Sound card recomendations - anything new on horizon?

[borat]

im a budding rock start in need of a way to record some of my bands material onto computer with as decent a quality as my budget affords, i was looking towards the creative audigy2 platinum series as my budget is about £200 ($300) and i need the card act as a general windows soundcard too, i dont really know much about the technicalities when it comes to sound cards so has anyone got any recomendations?i currently have an OEM audigy1, will the audig2 platinum give me anythin except extra inputs. also is it a good time to buy now as the audigy2 has been out for some time now, is there an audigy3 on the horizon? many thanks for any help.

[fleabus2]

borat:

For your stated needs, pick the model with the feature set/price that suits you best from this company.

http://www.terratec.net/ttus/default.htm

AFAIK, they came to computers from the musician/recording side of the electronics industry and not from the primarily gaming side as Creative does.

If you find them a bit pricey, take a look at what a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz will do for you.

Happy trails,

[fleabus2]

Whoops!

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/

[TnT]

Never used one myself but have heard many good things about the quality of M-Audio cards.

The Delta series is for professional sound work; the Revolution is used by many who build home theater computers.

http://www.midiman.com

Thien

[az]

Terratec 6Fire 24/96 is a great musician's card, if you don't need to record more than 2 channels at once.

AZ

[Chrono_Wanderer]

forget creative labs, that's all I have to say. (and if you can afford a Audigy 2 platinum, grab a terratec instead. heard good things about them.

Otherwise, Senta Cruz is good if you can find them. (good price for a great piece of hardware)

[UtwigMU]

Ditto:

Forget Creative.

Go Terratec or M-Audio on the high end,

Otherwise TBSC or Hercules Digifire or Game TheatreXP (they have same Crystal sound chip AFAIK.)

[K6-III]

I'd tell you to get the Terratec DMX 6 Fire 24/96 as well.

Otherwise, if you really want to get serious, check out the MAudio Delta 1010.

[bsdgeek]

[time] *bsdgeek hears Creative and hurls

I'd say M-Audio Revolution, or the Terratec Aureon (? The one that uses Envy24)

[paulcs]

I went from Soundblaster Live to Audigy2 to M-Audio Revolution in a relatively short period of time. I think the M-Audio Revolution is the superior sounding board, although I understand it's not the best gaming board.

Paul

[az]

The one that Uses the Envy24 (the better variant, not the Envy 24HT) is the 6Fire 24/96.

Oh, also, I think I still have plans here from a c't project to build your own high quality microphone amp with Burr Brown ICs for cheap - because virtually all soundcards have a poor mic in. The 6Fire 24/96's is a little (or a lot?) better, but would still lose out to a separate mic preamp. If you want, I'll search for the issue and send you photographs of the article (in german, but the circuit board plans etc. should be readable anyway).

AZ

[Admiral]

What's the difference between the basic, LT and 24/96 versions of the DMX 6Fire ?

[Ribbit]

Have a poke around Hoontech (http://www.hoontech.com/ or maybe http://www.hoontech.co.uk/ if you're flash-impaired). Another musician/recording-oriented company. I haven't used any of their professional kit, but we've got three of their 4DWaveNXs installed round here and we're very happy with them. Their Audio DSP24 is Envy24-based.

[az]

Admiral, the LT doesn't have the drive bay thingy, but instead has the digital in and out (Optical only, I THINK) on a card slot cover.

AZ

[Dr Mordrid]

I use Santa Cruz's in most all my editing systems save for the audio workstation. In that one is an Echo GINA24 24/96 card. It's no game card, but one helluva basic studio card.

Dr. Mordrid