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Topic: Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8 (Read 14117 times) previous topic - next topic
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Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

I am on the market for soundcards under 800 dollars (preferably lower then 600, but we are willing to spend more if necessary).

Me and my dad are building a sudio in his basement so I helped build him a computer which will be the centerpiece of the whole studio, and now I am looking for a 24/96 soundcard that is good enough to pump out quality that'll revile your local studio, especialy since the external equipment and instruments we are using are very good and deserve that perfect sound card to compliment their sexyness  but mainly, it's just cause we are quality freaks and we plan to rent the studio out to people part-time, along with making our own music.

My only requirements are that it is under 800 dollars, it can have a hardware I/O box connected to it if that doesn't come standard, and is one of THE best most powerfull cards you can buy in this price range.

Help me out, will ya?

and if you suggest a card that doesnt have an in out box, could you mabey suggest one  ah hell, even if the card you suggest does have one, suggest a box anyway  we'll be looking for those too.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #1
If high end sound is your goal, you can choose from:

A: Get a really expensive sound card with really good drivers and pray to god that the software you have will use is well.

B: Get a robust inexpensive sound card with digital out and an external high-end D/A converter.

I really cannot recommend solution A: If you buy an expensive sound card, only few other people will own it. You will probably run into driver and software problems.

Solution B is my own preference. I use a Creative Live Value (it has digital out) and excellent drivers in WinXP. Also a SONY EP90ES converter (not made anymore). It is an exceptional D/A converter that prevents clipping and much more. Price: SB Live: $60, SONY: $500.

It is only 16bit/44100Hz. But I'd rather have an excellent implemtation on 16/44 rather than a poor on 24/96...

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #2
I personally like the 24-bit versions of the Echo Audio cards.  Don't get the older 20/48 versions, the ADAC's are much less than transparent.  Their WDM drivers seem to be pretty stable, though I'm still waiting for them to enable 24/96 digital output on the optical or coaxial outputs.  Optical ADAT works just fine though, and it works beautifully for me in pretty much any OS.  Its software control panel is one of the most flexible and easy to use I've seen.  Echo does all their stuff on one page and you can flip between the outputs and do separate mixes from the inputs.  Ostensibly, with something like a Presonus M80 and maybe an ACP88 (8 channel Preamp and Compressor respectively) you could record 8 channels of anything and bypass a mixer entirely.  The sound would probably be better too.  The ACP88 would be handy to keep your inputs from clipping.  If you recorded everything with a good amount of headroom (and with a SN close to 100dB you've got plenty) you could even do without a compressor, which is good since the M80 runs close to $1800.

Make sure you get the latest drivers off their website instead of using the ones on the included CD if you do pick one up.

If you wanted something with built-in preamps their 4 channel Mona is supposedly an excellent value.

MOTU stuff is quite good, though a touch pricier.

RME is reportedly the best prosumer gear out there, but it costs a bit more than $800 as I recall, great stuff though.

The Layla24 is $690 at www.bayviewproaudio.com.  Search for products from Echo.

I tried a Delta 1010 a year or two ago and wasn't too enamored with it.  Too many headaches at the time, and the control panel was this wierd side-scrolling thing.  Those who have gotten it working say it sounds great too, but I still think the Layla sounds better.  It's easier to use if anything.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #3
Quote
Originally posted by Annuka
If high end sound is your goal, you can choose from:

A: Get a really expensive sound card with really good drivers and pray to god that the software you have will use is well.

B: Get a robust inexpensive sound card with digital out and an external high-end D/A converter.

I really cannot recommend solution A: If you buy an expensive sound card, only few other people will own it. You will probably run into driver and software problems.

Solution B is my own preference. I use a Creative Live Value (it has digital out) and excellent drivers in WinXP. Also a SONY EP90ES converter (not made anymore). It is an exceptional D/A converter that prevents clipping and much more. Price: SB Live: , SONY: 0.

It is only 16bit/44100Hz. But I'd rather have an excellent implemtation on 16/44 rather than a poor on 24/96...


The SB Live! is okay, but it's nothing near the quality of a pro-gear card.  If you can live with just two channels try an Audiophile24/96 or an Echo Mia.  Thes cards run about $200 and while they don't have an external box (like most 4-8 channel units) their audio quality puts the SB Live! to shame.  Think cheapo boombox tape-deck vs. Proceed CD player.  If you're doing anything today, 24/48 is an absolute must for the extra Dynamic range, plus the converters are much more transparent.

