What Sound Card Should I Get?

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jtrimble62

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Hello all,

I am an old school analog guy who grew up recording on reel-to-reel and Tascam 4 and 8 tracks. I want to make the jump to digital recording (and for all you analog proponents out there, I am one myself and have my analog equipment).

I have just purchsed a new computer with 120 gig HD, 512MB memory and an Athalon 2.6 processor...should be plenty to run Cakewalk guitar track pro, which is what I'll be using.

My question is: What sound card should I buy to give me good sound, flexability and room to grow. I am leaning towards a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Pro ZS, their newest. I have seen the Aardvark, M-data and tons of tothers. Best I can tell all I really need to worry about is 24bit/96khz sample rates, playback while recording feature and basics such as frequency response. I am prepared to spend up to $300 for a sound card, but obviously if I can get off cheaper I would like to. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.


Jeff
 
Lots of questions:

1) What are you recording? What kind of microphones do you have? What kind of microphone preamps do you have? What do you want to do with the system overall? What kind of speakers are you using?

In general, the Soundblaster cards are all a couple of generations back in terms of quality compared to cards designed specifically for audio recording. The M-Audio cards have a lot of fans. I have a set of Aardvark interfaces that I LOVE.

But... it makes a lot of difference depending on whether you are just trying to lay down some scratch tracks for composing, or if you are trying to get to full commercial album release quality.

-lee-
 
I will be recording my own material. I have a SURE SM58 and an old Sony condensor. Will soon be getting an upgraded condensor. I have no preamp except my Berhinger board, which I suppose I could run out of, but my thoughts were leaning towards a direct to digital interface from my mics and instuments. I've seen many cards that supply on external plug in box as well as the PCI card. I definately want to record 24/96. I have Cakewalk's Guitar Tracks Pro, which has 32 tracks, and I definatley want a card that will help me get the most out of the features this program offers. Hope this helps fill the gaps, thanks for your reply!

Jeff
 
...couplea things...

First off, yes, sample rates are important, but not the only factor to think about. The quality of the A/D converters is critical in the quality you end up with - if it didn't, we'd all stack 4 $15 sound cards in our systems and save a ton of cash (don't laugh - I actually did it a few years back). So, unfortunately reputation matters (unless you want to review white papers until the cows come home. I'd stick with better known names, take your time checking out the pros & cons.

Secondly, unless you buy a sound card with built-in mic preamps (like the Aardvark Q-10 which is about $700), you'll need preamps or a mixer with direct-outs/channel inserts . Sound cards need line-level signals, just like your analog gear.

You could probably get a Delta 1010lt or an ST-Audio C-Port in the $300 range if you look hard enough. Depending on which mixer you have, you might be able to use it's pre's to get you by for the time being.
 
Creative Labs stuff is not up to par. Recording at 24/96 on those sounds worse than recording at 16/44.1 on an Aardvark Q10, Delta 1010, Echo/Layla what have you. If you're proclaiming to be an analog lover I guarantee you'll be disapointed with the CL stuff and you'll immediatly think that digital is crap. The main problem with Creative or other consumer level cards (like the offerings from Terratec) is that their clocks and subsequently their AD converters are of substandard quality. They introduce jitter and aliasing artifacts and have low headroom. I don't care how high a resolution you record at on these cards, it will not sound good.

No matter what you get, if you're going to use mics then you're going to need mic pres either built into the sound card (like the Q10) or external ones, so factor in their cost as well.

Good luck
 
Terratec is leaps and bounds ahead of Creative. The comparison has no merit.
 
jtrimble62 said:
I definately want to record 24/96.

Jeff
Click to expand...

Then do your research carefully, because some companies will advertise their product as 24/96 while in fact a look at the specs will indicate it actually records at a lower bit rate with only the internal processing at 24 bit.

Echo Gina 24/96 is such a card.

Cy
 
For Aardvark, you could find one of the 24/96 four-input cards for less than four bills used sometimes. I had someone offer that to me the other day, I'm at work...the email's at home...I'll PM it to you later.

I already have a n Aardvark 24/96 and love it. It has great preamps built in.
 
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