Which Sound Card

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christos

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What sound card do i buy to be able to record live instruments and also use it for all other uses on computer?
is Audigy platinum full duplex card?
Music stores i have visited have mentioned to me the audiophile 2496 for recording but that card wont allow you to play games cause it has no sounds
Is there a card that will handle all tasks INCLUDING recording?
PLEASE SOMEONE HELP HERE
 
Christos,

In the words of all the veterans of this bbs: "Do a search on soundcards - you'll have more info than you can ever learn."

rpe
 
christos said:
What sound card do i buy to be able to record live instruments and also use it for all other uses on computer?
is Audigy platinum full duplex card?
Music stores i have visited have mentioned to me the audiophile 2496 for recording but that card wont allow you to play games cause it has no sounds
Is there a card that will handle all tasks INCLUDING recording?
PLEASE SOMEONE HELP HERE
Click to expand...
Check your other post....
And by the way, the music store is full of shit. The sounds are in the game and the audiophile can play them quite well.
And its a great entry level recording card.;)
 
A terratec dmx 6fire (or 6fire LT) is a good multipurpose soundcard. It includes gaming support (sensura for 3D multichannel sound and effects) in its drivers unlike the audiophile or mia or all the other pro sound cards which are limited to 2 channel directsound with no effects. That is why the music store told you the audiophile has limited gaming capabilities (which is true).

The recording capabilities (sound quality and drivers) of the 6fire are equivalent to an audiophile or EWX 24/96.

The 6fire LT list price is Aus$350 therefore you should be able to get it for less than A$300 which is a pretty good price of a decent sound card and is much better than an Audigy.

Here is a review of the 6fire:
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/Apr02/articles/terratecdmx6.asp
 
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christos.

For any real advise, you need to be more specific as far as your recording needs. You stated you wanted to record live instruments as well as use the card for common PC apps.

You need to consider a few variables:

-what type of instruments will you be recording? A drumset? A guitar? A keyboard?

-how many instruments do you need to record AT THE SAME TIME?

-what type of budget are you looking at?

The Audiophile 2496 that you spoke of is a fantastic card (especially for the price) if you plan on multitracking, or if perhaps want to use a dedicated outboard preamp/ A/D converter (such as the ART DPS unit) and use the S/PDIF in's; however, keep in mind that this card would prove quite insufficient if you needed to track an entire band at the same time. In this case you might want to consider stepping up to something with more I/O options. Also, what type of MIDI implentation do you need? Is one set of MIDI I/O's sufficient?? As you can see, there are many variables that need to be taken into consideration before you spend your hard earned cash on a card only to find out it doesn't meet your expectations.

By the way, I'm sure you local music store was mistaken about the audiophile. It most definately can play and sounds from a PC game. They may have been referring to the fact that the audiophile has no onboard wavetable synthesizer.

good luck.
ls
 
Audigy is a full duplex card. However, it does not handle audio recording as good as Audiophile.

But Audiophile has limitations. 1 pair of audio, 1 midi i/o, no software synth, gaming capabilities...

I think using SB for MIDI and games, and Audiophile for Audio would be a good idea ;) The price of SB Live! (70USD) + Audiophile (150USD) is still cheaper than Terratec DMX Fire (250USD).
 
Do not buy an audigy! I recently sold mine and got myself a Delta1010lt and for the price I couldn't be happier. Much better drivers and possibilities. You get 2 preamps and 8 analog I/Os for, if you live in the US, 250$.
 
Audiophile is quite fine for gaming audio. As a matter of fact, I use mine all the time for Unreal Tournament 2003, Half Life (and mods), and other games. I actually use a CAD GXL 1200 through my little Behringer mixer to Audiophile ins for my voice communication during Natural Selection. :)

Yeah, it is a bit limited if you want to do a lot of multi-tracking. Me, I basically have a hardware synth, GigaStudio (on the same computer) and maybe a vocalist or soloist, so the Audiophile is just about perfect for me. Whether it's perfect for you, that's your decision. :)
 
lost studios said:
christos.