Checkout www.prorec.com, it's the better place to look for this kind of info.  Do the forum members a favor and search a bit before posting your question which has been asked too many times to count.  While many get away with an SB Live! card, if your gear is anything better than a casio keyboard, you're not doing it justice, and you're certainly not going to get Studio level quality.  The true idea behind an A/D converter is to not get in the way of the signal you're recording and the SB Live! fails in this regard.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #4
Quote
Originally posted by gdougherty


The SB Live! is okay, but it's nothing near the quality of a pro-gear card.  If you can live with just two channels try an Audiophile24/96 or an Echo Mia.  Thes cards run about 0 and while they don't have an external box (like most 4-8 channel units) their audio quality puts the SB Live! to shame.  Think cheapo boombox tape-deck vs. Proceed CD player.  If you're doing anything today, 24/48 is an absolute must for the extra Dynamic range, plus the converters are much more transparent.

The Live and Audigy are truly atrocious sounding. The only consumer card that sounds acceptable is the TB Santa Cruz. Beatles has spoken.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #5
Quote
Originally posted by Beatles

The Live and Audigy are truly atrocious sounding. The only consumer card that sounds acceptable is the TB Santa Cruz. Beatles has spoken.


When using digital out on the SB Live, you can reproduce a wave file without any errors. You cannot hear the SB Live card, you will  hear the external D/A converter.

Analog out from SB Live is not atrocious sounding. It is comparable to the output from a $350 CD player, which is categorised as middle-end. It is definetely not high-end.

However: "How it sounds" depends heavily on the system used to listen on:

A: General quality of components. My system is around $8,000.
B: Placement of system and acoustics of listening room.
C: Number of manipulative units a.k.a. American Sounding Units.

C is the most interesting: The average $1 signal cable that comes with any hi-fi unit is of pretty low quality. However, I will not try to modify the sound. Then take your $50-$500 special HI-FI cable. It is very thick and has golden plugs. Most of them sound very differently from the $1 cable. The reason is simple: It will soften the high and mid-level frequencies, while sacrificing the bass. It does so, since most people have not optimised the acoustics of their room. Having one such unit may greatly improve the sound of the system. Having more will kill it. If the sound card you mention is such a unit, it will sound ghastly on my system.

But it is very hard to say, since I do not know your system and acoustics of your listening room...

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #6
Quote
Originally posted by Annuka


When using digital out on the SB Live, you can reproduce a wave file without any errors. You cannot hear the SB Live card, you will  hear the external D/A converter.

Analog out from SB Live is not atrocious sounding. It is comparable to the output from a 0 CD player, which is categorised as middle-end. It is definetely not high-end.

However: "How it sounds" depends heavily on the system used to listen on:

A: General quality of components. My system is around ,000.
B: Placement of system and acoustics of listening room.
C: Number of manipulative units a.k.a. American Sounding Units.

C is the most interesting: The average
Quote
Originally posted by Annuka


When using digital out on the SB Live, you can reproduce a wave file without any errors. You cannot hear the SB Live card, you will  hear the external D/A converter.

Analog out from SB Live is not atrocious sounding. It is comparable to the output from a $350 CD player, which is categorised as middle-end. It is definetely not high-end.

However: "How it sounds" depends heavily on the system used to listen on:

A: General quality of components. My system is around $8,000.
B: Placement of system and acoustics of listening room.
C: Number of manipulative units a.k.a. American Sounding Units.

C is the most interesting: The average $1 signal cable that comes with any hi-fi unit is of pretty low quality. However, I will not try to modify the sound. Then take your $50-$500 special HI-FI cable. It is very thick and has golden plugs. Most of them sound very differently from the $1 cable. The reason is simple: It will soften the high and mid-level frequencies, while sacrificing the bass. It does so, since most people have not optimised the acoustics of their room. Having one such unit may greatly improve the sound of the system. Having more will kill it. If the sound card you mention is such a unit, it will sound ghastly on my system.

But it is very hard to say, since I do not know your system and acoustics of your listening room... [/b]
signal cable that comes with any hi-fi unit is of pretty low quality. However, I will not try to modify the sound. Then take your -0 special HI-FI cable. It is very thick and has golden plugs. Most of them sound very differently from the
Quote
Originally posted by Annuka


When using digital out on the SB Live, you can reproduce a wave file without any errors. You cannot hear the SB Live card, you will  hear the external D/A converter.

