USB Audio interface versus PCMCIA

  • Thread starter Thread starter fingerbreaker
  • Start date Start date
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fingerbreaker

New member
Hello,

I am trying to use Cubase 6.0 on a Windows 7 64-bit desktop pc. I was getting audio out of both MIDI and audio projects, but now I'm not getting any sound (on playback, all indications are that Cubase is sending audio out, but my speakers are silent). I've learned that my soundcard (SB X-Fi extreme) is not ASIO-compatible and I'm assuming that whether or not that is the problem, I should get that addressed first.

I installed ASIO4ALL but that didn't fix the problem so I'm game to just get a new soundcard. Limited internet research has led me to believe that I should veer towards USB interfaces because that is the future or maybe even the present.

1. What are the tradeoffs between USB audio interfaces and PCMCIA? Is USB the way to go?
2. Recommendations for a good basic audio interface for my set up? I mainly record piano so I don't need anything very fancy.

Thanks,
fingerbreaker
 
I don't think anyone's making PCMCIA stuff anymore, so USB has an advantage there.

There are a ton of interfaces out there - I just recommended the Focusrite Sapphire 6 USB in another thread, so I guess I'll do it again here.
 
Thanks for the reply, antichef. Per their website, the Sapphire 6 has an issue working with Intel i3/i5/i7 and I think I have an i5 or i7 running my pc. They mention a workaround putting in a different USB driver card but I would vote myself "most likely to screw that up", so I'm still taking other suggestions!
 
If you only want sound card to deal with the latency and nothing else, i don't think that you'll need interface like saffire 6, get something like fast track mkii (has great own usb driver) or even more cheaper like behringer uca222m but i think that your problem with not hearing anything in the speakers is software based not hardware, so check your settings.
 
funkyto said:
...but i think that your problem with not hearing anything in the speakers is software based not hardware, so check your settings.
Click to expand...
Yeah, check VST connections in Cubase (press F4 while Cubase is opened and check the input and output tabs).

btw I remember not having problems with i7 and Saffire6, but I could have been exception. :)
 
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