Wondering if anyone could recommend a great soundcard for a decent price

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lab24Seven
  • Start date Start date
L

Lab24Seven

New member
I've got a SB card right now. It is bottom of the food chain and I'm wondering if a new sound card will get the final mixes of my music to a better level. tia
 
For about $100 you can get an M-Audio 2496. Rock solid performance, easy to use.
 
Lab24Seven said:
I've got a SB card right now. It is bottom of the food chain and I'm wondering if a new sound card will get the final mixes of my music to a better level. tia
Click to expand...

Since I am unlikely to get back to this thread at some point in the near future I will just provide WAAY too much information, though damn few recommendations.

You no doubt know well that a 'soundcard' moves your analog signal to the digital domain. All of the soundcards that I am aware of connect via the PCI bus, FireWire/1394, S/PDIF, or USB. Naturally, your PC must have one of these interfaces.

Many soundcards... though not all... provide preamps. If you need a preamp, make sure your soundcard provides it. Likewise some of the those soundcards that provide preamps also provide phantom power. So if you have the aspiration of one day owning a somewhat decent condenser microphone you should make sure that your soundcard has a preamp with phantom power.

Thirdly, some microphones are notoriously difficult to 'drive' with anything other than (relatively) decent preamps. For example, the preamps on my old Mackie board will NOT drive my Shure SM7B, nor would a friends Roland all-in-one standalone setup. He thought the mic was broken. No. His setup just had inadequate preamps.

So... bottom line... what you buy depends on your current microphones, your aspirations, and your budget.

All of what follows are examples of 'soundcards' in that they all move analog to digital. Some, of course, are much much more as part of the bargain.

S/PDIF
282345.jpg


PCI
audiophile2496-fa40783570b9273ae18d109509bfed81.jpg

d9652-431d7bc9700fe022afeca0a745d07e54.jpg



FireWire/1394
536541.jpg

mercenary-audio_2002_28936178


USB
43252-large1.jpg

io2_angle_lg.jpg


Now please appreciate... if you win the lottery... that there are even higher end audio interfaces and soundcards.

Personally, I use the Alesis IO/2 (discontinued) and it has been a very sweet interface indeed. The preamps drive my SM7B and it gives me all that I need for my projects (VO). Spend the time, peruse the sites, read the reviews. Lots of good stuff out there.

Or... you could just wimp out and get a M-Audio 2496. I can't believe that dinosaur is still out there!
 
michaelst said:
For about $100 you can get an M-Audio 2496. Rock solid performance, easy to use.
Click to expand...

This is the soundcard I use. I'm very happy with it. The only problem I've had with it is that it doesn't seem to have 64-bit drivers. (But unless you have 4+ GB of RAM, you're probably fine with a 32 bit OS.)
 
I use the M-Audio Delta 1010 and also the Delta 1010 LT

MIDI S/PDIF 2 Mic Pres (on the LT)

Plus as you expand you can link up to 4 cards with a S/PDIF Cable

The 1010 LT is $199
The 1010 is $599

The 1010 is nicer to me because of the rackmount interface but . . . . .is it worth the extra $400

Food for thought
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top