>>there are some touchy people around here. There are epic, month long, member leaving battles sure to brew if you broach any of these subjects:
1. Transformers
2. Mic pres
3. Input monitoring
4. Pro VS home use
5. AMDvs Intel
6. Audio VS Video
7. Acid plus Vegas/Acid vs vegas<<

And. . .any discussion about what/who qualifies as "professional." ;-)

drbam

Two setups.

1. Mackie Mixer, to Motu 2408, to computer thru Motu soundcard. 2408 does a to d coversion.

2. Direct in off soundboard to two ADATs to Motu Digital in to sound card to computer.

This allows me up to 24 inputs (16 digital and 8 analogue) at the same time.

Works for me.

"There are epic, month long, member leaving battles sure to brew if you broach any of these subjects"

and the occasional Beavis & Butthead Soundbite!

Just to stay OnT, depending on the source and situation I'll run mic > mic pre > sometimes a compressor on the way in. Models and types vary according to particular project vibe or gear on hand when on location. I almost always monitor threw external mixing board, but not exclusively. A really good setup doesn't have to be the most expensive piece of gear. There are tons of real world, great sounding tools out there.

-jb

my sound card has a mic 1/4 on it and has it's own control knob for recording....would this be what you're talking about?

If, in fact, your sound card is a mic-pre type sound card .... then the subject of this thread should have been:

What do you run your mic through before the mic-pre

& under those cicumstances the answer would be:

nothing

I have an audigy platinum 2 ex....

yeah I know people don't like it, but it seems to work fine for me....

>>I have an audigy platinum 2 ex....
yeah I know people don't like it, but it seems to work fine for me.... <<

Now I'm confused – if you know its working "fine," why would you need to ask your original question?

drbam

well I wanted to know if it would sound better....

Hey everyone,

Could we take it a bit easy here? It's obvious Reign wants to learn and isn't harboring a hidden agenda. When Pipeline Audio posted his infamous "list" the first thing I noticed that was missing was: "Any mention of the word "Soundblaster."

Reign, The SB series, in addition to some conversion "issues", has some of the crappiest I/O preamps around. To prove this, hook up a CD player to the Line In, hook the Line Out to your home stereo and listen to the results. Then hook up the CD player directly to your stereo. Hooking anything else in line is not going to improve the situation. Remember GIGO?

This being said, I used the SB for years with acceptable results and even defended it on this forum (be VERY afraid!) until I heard the monitoring through a friend's M-Audio. I couldn't wait to get the SB off my system. By the way, if you're on a budget, the M-Audio Omnistudio USB is on sale this month at musiciansfriend.com for $199. Talk about two pairs of 'rockin preamps!

any recommendations for a non-usb card....?

know of one that's got two 1/4" outs? for a/b listening?

Look at options from Echo and M-Audio. Several to choose from, both PCI and Firewire.
The highly touted M-Audio Firewire series only runs on XP or OSX, however, not 98/ME.