Which soundcard???? Your opinion, please.

  • Thread starter Thread starter musicsdarkangel
  • Start date Start date

Which soundcard fits best for quality/latency?

  • M-Audio Audiophile

    Votes: 14 23.3%

  • Yamaha DS2416 DSP Factory Soundcard

    Votes: 1 1.7%

  • Echo Gina

    Votes: 3 5.0%

  • Echo Darla

    Votes: 6 10.0%

  • M-Audio Delta 66

    Votes: 36 60.0%
  • Total voters
    60
M

musicsdarkangel

New member
ahh, yes, I'm on a budget, preferably under 400 bucks, or 400. I'm lookin at the Echo Darla, Delta 66, Gina, DS2416 yamaha DSP Factory Soundcard, and the M-Audio 2496 Audiophile.

I'm looking for great quality, and low latency. I don't need midi, and just record audio. I have a umax, and will soon have a pentium 3 1 gig, so memory is not the problem.

Which is the one of your choice, and how worth it is it for the money?
 
Sounds like you need a Hoontech C-port! :)

common, give it a try... don't let the unbalanced I/Os put you off....

cost around US400 and worth every penny you spent!
 
I can't say bout the others, but the Darla has been kepping me going for a long time. Great card for only $300..
 
the OMNI studio is the DELTA 66 with the OMNI breakout box.....it ROCKS.......if you need more inputs i'd look at the aardvark q10, a little more pricey though, and not yet shipping.
 
123

Ummm... none of the above?
How about saving $200 more and getting the 1010? Way better sound quality and converters than any of the others listed, and you can mic whole drum kits, or maybe kick-snare-ana-pair and 2 cabinets and a bass and vocals, at once, to record live stuff too.
There are benefits, man... buy smart today, save money tomorrow. No one ever listens to me.
$599 musicians friend
 
yea

i think i'm deciding between darla, aardvark, and omnistudio.

Audiophile is nice for the money, but hey, I can do better.

Please keep posting opinions, i'm sort of clueless. This aardvark and omnistudio are looking.
 
heh

i ment the omnistudio and aardvark are looking great.
 
is the DS2416 Yamaha DSP Factory any good?? for latency, quality?
I can get that new for 320 bucks. What do ya think? (memory isn't an issue)
 
lol tube man, i believe you soo much its not even funny. However, I need something a bit cheaper, and mic preamps do make a huge difference in quality, and hiss. I really like the idea of the Delta 1010, sounds great, however, no mic pre's. Otherwise, i'd definitely go for it. COuld I get that card and a separate mic preamp perhaps?

cause the 1010 sounds pretty good. However I think i'm going for the 66 (omni). That has the whole package.
 
musicsdarkangel said:
I really like the idea of the Delta 1010, sounds great, however, no mic pre's. Otherwise, i'd definitely go for it. COuld I get that card and a separate mic preamp perhaps?
Click to expand...

Personally, I would prefer to get a separate soundcard and mic-pre... :)
 
I'd say the Echo stuff is pretty overpriced. The new Mia card is a decent deal at $200, with 2 balanced analog I/Os and SPDIF, but I can't see how they can charge $400 for the Gina. Seriously...you can get an Omni Studio for less, and that's with a 4 in 4 out/SPDIF card, a "mixer" of sorts, good mic pres, etc. And why do those cards have only 2 inputs and frickin' 8 outputs?

WTF?

:confused:

Honestly, I would much rather have 8 inputs and 2 outputs. As far as balanced I/O, all the M-Audio stuff above the Audiophile is balanced as is all of the Aardvark stuff...

I dunno man, it's important to analyze all of your options but I personally don't think Echo is a very good option. It just plain confuses me how Echo manages to stay in business at all with such outrageous prices and weird I/O scheme. If their prices for the Gina24 were competitive with the Delta cards, then they might have something. I think the Mia might be a good alternative to the Audiophile, or maybe even to the Delta cards if you don't need as many I/Os, but other than that, I just don't get it.
 
Emagic emi 2|6

I use a little blue box with my notebook from Emagic called the emi 2|6. It is a great little 2-in, 6-out unit with 24bit / 48k resolution.

The nice thing is that it is USB so you can use it with a notebook. It is also powered off of the bus so there is no brick / wall wart to mess with.

I hear that MIDIMan is coming out with 2 new USB units soon that have Mic preamps in them as well.
 
i'd only go usb if i had a gun to my head, i.e., if i had to use a laptop.

a modern PC can do pretty much anything........so digital in and out isn't such an issue.......sure you can use a lexicon reverb, but you could also use sonic timeworks reverbX .....i wouldn't trade my OMNI for any of the lolita cards....but maybe for a q10, dunno, yet.
 
To USB or not to USB?

Sometimes I do have a gun to my head.

While my mobile system is for hire, there is one band that record every gig. For politcal reasons I can't always bring my multi-track rig so that is when I do a simple 2 track recording with the notebook. Sometimes I even hand out CDs of the gig at the gig.
 
To USB or not to USB?

Sometimes I do have a gun to my head.

While my mobile system is for hire, there is one band that record every gig. For politcal reasons I can't always bring my multi-track rig so that is when I do a simple 2 track recording with the notebook. Sometimes I even hand out CDs of the gig at the gig.
 
123

Well, Delta advertises on thier own that the Delta 1010 is a better sounding box than the rest of thier stuff. It has higher headroom converters, cleaner circuitry, balanced everything, midi in-out, and is word clockable. For an extra $200 how can one go wrong? And, getting 8 inputs instead of 2 or 4 or whatever. Makes much more sense to me.
The Echo stuff, well... I don't want anything to do with it, nor will I ever. Honestly, I cant actually list reasons, but something about that stuff has given me the shakes for a long time. The main reason I'd go with the Delta 1010 in this case is because the MOTU 1296 is WAY out of the price range.
As for preamps, there are plenty available.
My problem, I think, is that I've taken a different attitude about equipment over the last 6 months, and I've become pretty quality focused. It is from experience however, and I only want to save alot of sonic headaches for people.
 
Re: 123

tubedude said:
The Echo stuff, well... I don't want anything to do with it, nor will I ever. Honestly, I cant actually list reasons, but something about that stuff has given me the shakes for a long time.
Click to expand...

Whew...I'm glad somebody agrees with me. I just don't get their stuff - how it was designed, etc. It just makes no sense to me. If you asked a trained chimp what he wanted in a soundcard I think he might have some better ideas than their engineers.

;)

I agree, if you have the money to buy a Delta 1010 and good separate preamps, then by all means do it! But if you don't, or if you'd appreciate the convenience of an integrated system, then the Omni Studio is the better buy.
 
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