Sorry if I sound a bit trite but a soundcard is basically only an A->D converter. What's in the "A" before it gets to the "D" is probably as much if not more of an issue. Thing is the sky is pretty much the limit. You can even bypass the issue and get mic with AES output for around the price of a good car.
I think in general for the average user most of the better sound card are all pretty good. I know I'm going to get howled at for saying this but usually if you ask 10 experts on anything you'll get 10 different answers. All I'm getting at is I suspect the difference between any of the good ones is in reality less than the difference between them as a group and the bad ones as a group. After all there's only so many choices in A/D chips. If you want a card with built in mic pres then things might get a bit messier, my personal choice is to get mic pres out of the PC, there's way too much noise inside the box.
Withour knowing your budget and what facilities you need actually I doubt anyone can give you decent advice.
They are more likely A/D and D/A converters, but the point is there are many options which to you might be good enough. External converters are often used, the more popular (and top quality) ones at the moment are made by Lavry, Crane Song, RADAR, Benchmark... Apogee is a very popular, less expensive, alternative as well as are a ton others I'm sure... Happy Hunting!
If it was only A/D and D/A to consider, I would agree with you, but there is a ton of difference how different cards behave and work together with different software and different computers (the last one actually agreeing with your final argument). There is also difference in what built in abilities via software and DSP strength that different cards, with maybe the same A/D units, offer.
MrPhil, were you talking to me? I was making no argument, just offering suggestions on alternative converters. (and yes, obviously, they don't make up the entire audio interface!!!)
If you want to input multitrack, I would suggest the motu 2408. It does a great job and can input up to 24 tracks at the same time. It can convert up to 8 analogue tracks to digital. You can hook up to three ADATS orTascams.
Youn: - No, I was talking to farss.
And the word argument is somewhat more aggresive sounding in english than in swedish. The word I tried to ge thru was more like "point", as in making an argument for something.
For the money ($500) You can't beat Echo Layla:
8 analog In/Out - Adat Optical I/O
Simple interfacing in keeping with the Vegas simplicity.
For those of us with an old ADAT laying around it's a nice way
to get 16 channels in at once, that is sufficient for most studios.
Just wanted to drop my $.02 and say that I have found the MOTU PCI-324/2408 mk. I to be TOTALLY UNSTABLE, most memorably on playback, under WinXP.
I've had it on three clean machines, running various software packages (Forge, Acid, Cakewalk) and it is a crashy bitch! It crashes the whole machine to a blue/black screen, with nasty digital banshee shriek to boot. STAY AWAY -- YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!
(on a humorous note -- my 1st machine was a PII 333, then a Athlon1800+, now an Athlon64-3200+. With each upgrade, the crash-related shriek has gotten shorter! Now *that's* what I call performance!!!)
dunno if they have addressed these issues in the mk. ii, but I'm sure not going to spend *my* money to find out!
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In other news... FOR SALE, CHEAP: 1 MOTU PCI-324 card and 2408 mk. I interface! >:-)
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PS -- thank god it only jacked me on MY projects... if it had done me like this on a client, I would have thrown the thing through the MOTU office front window! :-P (PPS - that's a joke in case DHS is reading... :-P)
What wobbly said. We're running 324 with 2408 and 24i......no problems. Check the MOTU site for the new 324 driver which came out in August (Although I've noticed no difference, as my setup worked fine for years with the old driver).
-jb
Also, did you install the 324 correctly, according to MOTU Manual? The BSOD sounds like driver issues.
I have an echo mona and it works great and I love the sound quality. This device is exactly what I needed. It's no longer available but the Layla may be a good option. What I like about echo is they use pci or pcmia interfaces. I don't like usb and not sure about firewire either.
about the crashing. I when through a period of crashes. Had nothing to do with the sound card(s) or programs. My case it was the cooling fins on the cpu heatsink were full of dust and caused it to overheat. Funny all the tech support help I got no one ever thought of that. I just thought as a last resort to change the heatsink
I used to be a strong supporter of the Echo Layla, but after mixing tracks recorded with an Alesis HD24, I've realized that their really are better sounding converters out there. I don't know if it is as much better as it is colored, but the coloring the HD24 imposes on the signal is actually quite musical. I always found the Echo to be sterile no matter what sampling/bit rate I used. That's just me though.
Are you having any problems with Vegas 5.0B and the Motu,
I can't seem to get Vegas to have the buss section that goes to
the motu..happy holidays..sparrow
(in audio devices I have no advanced window when I select Motu)
Are you having any problems with Vegas 5.0B and the Motu,
I can't seem to get Vegas to have the buss section that goes to
the motu..
You don't say which MOTU hardware you are using.
(in audio devices I have no advanced window when I select Motu) The advanced "window" meaning the Advanced button for configurting your MOTU hardware? This button on the Audio Prefs page is only available with ASIO drivers, so you must be using the ASIO drivers with the MOTU. You then can access the MOTU Audiowire or Firewire configuration - depending on the MOTU device you have.
Thanks for the feedback, I am using the Motu 2408MK3-PCI-424 Card,
and in the past with Vegas 3/4 when I could hold the motu and see
send stereo busses back to the analog mixing desk. In version 5, I set
it to the Motu, but when I leave the Audio Device Tab, it defaults back to
a windows default, leaving me only with one stereo mix buss. I had a
a previous problem with the Video driver tab, and did an un-install of
Vegas 5 and 5B, I got the Video tab back, but lost the Motu audio buss?
Should I try another un-install and see if both device tabs come back with
full functions?
happy winter..sparrow
this is all ASIO and worked before!
Personally, I enjoy the MOTU 828 MKII. Quite a little toy with 8I/O analog, 8 I/O Lightpipe and SPDIF (technically 22-I/20-O. Had some glitches when not using the proper ADAT with 24 bit - but, that resolved, I have never looked back.
Has anyone had experience with the M-Audio Delta 1010?
Geoff
Former user
wrote on 3/7/2005, 8:01 AM
Tons of Delta 1010 experience here. It's really the only part of my studio that requires zero maintenance. This unit is like a rock. Works consistently day in, day out 365 days a year with Vegas, Acid, Nuendo 3 and Wavelab.