Analog out from SB Live is not atrocious sounding. It is comparable to the output from a $350 CD player, which is categorised as middle-end. It is definetely not high-end.

However: "How it sounds" depends heavily on the system used to listen on:

A: General quality of components. My system is around $8,000.
B: Placement of system and acoustics of listening room.
C: Number of manipulative units a.k.a. American Sounding Units.

C is the most interesting: The average $1 signal cable that comes with any hi-fi unit is of pretty low quality. However, I will not try to modify the sound. Then take your $50-$500 special HI-FI cable. It is very thick and has golden plugs. Most of them sound very differently from the $1 cable. The reason is simple: It will soften the high and mid-level frequencies, while sacrificing the bass. It does so, since most people have not optimised the acoustics of their room. Having one such unit may greatly improve the sound of the system. Having more will kill it. If the sound card you mention is such a unit, it will sound ghastly on my system.

But it is very hard to say, since I do not know your system and acoustics of your listening room...
cable. The reason is simple: It will soften the high and mid-level frequencies, while sacrificing the bass. It does so, since most people have not optimised the acoustics of their room. Having one such unit may greatly improve the sound of the system. Having more will kill it. If the sound card you mention is such a unit, it will sound ghastly on my system.

But it is very hard to say, since I do not know your system and acoustics of your listening room...



I'm a recording engineer. My system is $30,000 plus and my dedicated listening is as perfect as is possible.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #7
I'm sorry but the Live! range of soundcards is anything but good when playing 44.1 KHz sound files, even if you use the digital outputs. Why? Because the Live's resample anything that is not played at their fixed internal clock rate, which is 48 KHz. So if you play anything that is not recorded at 48 KHz, it is internally resampled (quite badly, the Santa Cruz or Audigy resample too but in a much better manner) and then sent to the analog or digital outputs.

I think the minimum type of sound card you want to use to do serious recording and/or playing, would be something as the Audiophile 2496, Echo Mia or Terratec EWX 24/96, but they are only 1 analog stereo in / 1 analog stereo out. Above this there are many very good sound cards with multiple ins and outs.

I've read that some of the best sound cards in the market 1 stereo in / 1 stereo out are the Dal CardDeluxe or the LynxOne and LynxTwo.

See www.pcavtech.com for more (but a bit outdated) info.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #8
Quote
Originally posted by gdougherty
The Layla24 is 0 at www.bayviewproaudio.com.  Search for products from Echo.
ok.  everyone thanks for the help, but it was this, the layla24 that cought my eye the most.  Reading about it, I was impressed, but not near as impressed I was by the MONA.  This is exactly what I was looking for.

I'm reading reviews and other info on it now, but does anyone have any personal experience with it, have any good or bad comments about it, or does anyone know if it is all it is cracked up to be?  Basically, any of your thoughts on the MONA or LAYLA or the two in comparison would be nice.

Or if there is another producted that is better then these two but similar, lemme know

http://www.echoaudio.com/

[edit] now that i look at the two.  there are some pros and cons of each.  like midi and the number of inputs that layla has.

what do ya'll like?

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #9
I like my ap 24/96 (link to manual)...

I have the RCA outs going to my Denon/Klipsch, and the RCAins from the Denon as well (allowing for me to digitally record my LPs)...

S/PDIF goes to surround receiver/speaker set-up...

Many regard the output of this card to be equal to the best of soundcards available. My experience is that it blows the doors off the sound produced by  my old awe64gold, and the digital out is superior to what I would get with my livePlatinum/livedrive combo...

The card can be found for around $170 USD...

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #10
Quote
Originally posted by SNYder
ok.  everyone thanks for the help, but it was this, the layla24 that cought my eye the most.  Reading about it, I was impressed, but not near as impressed I was by the MONA.  This is exactly what I was looking for.

I'm reading reviews and other info on it now, but does anyone have any personal experience with it, have any good or bad comments about it, or does anyone know if it is all it is cracked up to be?  Basically, any of your thoughts on the MONA or LAYLA or the two in comparison would be nice.

