Best Sound Card for Video Editing

[Elie]

If you checked out my sugnature, I have a dual AMD system and RT.X100, so far I did not experience any problems what so ever.

However, the reason I say Soundblaster is bad because it is a system hog, it like to chew up valuable resources. And to top things off, the sound quality is still not as good as some other soundcards.

Regards,
Elie

[X-Caliber]

M-Audio Delta 410. This is by far the best, 2inputs, 8 outputs, TRUE 24/96. I would stay away from everything else.

[K6-III]

Well, one can do even better and go for the Delta 1010, or the new firewire version of the Delta 1010...

Then again, Terratec also makes cards worth looking at...

[Frank Marshall]

If money's tight you could do worse than a Hoontech 24DSP Value. It is based on the same Envy chipset that lies at the heart of the M-Audio Audiophile and delivers up to a true 24-bit/96khz recording resolution.

Early reviews had the card performing somewhat behind the Audiophile. Whether that was due to immature drivers, teething problems with the early manufacturing runs, or less effective ADAC's I cannot tell but the Hoontech is around half the price of the entry-level M-Audio card, which is good news for people on a budget. Though I do not have tools to test the card, I can certainly hear that it is much cleaner than my SoundBlaster Live! Value, even when just listening to CDs.

Digital (optical and coaxial S/PDIF) and MIDI I/O is available on a seperate bracket so you can save even more if all you need is plain analogue RCA stereo in and out. If you're not sure about your total audio needs, you can always start with the plain card and add the digital I/O bracket later.

You should be able to pick up the plain card for quite a bit less than the USD150 I paid two years ago here in Australia. The digital I/O bracket cost another USD40 at that time.

[DarrenD]

If
1) capture digital camcorder video via 1394
2) edit using MSP
3) convert to .MPG file (DVD standard) using MSP
4) burn to DVD using MSP
then
does the soundcard have any effect? // except to hear during editing

I would believe the soundcard does not figure in the above scenario. The video/audio come in via 1394 and MSP should process it digitally itself after that and putting it onto DVD is also digital so where is the need for the soundcard (except to hear during editing - in which case a crappy card would still do - it's a preview/rough guide to what will finally be on the DVD). Can anyone tell me if this is correct.


I guess that if I "printed to tape" then the soundcard would be a factor since that is what generates the sound on the way out of the PC. Is this assumption also true?

[Brambus]

Apart from all the burble that usually arises when talking "passionate" about something sooo technical (and that we don't really know ),
this site lends very useful evaluations and offers (IMHO) the right way of thinking about PC audio cards.

http://www.io.com/~kazushi/audiocard/

But all the site is very informative
Enjoy

Brambus

[Enak]

Audigy 2 does quite well on that site...

I have been playing with and without Hyperthreading enabled, and so far, only experience crashes when Hyperthreading is enabled and hardware acceleration is enabled for sound.

My main concern is that the sound card is stable in both editing and games (as my rig is multipurpose). As DarrrenD has pointed out, digital editing does not require a particularly high quality sound card. Premier Pro now only uses 48KHz sound and as this is where the Audigy 2 performs better (on aforementioned site)...

[Brambus]

I think it depends on what you do with the sound before you edit.
If you only use mp3, cd rips and DV audio well you really don't need an M-audio quality card.
But if you do a little HD recording it's another story, and if you like to "play" with software like Steinberg Nuendo &C ASIO is a must.

Obviously if you really like gaming, then audio cards definitely won't work - for gaming you will need sound cards like the latest SB or Terratec ones. In this scenario i think SantaCruz is not enough.

Early Audigy drivers were buggy, but the latest for my Audigy2 appears to be good. Never had a SB crash with multithreading on.
I think that real multiprocessor gaming is too new an experience for having a consistent feedback now.

BTW both Terratec DM6 and SB Audigy2 support ASIO.

Brambus

[SpiralDragon]

k i have some experiance in this fild especialy where audio is concerned.... if i where you i would steer away from consumer grade cards... especialy any of the creative cards... they have too mutch latancy and asio is not as great as advertised... the right about the m-audio cards are good for this purpose but i would not sudgest them for gaming.... you see it took me a few years to realise that i should not mix gaming and pro work on the same system ... always keep them seperated because they are simply difrent... especialy the hw for such systems... i curently have a creamware luna II ... it is the best investment....

[Enak]

Dare I ask how much that card cost?

[Brambus]

http://remixmag.com/ar/remix_luna_landing_creamware/

Price included

Brambus

[SpiralDragon]

$550 excluding the BOB ... but it was worth it

[Enak]

I maybe wasn't planning to spend quite that much money...

However, it is something that my dad would probably be interested in!

Only problem being the heat output, looks like it kicks out a fair few joules.

Will it play games? One of my dad's other passions!

[Dr Mordrid]

Echo GINA24 24/96 with 2 1/4" balanced in/8 1/4" balanced out, ADAT, SPDIF Coaxial/Optical & the bobs included. WDM, ASIO and GSIF.

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/Gina24/index.php

~ $350 street

Dr. Mordrid

[SpiralDragon]

yeh it will play games... but i wouldnt recomend it for it.... the gina24 is nice... but IMHO lacks the omph that the Luna II has... considering its DSPs