soundcard- inputs

[lefty]

my son and i are building a computer to record, and we are trying to find out what kind of soundcard to get. we want to be able to record live drums and have 8 low impedence mike inputs whats the deal? help please, thanx

 

[Passinwind]

my son and i are building a computer to record, and we are trying to find out what kind of soundcard to get. we want to be able to record live drums and have 8 low impedence mike inputs whats the deal? help please, thanx

It's always important to state your budget when making an inquiry like this. There are a few cards I know of with 8 mike preamps built into the breakout box, but I would first be looking at an outboard mixer or rack mounted 8 channel preamp for what you want to do. There are plenty of nice, relatively inexpensive 8 channel sound cards out there. The standard seems to be to include 2 mike preamps (at most), and usually the built in preamps are maybe roughly as good as those in a typical Mackie or Behringer mixer. Many of us use direct outs or the insert jacks to port the mike preamps in a mixer to the card.

Are we on the same page here? Do you have any specific card models in mind yet? What's your mike budget like? That'll set up a lot of your other decisions, I'd think.