Audio Sound Cards for digital recording?

[Ifrit84]

I need help, my band is recording a demo, and I've read forever on digital recording and the like, and I can have (borrow) some software suites (Acid 4.0, N-Track, Samplitude) and I was wondering what would be the best, cheapest card I could use for this? I would be running thru a mixer (so alot of inputs aren't really needed, but a few). So what sound card would you recomend, we are really on a tight budget, no one would happen to know where one could find used sound cards? I would need a slot card/usb 2.0, I have no firewire on this computer. I'd like for there to be next to no lag in the playback (live playback).

Thanks for all the help.

 

[bassguitar]

There's lots available, but what's your budget?
How many ins/outs do you want?
Do you need MIDI on the same card?
Do you want optical in/out as well as balanced?


MOTU
Echo
M-Audio
etc. are all ones that quickly come to mind.

Certainly get one with balanced ins/outs (usually 1/4").

I've got and Echo Gina that I quite like. Balanced 4 in 4 out, SPIDIF, ADat, headphone out. It's a PCI card with a breakout box.

 

[Tash]

Invalid Link Removed

Probably the best cheap card out there. Only does 1 stereo channel at a time, but can do 24/96 with very low latency. I used one for a couple years before moving to a multichannel interface.

 

[Ifrit84]

Thanks for the posts, one stereo channel at a time is fine, we a running thru a mixer (bootleg I know, but we work with what we got). I see it's only 99 bucks on sale right now though, might jump on that.

EDIT: Nevermind, Musicians Friend has it for this price always, good looking out!

 

[Tash]

Zzounds has had the 2496 at $99 for over a year now. Take your time doing your research, its not going anywhere.

 

[The Owl]

I got an M-Audio 2496 Audiophile card in my new PC, GREAT value for the money, has analog in/out, S-PDIF in/out and MIDI in/out, plus it comes bundled with Ableton Live4-LE. All for $99, very difficult to sneeze at!

 

[Ifrit84]

Now if I can convince the drummer (a gearhead....but knows nothing of recording, his idea of recording = borrowing a protools LE setup and using his powerbook that does not have enough memory to run protools and crashes while running it + a mike in the middle of the room = recording) to let me record it, I'm off! I guess this will be a solid investment.


EDIT: Also, this card would be able to hook up quite well with a mixer for all the mic drums + anything else I have hooked up right?