What soundcard for audio not midi?

[db51]

I'll be setting up my first home studio project in a few month's time...In the meantime, I do some research and try to raise the money

I was thinking of buying the digi001 for pc but after reading the DUC on Digi's site I got kind of scared off by the lack of compability with anything except for old intel chipsets and intel PIII. The thing is, I'll be buying a new computer dedicated to audio in about six month and I intend to buy an Athlon (the PIII being more expensive for inferior performances, there's not much point in buying one). I'll be recording just guitars, drums and vocals, so basicly I won't be using any MIDI at all. From what I've understood, great audio track support is one of the digi001's main assets, while MOTU cards for example are leaning more towards MIDI. I'm looking towards spending a maximum of 800-900$ for the soundcard. As software I'll probably be using cubase 5.0 or I'll try to get started on Logic since i've heard so much about it in this forum. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Emeric]

Well, first off. What makes you think the PIII is inferior performance-wise. That's marketing hype. Ignore it.

When it comes to compatability issues... be prepared if you want to go the AMD route. This lack of compatability is not caused by 'old' intel chipsets. That 'old' chipset is probably the Intel 440BX, which IMO is still the best, although the 815 is not too bad. It's caused by new via chipsets, which come out every other week. Hardware manufacturers just don't test as much on Athlon chipsets as much as they do on Intel. As well, software manufacturers don't either. Sad but true, monopoly maybe but that is the state of things.

The Athlon is a very good chip, comparable to the PIII, but better..? depends on the application, miniscule difference in most cases. BUT, compatability with soundcards and other hardware is a problem. If you go Athlon platform, choose your hardware very carefully. This is why your finding that most of the prosumer cards may have problems with the AMD Athlon on VIA and or AMD chipsets.

Lots of people are using Athlon's as a DAW sucessfully, but research the compatability of ALL your hardware carefully, not just the soundcard. I've run across some pretty strange stuff with VIA chipsets.

 

[Ty]

Hi db51

Every thing Emeric says is sad but true, I've built a lot of computers in my time
and I've often had problems with AMD and there Chipset's.
Intel on the other hand work well with everything.

Another thing to think about would be to use Nuendo instead of Cubase 5.0
as it is one of the best for Audio.

Ty