure" along with M-Audio's better products. M-Audio, Focusrite, Presonus and Lexicon are all great interfaces. I don't think, based on my experience, that I would ever go back to an internal sound card for any reason.
 
The way I see it, if I get decent outboard pres (The pre's on the Soundcraft are way better than m-audio pre's from what I've experienced so far) then I could save some serious money by getting AD/DA without pres, and upgrade the AD/DA if I ever need to and keep my pres, or if I need better pres I can do that and keep my AD/DA (I guess if I get a USB and want to upgrade pre's later I can use outboard pres and use line ins on the interface... but at that point, how is it different from an internal card?)

Internal cards are always faster (PCIe is faster than USB or FW) and don't take up a USB port. The external interfaces are cheaper for a reason, generally... but then again, at this price point it's probably not that much difference ($150 for 12 channels seems pretty cheap).

Are there any boards like the Alesis MultiMix that send multi-track, or are they still just stereo over USB?
 
If you have reasons for buying or using an internal sound card and you feel compelled to do so, by all means go for it. I can't argue with the Soundcraft mixer. It gives you most of the I/O that you are likely to need for now. However, since you were in a home recording forum, I imagine you will be recording your own music. In general, tests have shown that internal sound cards have a higher noise floor than external sound cards. Any opportunity to reduce the noise is important in a recording system. As for speed, even a slow Firewire communicates at 400MB/Sec same as USB 2.0 so latency is not exactly an issue. Sound cards are designed to be compact and that generally means they consist of only what is required to get reasonable sound in and out of the computer. I don't think you will be very satisfied with the quality of sound from any internal sound card for very long. An external audio interface offers much more in the way of device I/O such as midi, spdif and a larger range of high-quality inputs and outputs. The Focusrite Saffire PRO 40 that I use has 8 x mic inputs and 10 x audio outputs, 2 spdif I/O sockets, 2 optical I/O sockets and 2 x midi I/O sockets plus 2x headphone sockets. The mic pres are world class and an extensive mixer panel appears onscreen. It is powered from the mains, rather than your computer.

It sounds like you have a reasonable system ready to go. I was just making some points that you might consider later. Good luck :)
 
Regarding the multi-channels, the Focusrite Saffire PRO allows you to route any input signal or DAW output to any of 20 outputs. Certainly not limited to stereo. I have recorded a complete band using 8 microphones as well as an external mixer, with each instrument going to their own track. The external mixer (to which the vocal mics were connected) came in as a stereo track but the drums and guitar amps were each miked to the Saffire PRO 40 directly.
 
LmnLm3 said:
The external interfaces are cheaper for a reason, generally...
Click to expand...

Was that a typo? Or are you suggesting that the "reason" is because external interfaces are of lesser quality? You CAN get high-end PCI cards that are more expensive than low-end external interfaces but when you start talking high-end in both, there is no comparison. The externals have more I/Os and run on their own power supplies. RME and M-Audio do make high-quality sound cards but compare them to Presonus, Mackie and Steinberg audio interfaces, there's really no comparison. That doesn't mean that you can't get a great recording from a good internal sound card. But unless you have a PCI sound card that hooks into an external interface box then your options are somewhat limited. There are more external audio interfaces that I would spend money on before going back to an internal sound card. Just an IMO
 
I think if you got the bigger emu and the ada8000 you'd be wanting to upgrade fairly soon.

The ada8000 gets great rep for it's conversion but not for its preamps.
I've used them. They're noisier than I'd like.
 
look ...... for 500$ you can get going and ALL of the suggestions and even your own plan will work.
For the prices you're talking about, as time goes by and you learn more, almost every single thing you get you will want to replace down the road.

I don't record on a 'puter but I've never heard anything positive about stock soundcards from those who do.
Those soundcards aren't built to sound good and they're primarily meant to reproduce the beeps and boops of video games.
As for the rest ..... it's all budget gear and will perform like it. And that's not bad. Even budget gear nowadays can make a reasonably decent recording.

I wouldn't stress about it quite so much ..... there's no magic gear that you're gonna get that's gonna be pro-level despite being cheap. And mics ...... well, you can only get a vague idea from reviews ..... the ONLY way to know for sure is to get one and use it.
I can't count the number of times I've seen someone buy a mic based on suggestions that it was great and then not like it.
Pick some stuff and get recording.
 
Sorry haven't been back in a while (and sorry for bumping such an old thread!) but I wanted to report that for a few months I was happily using the Soundcraft with RCA to my motherboard sound card, and had no noise issues whatsoever (listed as 104dB s/n, and I think it's pretty good, might even be that high, can't tell!)

The capacitors blew in the power supply on the mixer (maybe from having it powered on too long at a time? I was using it like 8-16 hours a day for 3 months) and it's under warranty, but while I'm sending it for repair, they said it could take a while.

So I found on amazon a new Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for 135 and then 15% off. 114 for a bus powered little box with pretty good pre's, I won't complain!

You were all correct about me stressing too much - get whatever feels right at the time, and move on later. I guess I'm one of those "learn the hard way" type of guys, so I need experience. It's working out.

Something is a bit noisy now and then, but I can't tell if it's the pre's or the mic's that I'm using... (GLS ES-57, AT2020 that i might replace, and a EV PL84) the EV is silent practically up to like 8 or 9, but the GLS (of course its a cheap dynamic) has quite a floor, and the AT2020 is noisier than I want a condenser to be... Defective? perhaps... Too sensitive and picking up noise that I can't hear in my room? maybe...

Any thoughts on this?
 
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