For any real advise, you need to be more specific as far as your recording needs. You stated you wanted to record live instruments as well as use the card for common PC apps.

You need to consider a few variables:

-what type of instruments will you be recording? A drumset? A guitar? A keyboard?

-how many instruments do you need to record AT THE SAME TIME?

-what type of budget are you looking at?

The Audiophile 2496 that you spoke of is a fantastic card (especially for the price) if you plan on multitracking, or if perhaps want to use a dedicated outboard preamp/ A/D converter (such as the ART DPS unit) and use the S/PDIF in's; however, keep in mind that this card would prove quite insufficient if you needed to track an entire band at the same time. In this case you might want to consider stepping up to something with more I/O options. Also, what type of MIDI implentation do you need? Is one set of MIDI I/O's sufficient?? As you can see, there are many variables that need to be taken into consideration before you spend your hard earned cash on a card only to find out it doesn't meet your expectations.

By the way, I'm sure you local music store was mistaken about the audiophile. It most definately can play and sounds from a PC game. They may have been referring to the fact that the audiophile has no onboard wavetable synthesizer.

good luck.
ls
Click to expand...

I will be recording ONE instrument at the same time and creating tracks as i go.
I was using a turtle beach card with cakewalk but that card is not for win xp as i updated pc and operating system.
I am not intending to record the whole band at once.
The musical instruments are all stringed instruments like the quitar and ofcourse vocals.
 
alfalfa said:
A terratec dmx 6fire (or 6fire LT) is a good multipurpose soundcard. It includes gaming support (sensura for 3D multichannel sound and effects) in its drivers unlike the audiophile or mia or all the other pro sound cards which are limited to 2 channel directsound with no effects. That is why the music store told you the audiophile has limited gaming capabilities (which is true).

The recording capabilities (sound quality and drivers) of the 6fire are equivalent to an audiophile or EWX 24/96.

The 6fire LT list price is Aus$350 therefore you should be able to get it for less than A$300 which is a pretty good price of a decent sound card and is much better than an Audigy.

Here is a review of the 6fire:
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/Apr02/articles/terratecdmx6.asp
Click to expand...

Thanx i looked at that site the card sounds good
it retails 550 australian$$ the audiophile 2496 is $524 and the audigy 2 platinum ex i can pick it up for $400
IM LOST confused and dont know what to get LOL
 
Alright Christos, now we're getting somewhere. :)

Now, I have another question for you. Do you have any type of external (hardware) mixer? Maybe a small Behringer or Mackie? If so, then I would say the audiophile is for you. Just line your instrument or mic or whatever into the mixer and use the 2 track outputs (unbalanced RCA) to connect to the analog ins of the Audiophile. If you don't have some sort of preamp, take into consideration that the Audiophile has just unbalanced RCA ins and outs (analog wise), which is perfectly fine, but I would suggest having some sort of preamp before it.

Here's my opinion of a hot setup on a low budget. Get the ART DPS and an Audiophile 2496. The ART DPS (http://www.procom.no/produkt/arttudio1.htm) has gotten great reviews in every recording magazine I've read over the last 9 months. I have 3 of them right now in my preproduction rig. It's a 2 channel tube preamp with onboard A/D converters capable of sampling rates from 44.1 to 96. It also has inserts on each channel so you can patch in a compressor, parametric eq, or whatever comes along in the future; furthermore, the inserts are post preamp and right before the A/D converter so you also have a high quality A/D converter always on hand! Essentially the idea is getting a nice sounding tube pre and converting to digital signal outside of the computer with a dedicated converter and sending a digital signal (in this case S/PDIF) into the Audiophile's S/PDIF in which will result in one hell of a warm pristine signal chain for not a lot of dough.

just my 2cents

good luck
ls
 
lost studios said:
Alright Christos, now we're getting somewhere. :)

Yes i do have a mixer Berringer 1622 fx pro
The recordings i will be making will be from string instruments and
because i want an acoustic effect i will record through a mic (shure sm 57) I also have a cassio synthesiser for midi.
But because my kids are also using pc i thought of looking for a card that will also allow playing games and whatever else one needs sound on pc.
Am i asking for too much? Surely there is a card out there that will do both jobs.
Click to expand...
 
i'm sure there but it is just like a minivan trying to keep up with a ferrari, they both get where they are going, but one's better than the other.