Or if there is another producted that is better then these two but similar, lemme know

http://www.echoaudio.com/

[edit] now that i look at the two.  there are some pros and cons of each.  like midi and the number of inputs that layla has.

what do ya'll like?


Most of the suggestions here aren't really in the league you're looking for.  Some like the proponents of the SB Live! seem to have missed your need to record.  All around, anything that does the A/D conversion in the PC is a bad way to go for professional results.  You just can't get away from all the noise and poor power inherent inside a PC.

I can't live with less than about 8 ins and outs.  Micing a drum set with kick, snare, hh, 3 toms and stereo overheads eats up 8 channels right there.  Some studios go further from there and mic the main drums on both top and bottom.  I prefer simple myself and a good pair of overheads with the rest as support for the stereo image you get works best for me, so the 8 channels is enough.  In that regard, the built in preamps of the Mona are cool, and might sound decent, but the 4 inputs is a touch limiting.  The pre-amps probably don't begin to compare to a good Presonus, Joe Meek, Focusrite, etc. either.  I love the sound of my Layla and from what I understand the A/D's n the Mona are identical or close to identical.

If you want a ton of inputs, and will do all your work in the DAW then something like MOTU's 24i with 24 1/4" ins and a single stereo output would possibly work well, though it's only 24/48 capable, so if you need 24/96 it might not work well.  The newer MOTU firewire gear is also a good possibility since firewire cards are cheap and the system would be easily expandable.  I can't vouch for the software on the MOTU, but I've never heard anything bad about it.  You'll pay more on the front-end, but unlike the Echo setups there isn't a PCI card that has to go in for each external box, so you could get 36 channels or more much easier.

The RME stuff expands about 3 external boxes to a single PCI card depending on which parts you put together, though their sound is supposedly supperb and on-par with Appogee converters if you're familiar with their reputation.

Again, here is not the best place for your questions.  Something like www.prorec.com, or another pro-level digital recording forum would much better suit your needs.  Most of the people here seem to be end-users and listeners rather than studio engineers working with prosumer studio gear.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #11
Quote
Originally posted by gdougherty
All around, anything that does the A/D conversion in the PC is a bad way to go for professional results.  You just can't get away from all the noise and poor power inherent inside a PC.
yes.  this was a concern of mine, but from what I have read in reviews on Mona, it seems the a/d conversion is really top of the line.  Just what I heard.  And the s/n ratio is very good too.

Quote
Originally posted by gdougherty
The pre-amps probably don't begin to compare to a good Presonus, Joe Meek, Focusrite, etc. either.
All the reviews I have read have done nothing but praise MONA's preamps calling them some of the best they have heard.

Quote
Originally posted by gdougherty
You'll pay more on the front-end, but unlike the Echo setups there isn't a PCI card that has to go in for each external box, so you could get 36 channels or more much easier.
I was under the impression that you don't need another pci card for each mona, and you would just hook the multiple Mona's together to take advantage of extra inputs. is that incorrect? =

Quote
Originally posted by gdougherty
The RME stuff expands about 3 external boxes to a single PCI card depending on which parts you put together, though their sound is supposedly supperb and on-par with Appogee converters if you're familiar with their reputation.
a reviews at prorec.com on one of the more expensive rme cards labeled it just merely adiquate, but then all ou guys talk about this outstanding sound.  :head exploads:

Thanks for the help.  I'ma check out those suggestions ya gave me.

Peace

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #12
Quote
Originally posted by SNYder
yes.  this was a concern of mine, but from what I have read in reviews on Mona, it seems the a/d conversion is really top of the line.  Just what I heard.  And the s/n ratio is very good too.

Sounds like you mean the Mia.  It's a pretty decent card and the s/n is pretty good.  I've used one before and was happy with it for only stereo audio.  It doesn't quite hit the mark that my Layla does though.

Quote
Originally posted by SNYder
All the reviews I have read have done nothing but praise MONA's preamps calling them some of the best they have heard.

I'm not saying they're bad or sound like crap, from what I've heard they're better than most of the low-end stuff.  Just not quite as good as single or stereo preamps costing half or more of what a Layla or Mona cost.  Then again, in most cases, you get what you pay for.  If you don't have preamps already and want to record direct without any other gear in the way, they'll do an excellent job.  Mostly the external preamps would just add features like compression and EQ.  I like a direct unmodified sound, so it doesn't make much of a difference to me.

