Spot: [Firstly:Just read your "Digital Video Basics" - so much good stuff in such a little book. Well done!]

Now to the mic preamp - your reply has me wondering if we have a misunderstanding. I only have the basic Audigy Z on my PCI slot - not the Platinum pro with a breakout box. The AudigyZ I have will not give enough gain, with any mic I have, to allow said mic to be moved more than 4" from the mouth. The AudigyZ has no Phantom Power, no monitoring capability, no XLR or balanced inputs. I have often seen this box praised here and I don't see how you compare it to the M-Audio?

Everyone tells me I must get a mic preamp/mixer and not go straight to the computers sound card but now you seem to be saying the computers crap soundcard is just as good. Help me understand this.

If it turns out you confirm your opinion that the M-Audio USB Omni Studio is not for me would you then recommend the M-Audio 410 Firewire that I said I did not want to spend money on?

Mike S

I have the Firewire 410 and love it.
HOWEVER, if I'd have known that Echo was coming out with the Gina 3G, I'd have waited and bought that instead.
I had a Mia and it was flawless.
The Gina 3G is less money than the 410, and has balanced inputs (not the 410).
The Gina is a PCI card with breakout box, so if you're looking at portability, the 410 is better.

Here's the Gina...

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/PCI/Gina3G/index.php

Mario

The 410 has balanced mic inputs, my only gripe is they're the ONLY balanced inputs. So far that hasn't really been an issue, I just don't like having to go from a balanced source to unbalanced but so far it seems to have no effect.
If you're in the USA you can get the 410 pretty cheap, try sweetwater.com, even by the time I paid freight and GST to import it down here it still worked out about the same as the top end SB stuff.

One other small gripe, the mic pres could use another 10 dB of gain, fine with say the NT1A up close but not much room to wind the gain up any further.

Bob.

I don't know how the cost compares, but I have an MAudio Quattro for 4/4 audio and midi, plus an MAudio Audio Buddy which had two mic preamps.

Much of the literature I have read advises away from the PCI and I see advantages in portability. The suggestions thrown at me, as always, escalate in price, but it's no use upgradeing unless you make a leap in functionality. It seems that getting audio into a computer is the most complicated of tasks - capturing HDV into Vegas pales in comparison.

Let me ask my question another way. Tell me how you guys, the ones of you who make decent shorts with Vegas, get you voiceovers in. Just tell me what interface(s) YOU have between your mic and yourPC.

What I guess I failed at making clear is that the low end cards predominantly use the same converter chips, preamps and card type aside. You'll do MUCH better in conversion quality by stepping up to a better chip. The FW410 isn't the top, but it's good. The Echo is slightly better for the price class it's in. Echo showed at NAB, a new series of cards. They are going to be shipping those Firewire based cards shortly. They are pretty amazing, IMO. Cheap, but good sound. They still aren't John Hardy's, but for the cost, I'd not expect them to be. The conversion is EVERYTHING. Get a good front end, and the back end matters little. In other words, get the best pre and mic you can afford and all else will simply work itself out. If your front end is weak, you'll always struggle. Then again, it's all relative to perspective. I recently had someone send me audio that was:
a. Poorly converted using recording tools found on the DV cam. (weak pre's, poor converters)
b. At least 12dB hotter than 0dBFS.

They were somewhat unhappy that in repairing the peak points as well as something like that can be repaired, damaged the integrity of the separation. In other words, they liked the distortion better than smooth waves because it had greater separation and greater punch, not to mention the effect of range limitation. It sounded like the musical group was playing through a solid state distortion pedal meant for a guitar. But they'll be releasing it anyway, without the clips being even smoothed to null.
So, it's all perspective. Some folks will put up with less than good. Keep that in mind, because when I comment on audio stuffs, I'm somewhat of a snob.

Thanks Spot - that's the reply I was looking for. This thread may rest.

Mike S