which audio interface is the best?

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xrap03

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ok, i have a P4 2.8 ht computer with 120gb harddrive and 512 megs of ram with a dvd-burner and a cd burner. along with it, i bought a external soundblaster soundcard for a $130 bucks. i bought the soundcard because it gave me the capability to record at 24/96. so i also bought a Yamaha MG124 12-Channel Mixer. and the way i record is like this, i have a y-cable that i have coming from the rec out of the mixer to the line-in of the soundcard. i have a condenser mic, behringer b1, the only one i could find in my price range. it sounds nice. no problems. the program i use to record is acid pro 4.0 and to edit everything i'm using sound forge. i know using acid pro 4.0 to record is not what i need to record with, but that's all i got. one of these days, i hope to get cubase sx.
but anyway, overall, it sounds nice and clean, but it doesn't sound like studio quality. so, i talked with one of the sales engineer at sweetwater. com and they told me to get Aardvark DirectPro 24/96 PC Studio Interface or the pro tools digi 002 but that's too much. so i've been reading about what you guys have to say about everthing and i've also been doing some research but i'm still wondering, should i get this or is there anything else that's better? perhaps delta or motu? can you please help? thank you for your help
 
How many tracks do you want to record at once?
A delta101lt will do 8
A delta 44 will do 4
An Audiophile 2496 will do 2. All these card have recently dropped in price.

Then there's the E-mu cards to check out as well
 
4 tracks would be fine. i've been looking at the delta 44 and the 1010lt as well as the E-mu cards, but what about the aardvark products?
 
Forget about the digi 002, go for the E-mu. You get 24/192khz capability at a MUCH lower cost. For 24/96, by far the best I've heard is the Echo series (Layla, Mona, Indigo etc...). MOTU stuff seems to be aimed towards mac users, so stay clear of that.

If you have enough dough for a digi 002, you could get the premium E-mu system plus a couple of DI's or microphones or something...that is unless you're set on using pro tools, in which case I would recommend saving up about $5,000 for a TDM system. On a PC in order to get 24/192, I believe you have to go with a Nuendo system since Emagic went Mac only....don't quote me on that though :P


hope that helps!
 
I must say that emu looks sweet. But for that price, there must be some compromise or am i just pushing the Emu sales people to increase price? :rolleyes: i mean, those converters seem to beat the hell out of the RME's... well at least feature wise... with an external clock, you would have a killer system... right?

Wehere's the catch? or shoudl i stop talking and start buying?
 
Am I the only one here who thinks that samplerates beyond 44.1kHz are not very important in a HOME STUDIO? AFAIK there hasn't been a single scientific blind test indicating that people can hear differece between sounds captured @44100 Hz and higher samplerates. Raising the samplerate from 44kHz to 192kHz would mean that every component of your system must cope with 4.3 times as much data, and for what? A negligible difference in sound quality only bats can hear.

Don't make much sense to someone like me who has to work for the money. I'd rather be mixing 20 tracks with loads of effects @44kHz than 4 - 5 tracks @192kHz.
 
I agree with your comments, but the freqs above 20khz are usefull when you are doing lots of effects and stuff. I'll leave the tech info for the techies.
 
Guhlenn, the new E-mu cards are amazing. The sound quality of the 1212M surpasses anything that I've heard close to it's price point and above. The drivers are a little immature at this point, but still useable. I am confident that existing bugs will be worked out and additional features perhaps implemented in time. For now, these cards are a good choice. The new 0404 will be an amazing card for the budget musician as well.
 
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I love the E-mu cards as well, but the drivers aren't totally there, the two culprits being WDM and GSIF. Those 100 dollar audiophiles at American Musical would be great for a cheap Gigastudio setup.
 
I believe that the WDM drivers will eventually be improved. For now, they should suit most user's needs.
 
so y'all saying i should get a e-mu card? what about aardvark?
 
adam_in_audio said:
Forget about the digi 002, go for the E-mu. You get 24/192khz capability at a MUCH lower cost. For 24/96, by far the best I've heard is the Echo series (Layla, Mona, Indigo etc...). MOTU stuff seems to be aimed towards mac users, so stay clear of that.
Click to expand...

I have a MOTU 828mkII and a P4 3gHz machine .... works flawlessly and sounds awesome IMHO.
 
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