Quote
Originally posted by SNYder
I was under the impression that you don't need another pci card for each mona, and you would just hook the multiple Mona's together to take advantage of extra inputs. is that incorrect? =

Nope, you need a PCI interface card for each external Echo rackmount box.  This is the case with the majority of external DAW soundcards.  MOTU, and RME are the only ones I know of offhand that are more easily expandable, though I'm sure there are more.  On the flip-side.  A real DAW shouldn't have anything except maybe either a disk controller, or a network card taking a PCI slot, so adding in 3 cards to get 24 channels with Laylas or 12 channels with Monas shouldn't be too much of an issue.  I don't have a studio with multiple rooms and tend to record one instrument set at a time, so like I said before, 8 channels is good enough for me.  You get much better separation, and if you can put the rest of a band in a separate room monitoring through a mixing board (or from outputs on a Layla), you can even have everyone playing at once to keep the "groove" of a song.

Quote
Originally posted by SNYder
a reviews at prorec.com on one of the more expensive rme cards labeled it just merely adiquate, but then all ou guys talk about this outstanding sound.  :head exploads:

I think it depends on the model.  Many of the prorec forum members swear by RME gear.  For me, the Layla24 is good enough and sounds great.  I'm not going to be cutting an album for any big name bands anytime soon, and if MOTU is good enough for some studios I've been around, then my Layla is good enough for me.


Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #14
Quote
Originally posted by PatchWorKs
Hey ! 

What about Maxi Studio ISIS ???

(infos at: http://us.guillemot.com/products/isis/index.php3)


External 20-bit converters, everything now is 24-bit.

1/4" mono in and out, ie.  not 1/4" TRS balanced.  Balanced cabling is a good idea anywhere you can get it.  If at all possible I use a good active direct box and a very short 1/4" unbalanced cable to the DI from any instrument if I'm recording direct.  XLR or 1/4" TRS helps reject noise, and anywhere there's electronicws and power you'll have noise.

The final tip-off is how much they stretch the games side of the card.  Guillemot is a gmae sound company, not a pro-recording company.  The price might be low but you get what you pay for.  No optical ADAT in/out either which is a potential issue for anyone who wants to rent out their studio and somebody brings in an ADAT unit or has some material already on ADAT.

So really, maybe decent for the beginning and aspiring home studio hobbyist, certainly better than the SB Live! or any internal card.  For $300 it's not bad, but considering I can get a Layla for $700, I'd rather save my money and not have to dump the ISIS when I finally decide I want better quality.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #15
I'd suggest you take a look at the soundscards from Creamware:
Luna II, Pulsar, Pulsar II & XTC.
These are very high quality card in your pricerange.
I used a Pulsar II för some time and was very pleased with it, after that I changed to a Scope DP & a Scope SRB which made life a true joy
check it out Creamware

/cheers:

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #16
For my home studio I use Omni Studio from Midiman:

http://midiman.com/products/m-audio/omnistud.php

24-bit, 96 kHz all around, pristine sound quality, amazing amount if inputs/outputs, etc.

And not too expensive either.

My experience with it has been nothing but positive (I use it in Cakewalk Sonar and am able to mix 16 or so tracks at 24-bit/96kHz without any problems/pops/clicks/etc.)

Highly recommended.
I paid around $750 Canadian for it (including 15% VAT tax), so you can probably get it for around $500-$600 U.S.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #17
I just saw it on Zzounds.com for a mere $429:
http://zzounds.com/love.music?p=p.MDOOMNISTU&z=1299366238448

and they include free shipping...well inside your budget 

The Creamware stuff is more powerful since it includes on-board DSP for extra effects and software synths...but their hardware is just so overpriced I decided it was not worth it in the end...

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #18
What do you guys think of Creamwares SCOPE?

http://www.creamware.de/en/Products/Scope_sp/default.asp

It looks like somthing I would really be interested in.

After reading a little about it, it is rather interesting.  Powerfull as all hell, and comes with some awsome software like the sampler and synth and mixing and the rest.

it may not have the external I/O box, but the power and programs included and it's swapable I/O daughter boards totally make up for that.

What do ya'll think?  Is it worth the 4000 dollar price tag?  It sure looks to be.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #19
If you have $4000 then probably yes...but that is one hell of a price.

