Sound card recomendations - anything new on horizon?

[borat]

thanks for the feedback guys, i've been checking out terratec and it seems that the 24/96 is the way to go , will have a look at m -audio too.

[az]

Borat, I think they both use the Envy24 chip

Also, if you need multichannel recording, Hoontech and Terratec have some equipment for good prices there, I think. Do you need MIDI or clock synchronisation?

AZ

[GuchiGuh]

You can have my Soundblaster 16 if you want~ its ISA and still works perfectly! am using it right now

[borat]

GuchiGuh
you'd have a deal but ISA left my machine long ago

az
what i need is the ability to record 2 electric guitars, 1 rythem , 1 lead, a bass guitar, drums and vocals tho not all at the same time through separate channels, so id maybe record the drums and rythem then add the bass, lead and vocals over the top afterwords, i just need some hardware that can handle that and software to enable me to do it, as i said before this is a feild i am completely illiterate to, i just play the music dont mind how it gets recorded so long as it sounds good, and doesnt cost me too much

[az]

Hmm...

So, do you want to mix ("produce") it BEFORE you record it- like live - or do you want to use the PCs full potential and do the mixing in software, afterwards?

For the first approach I'd recommend a hardware mixer or a soundcard with at least 5 channels (or more, if you have stereo sources).

For the second approach, you'll want to record separately anyway, so 2 channels (stereo) is plenty.

I don't know what kind of signal levels electric guitars have, so I can't say if you can put them into a soundcard directly, or if you need to have preamp outs on your amps. Ask a competent electric guitars/studio equipment dealer here, or if you don't know any, I'll ask a friend. I can say you will NEED a good microphone preamp. Terratec sells those too, I think, but as I said, I can send you plans to build your own, if you can wield a soldering iron. The one that comes with the 6fire 24/96 MIGHT be good enough, I don't know. It's only mono, of course.

I can't help with the software, though. I know good software costs a lot though, if you don't *cough* get trial versions *cough*. Steinberg Wavelab is a good and fast wave editor, but I think it supports only 2 channels.

AZ

[Ribbit]

Guitars want to be plugged into high-impedence inputs, which soundcards and most recording equipment tend not to have. You'll need some kind of DI-box to do things that way.

If you're recording guitars through amps (and you're using tube amps), I can highly recommend that you get one of these. It's a power attenuator with a built-in cabinet emulator and recording outputs. It sounds wonderful (except the headphone out).

[Wombat]

Why don't you want an 8-track recorder? I don't think that going instrument->computer is smart. Instrument->proper recording device->computer for mixing.

[az]

Why add the unneccessary (sp?) stage of recording analog? (Besides, 8-track recorders still cost money)

AZ

[Wombat]

Because recording a digital signal for the entire thing is going to require massive, massive amounts of HD space. Also, I wouldn't want to throw the kinds of signals a guitar can generate at any computer input I can think of (unless we're talking MIDI). 8-tracks can be fairly cheap, and 4-tracks quite cheap. Also, the track recorder can do a pretty good job of mixing and balancing in its own right. Extra tapes are a lot cheaper than HD space, too. And you can lug around a recorder quite easily - <B>much</B> easier than a computer. And recorders don't crash in the middle of your session.

[borat]

basically i dont have an awfull lot of money at this stage and taking a trip round to my local music store just resulted in some guy trying to push me a £600 peice of mixing equiptment that im not sure i even needed, i figured i have a decent PC with bags of hard disk and i just want a basic demo so if i could take the PC only route then that would be better, i want to use the PC' s software to produce it really as if it does work ive done it on the cheap which makes me feel good and if not then i havent really made a huge spend compared to proper mixing equipment. thanks once again for the input guys i think i have enough now to make a start on things.

[Jammrock]

I would recommend Echo Audio, but they are a little out of your price range:

http://www.arbitergroup.com/pricelists/html_pricelists/echopricelist.htm

M-Audio makes some great stuff for professional music makers. Here are some items you can look at. They may not look graceful, but they should work:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/delta410.php

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/delta44.php

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/audiophile.php

Jammrock

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup. Echo cards ROCK.....but they aren't gaming cards but pure editing.

Dr. Mordrid

[az]

I'd get the 6fire, as it has an at least half-decent mic in, and some kind of preamp for the guitars (there should be stuff out there for ~100 EUR new that does that, I guess.. but I don't really know.)

A cheap 100 EUR mixer could prove useful, too, not only for recording, but also for gigs (PA...).

AZ

[thop]

I'm also looking for a new card. I've only recently begun to watch movies on my TV from my computer, and it is really a mess to make the audio signal go to the TV and your stereo (different rooms). I have like 5 adapters behind my computer.

What i'd especially like is two independent outputs, so i don't have to split the signal, and better yet cinch outputs (2x L+R). However i have not seen such a thing yet.

I don't care for any fancy features like firewire, the newest EAX, 24/192 and things like that.

[az]

Cards like that aren't cheap, as they're usually musicians' cards. (But it might be possible to use the rear out of some cards as a second pair of front outs?) Cinch you'll only find on the more expensive models, or drive bays.

The 6fire has Cinch line outs in its drive bay thingy, but it'll look ugly having cables connected there all the time. But I think you can use these connectors together with the rear "Klinke" out.

AZ