Hi, I was thinking of buying the ASUS Essence STX II 7.1 sound card, I know the surround sound aspect isn't important, but I would also eventually like to get a surround sound set-up, but my more importantly I want the best sound card for music production, so I'm willing to give the surround sound a miss. I know a lot of you may say "There's not one best sound card" but I want to hear your favourite ones, to hear what comes up more often, and to get a range I can look into, as well as the best rated and best selling ones, so I can do a thorough research...
What's the best sound card for music production?
- Thread starter Skorilla
- Start date
BroKen_H
Re-member
AVID MBox Pro does 5.1 and has a lot of great features...
AFA "sound cards", I don't think you'll get many recommendations. Most use an audio interface, due to the inherent problems with sound cards (lack of i/o without breakouts, lousy AD/DA converters, etc.).
The very cheapest (least expensive) of interfaces (Scarlet 2i2, M-Audio MTrack II, Mackie Blackjack, PreSonus AudioBox, etc.) beat that audio card hands down in specs and i/o plus the availability of ASIO drivers for low latency...
Now to get surround sound, you'll have to look a bit closer. The Saffire Pro 40 being the least expensive option I can think of. It does, however require a Firewire connection.
AFA "sound cards", I don't think you'll get many recommendations. Most use an audio interface, due to the inherent problems with sound cards (lack of i/o without breakouts, lousy AD/DA converters, etc.).
The very cheapest (least expensive) of interfaces (Scarlet 2i2, M-Audio MTrack II, Mackie Blackjack, PreSonus AudioBox, etc.) beat that audio card hands down in specs and i/o plus the availability of ASIO drivers for low latency...
Now to get surround sound, you'll have to look a bit closer. The Saffire Pro 40 being the least expensive option I can think of. It does, however require a Firewire connection.
If it has to be a PCIe card the choice is now very limited, this...ESI Juli@ XTe PCIe Audio Interface | DV247
is one of the few left (RME still do them but well expensive). I have no idea how good the above is but it has been around a long time and I have read nothing bad in ten years of forum lurking.
You say you want "highest quality" so I would park ssound for now and look at proper interfaces.
USB is by far the most common connection and the range of I/O and price is vast. My sub £200 fave is the Native Instruments KA6. The Steinberg UR series look good as do Rolands "capture" range.
Very high converter quality is a given these days so other matters need consideration. Latency is VERY important to some people and how low it is is not a simple figure and makers "massage" the way they present it. If low latency IS important to you do look at KAFKAT's thread over at Sound On Sound | Recording Techniques | Audio Technology | Music Production | Computer Music | Video Media forum.
Dave.
is one of the few left (RME still do them but well expensive). I have no idea how good the above is but it has been around a long time and I have read nothing bad in ten years of forum lurking.
You say you want "highest quality" so I would park ssound for now and look at proper interfaces.
USB is by far the most common connection and the range of I/O and price is vast. My sub £200 fave is the Native Instruments KA6. The Steinberg UR series look good as do Rolands "capture" range.
Very high converter quality is a given these days so other matters need consideration. Latency is VERY important to some people and how low it is is not a simple figure and makers "massage" the way they present it. If low latency IS important to you do look at KAFKAT's thread over at Sound On Sound | Recording Techniques | Audio Technology | Music Production | Computer Music | Video Media forum.
Dave.
Pinky
and The Brain...
You may want to explore having a PCIe card for surround and general windows duties (like gaming), and also have a USB interface for recording purposes. For the cost of both you'll still come in well under the cost for one *good* PCIe sound card that would be better for recording than the USB interface. Fwiw, that Asus card looks like overkill in this scenario. Get a cheaper Creative X-fi or whatever for general use instead.
+1 ^
It has occurred that the OP might think that a soundcard/AI is a ***t or bust situation? That is, you go PCIe OR USB...Not so, I have two PCs with M-Audio 2496 cards in them (one has two) but I can plug in and run my Ni KA6 or 8i6 at any time, just select the appropriate device in the DAW software.
"Quality" and surround sound are not really mates? Many sources are processed to buggery.
Dave.
It has occurred that the OP might think that a soundcard/AI is a ***t or bust situation? That is, you go PCIe OR USB...Not so, I have two PCs with M-Audio 2496 cards in them (one has two) but I can plug in and run my Ni KA6 or 8i6 at any time, just select the appropriate device in the DAW software.
"Quality" and surround sound are not really mates? Many sources are processed to buggery.
Dave.