For that price you can probably get yourself a REAL mixing board with a 16-track tape real.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #20
Quote
Originally posted by Zaraza
If you have 00 then probably yes...but that is one hell of a price.

For that price you can probably get yourself a REAL mixing board with a 16-track tape real.
a tape real?  I think my grandfather told me about those once.

The point is to have the COMPUUUUTER be the center of the studio.  I need it to be able to handle the dsp craved aplications it will be running, which is where SCOPE comes in.  Later we will be purchasing a real mixing board, but for now we need to empower the computer with a soundcard that packs a punch and is quality.

so does anyone have anything to say about this product?

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #21
I think that's well out of the price range for anyone in this forum. If we had that kind of money to burn, we wouldn't bother with audio compression.

$4000=a lot of hard drives.
The sky is blue.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #22
This has nothing to do with audio compression, it's actually more audio EXPANSION, since instead of the usual CD quality of 16-bit, 44 kHz, most of digital music creation and mixing is done at 24-bit, 96 kHz.

But, coming back to Creamware, if you have that money (way more than your original requirement of $800) then sure go for it, all that massive DSP on the SCOPE SRB card is sure gonna help.

However, don't forget: the on-board DSP is available only for Creamware-specific plugins, synths and samplers, not general Windows ones.

So, let's say you want to use Propellerheads Reason or some VST instrument for Cubase...all that DSP on the Creamware card won't help you one bit, since those non-Creamware apps have to run on your PC's CPU.

If you want to go with Creamware, then you have to be determined to go all the way and only then will you be able to fully reap the benefits of what you paid for.

Unfortunately, I don't have $4000 lying around, so I went with a cheaper non-DSP solution, focused more on I/O and excellent sound quality and so far have not run into any major limitations (but then I use the PC only for recording/mixing, most of the actual music comes from external sources like a hardware AKAI sampler).

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #23
Quote
Originally posted by SNYder
What do you guys think of Creamwares SCOPE?
....
What do ya'll think?  Is it worth the 4000 dollar price tag?  It sure looks to be.


For $4000, you could put together an Athlon XP system with at least 512MB or DRR-DRAM, a couple of really fast 7200rpm IDE (or even 10Krpm SCSI drives) and hook it up to at least 16 channels of audio I/O from a pair of MOTU 896's which are their firewire 8 channel units with 8 channels of preamp per unit.  With something like that you could probably skip ever needing a mixer and do everything internal.  I use my mixer as a set of preamps and once things are in my PC, they never leave except on a mixdown to CD.  If I had 8 channels of preamps, I could even live without a mixer during the recording process.

My 1.3Ghz Athlon with a single IBM 7200rpm drive can handle about 24 tracks of 24/96 audio with DirectX compressors eq's and reverbs on each track.  Mine hardly classifies as a performance DAW either, since I don't have a dedicated data drive, I have several other non-DAW related cards installed and it's not particularly tuned for audio performance.  In addition, the newer XP processors perform significantly better and even run cooler.

So to answer your question of should you spend $4000 on a proprietary DSP card?  I'd say no, and I think most of the people at Prorec would go the same route too.  While the general consensus about software based plugins is that they don't quite measure up to their hardware equivalents, the top end stuff, like the Waves plugins and others sound pretty good to most people.  The benefits in my case, where one plugin can be used non-destructively and modified in realtime on every single track of audio far outweigh the slight loss in quality (rather than needing a separate unit and rack space for every single effect I want or destructively applying it to a copy of the track).
I'd especially say no since you were looking for something to get the audio into your computer and that seems like a pretty big first step before you even look at a DSP board.

Seeking soundcard for high end home studio (must be under $8

Reply #24
Quote
Originally posted by Zaraza
This has nothing to do with audio compression, it's actually more audio EXPANSION, since instead of the usual CD quality of 16-bit, 44 kHz, most of digital music creation and mixing is done at 24-bit, 96 kHz.

However, don't forget: the on-board DSP is available only for Creamware-specific plugins, synths and samplers, not general Windows ones.


Most people I've seen work at 24/48, rather than 24/96.  The audio community is still uncertain as to whether they "need" 24/96 or if it's just marketing hype.  I like to track at 24/96 and then downsample a copy, but at least I've still got the top quality version for future use.

Excellent point on the Creamware, it is proprietary and you don't have near the selection of plugins that you have with other possibilities like VST or DirectX.