You could always but a good recording card and a cheap $20 card for video games and install them both. it works, you just have to specify the cheap card as the main one and your recording card as the secondary and in your recording software you should be able to specify which one you want to record from (I know n-track allows you to, so i'm sure the more expensive ones do also)
 
Christos, why dont you get the 6fire or 6fire LT? It is just as good as an audiophile for recording and it has full gaming support (with 5.1 outputs and sensura for gaming effects and HRTF). Isnt that what you want, a card that does it all?

The LT is cheaper because it doesnt have the breakout box with the mic and phono preamps and coaxial spdif I/O (only optical spdif). Since you already have a mixer you probably dont need the features on the breakout box. The 6fire LT is less than Aus$350.

You wont hear as much about terratec on this board because most of its members are from the North America and tend to be mainly familiar with M-Audio products. Check out the forums on the sound on sound website or 3d sound surge if you want to hear more opinions about it. There you will hear from people who are using it both for music production and for gaming. You are not expecting too much and the 6fire does both (though for hardcore gaming the Audigy2 is the best because of EAX and the fact it is the industry standard for games)
 
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alfalfa said:
Christos, why dont you get the 6fire or 6fire LT? It is just as good as an audiophile for recording and it has full gaming support (with 5.1 outputs and sensura for gaming effects and HRTF). Isnt that what you want, a card that does it all?

The LT is cheaper because it doesnt have the breakout box with the mic and phono preamps and coaxial spdif I/O (only optical spdif). Since you already have a mixer you probably dont need the features on the breakout box. The 6fire LT is less than Aus$350.


When you say less than Aus $ 350 you mean AUSTRALIAN $$ ???
I have rang around and they all quote me from $550 to $650
Click to expand...
 
Yes $350 australian dollars. Are you confusing the 6fire with the 6fire LT? Maybe the website I looked at has got it wrong but why dont you ask them. Here is their website. You can download their price list which shows rrp prices. The LT is shown as A$349.

http://www.majormusic.com.au/index.html

or try here also shown as $349
http://www.musicsoftware.com.au/shop/item48.htm

You probably can negotiate a discount if you contact them. I am also not sure if the LT has a midi in/out connections.
 
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alfalfa said:
Yes $350 australian dollars. Are you confusing the 6fire with the 6fire LT? Maybe the website I looked at has got it wrong but why dont you ask them. Here is their website. You can download their price list which shows rrp prices. The LT is shown as A$349.

http://www.majormusic.com.au/index.html

or try here also shown as $349
http://www.musicsoftware.com.au/shop/item48.htm

You probably can negotiate a discount if you contact them. I am also not sure if the LT has a midi in/out connections.
Click to expand...

Thanx mate im on the site now
 
Whats wrong with the 6fire? How come you are now looking at a soundblaster when you've been told by everyone to avoid them like the plague? Any pro audio brand is better than creative labs - get an M-Audio, Echo, Terratec whatever.
 
alfalfa said:
Whats wrong with the 6fire? How come you are now looking at a soundblaster when you've been told by everyone to avoid them like the plague? Any pro audio brand is better than creative labs - get an M-Audio, Echo, Terratec whatever.
Click to expand...

Someone told me that yes the soundblaster was NEVER any good for recording but...................you ready..................he also said that the new one that has the ASIO drivers does in fact record good quility
Im curently building my new pc and i still have a few weeks to look at the difrent options for the sound card so i guess the more i look and hear the more i learn.
 
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