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I NEED A SOUNDCARD

MODNY

MODNY

Nov 9, 2004
1,273
4
#1
hey

i have been messing around with adobe audition 1.5 and i need to get a soundcard so i can plug my bass right into my computer

what do u think i should get??

i was looking at soundblaster audigy 2's or whatever

my buddy has one, but he's no help because he can't remember **** lol

what are u guys and gals using>? i dont really wanna blow the bank either

-m
 
#2
I use the Soundblaster Audigy2 myself in my home-studio...

Most "serious" musicians slam the crap out of this card...but I've been using it with little trouble and I believe my recordings sound pretty good...I also know others who use it also and their stuff sounds fine also.

Click on the link below if you want to hear what you can do with this card...I am a complete novice at home-recording...only started last November (before that I was away from music for 17 years...never even touched an instrument)...so this will give you a fair representation

"Here we go" is my latest recording and it sounds the best I believe.
 
#3
The problem most serious home recorders have with the Audigy is the poor implementation of DXi plug in compatibility in the drivers. This leads a lot of people with this card to have serious latency issues with a lot of popular higher end effect and softsynth packages. If you don't use these tools you are not likely to run into issues. I would still never personally use a Creative product for recording though, their drivers are simply not clean or effcient enough and have too many compatibility issues with too many apps (I used to do compat and QA testing in the video game industry, guess what cards we saw the most issues with?)

I used an m-audio Audiophile 2496 for 2 years in my DAW and never had a problem with either quality or performance. This might be worth a look too, though be advised that the included drivers on most cards are not stable under Windows XP.

If you post a price limit I might have an easier time steering you towards something.
 
#4
MODNY said:
hey

i have been messing around with adobe audition 1.5 and i need to get a soundcard so i can plug my bass right into my computer

what do u think i should get??

i was looking at soundblaster audigy 2's or whatever

my buddy has one, but he's no help because he can't remember **** lol

what are u guys and gals using>? i dont really wanna blow the bank either

-m
Click to expand...

the soundblaster audigy 2 6.1 is the one I got ... cant go wrong with it
 
#5
i'd recommend the m-audio audiophile 2496 just like tash did above me.
i use an m-audio delta 1010lt, with 8 ins/outs, but i don't suppose you'll need more than two inputs so the 2496 is what you should get. its a great soundcard and you can't go wrong with m-audio products.
you also might want to try some e-mu and presonus products as well.

here are links to some of these products at music123.com that i dug up for you :
m-audio : Link Removed

e-mu : Link Removed

presonus : Link Removed
 
#8
I've had a Soundblaster Live for a few years now, and have been quite happy with it- only when running Acid4 or Cubase VST with 10 or more tracks of audio running it stutters. Acid 4 seems to be the more forgiving of the programmes, and sometimes runs without any glitches even with lots of audio tracks.

thinking that getting a card with ASIO drivers would allow perfect playback I got an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 on thursday (£58.99 at Turnkey), and on most tracks it runs fine, with better sound quality- more clarity and lower noise-

but on the song with more than 10 tracks of audio it runs even worse than the Soundblaster- stutters lots and even crashes the PC completely! :mad:
ridiculous.
I've downloaded the latest drivers and the last update of Acid4, but if anything it's got even worse.
I suspect my ancient PC spec isn't up to it- PIII 450 and 192mb, win98SE- but it's within the minimum requirements.
I'll have to try adding memory- but the motherboard allows a maximum of only 384mb.
 
#9
I'm very happy with my M-Audio soundcards. I have a 2496 (on a 600 mhz Celeron, 256 MB RAM with Linux/Window$ ME) and a Delta 1010LT (3 ghz P4 w/512 M and Linux/XP). Analog ins/outs, S/PDIF, and MIDI all work well. The fact that they're well-supported in Linux makes things much easier for me.

Mock Turtle Regulator--have you tried adjusting the # of frames and buffer size in the M-Audio's control panel? Changing them affects latency, it's a matter of finding the right balance between speed and stability. Adding RAM always helps, too.
 
#10
winston said:
Mock Turtle Regulator--have you tried adjusting the # of frames and buffer size in the M-Audio's control panel? Changing them affects latency, it's a matter of finding the right balance between speed and stability. Adding RAM always helps, too.
Click to expand...

yeah, it's on 2112 samples, and still stutters on one song.
it seems to be a fine line between running smoothly on other songs that use 10 tracks simultaneously. might be the amount of effects to blame.
EDIT- found it was because I had reverb as plugins inline on 2 tracks. I guess the processor wasn't up to it- I think having an extra mixer program with the new soundcard added too much of a workload for it.

the processsor can go up to a PIII 600 - I'll have to search the Computer Exchange for old parts.
 
#11
Ive just got the M-audio 2496 from Turnkey as well.
Great card (had a Audigy1 for a few years) but cant really tell much difference in the 2 as far as quality goes.
Mainly use it with Guitar Rig for learning bass parts for songs on my PC and with Sonar4 for a bit of recording. Must admit i was happy with the Audigy most of the time but never recorded to many tracks at once.
Still get the odd crackle and pop though.
My Son is upset because the M-audio is not much good with a lot of his games and they refuse to run.

Dave.
 
#12
MTR - Using reverb inline in several tracks puts a strain on the processor for sure. It may be possible to "freeze" your tracks in Acid and Cubase which applies the reverb to the track and then free's up resources from the CPU, but allows you to "undo" or change the reverb later should you want to.

This is quite new functionality for some sequencers so it may not be available in the version you have.

Getting a faster processor will help with reverb (which just needs lots of number crunching) but more RAM will help with generally keeping the programs ticking over and your ability to multi-task. Some soundcards have some kind of onboard processing power for music (DSP) - I think some MAudio cards do.

MODNY - Are you looking to get an internal or external (USB or Firewire) card? PC or Mac? $, £ limits?
 
#14
i have the E-mu 1810 or something(the one with the external I/O box). it's a great interface to use, what i realy need is a mixer with phantom power so i can plug everything into it. it's sweet as a nut. comes with cubase VST but i'd rather use SX or SL. i used to have an audigy2 with the external box, but it seemed to distort really easily if you turned the signal up on the input box(you probably get that with most cheap "proffesional" stuff though). i'm as happy as a tramp with a 6 pack of special brew with my E-mu though.
 
#15
I have an Waveterminal192L , I have no issues with latency, but when I set the latency on the card to 48bytes I get some wierd highpitched digital sound when playing/recording..If I turn it back to a higher setting it dissapears, but then I have latency when recording..
Im using Sonar...
Anyone know what's wrong?
 
#16
I used to use an Audigy and I had the exact same problem as Will.God. I currently am using an E-mu 1212M. It took a bit of time to configure properly but once I got I working I couldn't be more pleased. They make a lower priced card the 0404 that can be found around $100. A friend of mine is using the M-Audio 2496 also around $100 and I must say I have been impressed with its capabilities as well. Any of these options would be a vast improvement over an Audigy.

Robert
 

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