best sound card to buy?

tellurian · Joined: Sep 27, 2008 Posts: 44 Location: new zealand

best soundcard for pc?
have an interface tascam but no enough outs for ableton any suggestions for a good audio card with multi I/O?

DES · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:27 am Post subject:

Well, there are a few things that need to be known that would help in making suggestions...

- Is the computer a desktop or laptop?
- Do you have a preference to internal cards, USB or Firewire?
- How many inputs and outputs do you want?
- What is your budget?

Personally I use RME and M-audio products and they work very well for me. My most recent addition was a ProFire 2626 which I use with my MSI Laptop for 26in/26 out capability. I've mixed my band thru the system and it's worked very well. It does require A/D/A converters like the Behringer ADA8000 for 16 of the 26 channels.

I also had a MOTU Traveler MK I that I really liked. It worked great with my rack-mount PC but I kept getting glitches with the laptop that I was unable to fix. (the MSI laptop has proven to be a pain to get stabilized but it's doing fine now) So I ended up selling the Traveler to offset the cost of the ProFire. If you are using a laptop and want to use Firewire you have to be careful as to which audio interface you get - there are a lot of compatibility issues out there. USB is more forgiving.

Some people really like the Presonus products - I've never had a chance to work with them.

For the desktop computers - I try to stick with RME internal cards whenever I can - but you need the external A/D/A converters like the Behringer ADA8000 on the low-end or you can spend a lot for top-of-the-line converters. I feel that RME has some of the best driver support in the industry. Over the years I've owned 4 of their cards and never had issues with any of them. If your desktop has Firewire you can use external systems (assuming they are compatible) as with a laptop. Same with USB. I've got an M-Audio Fast-Trak Ultra on a Sony Vaio desktop that is running Windows Media Center - works great.

~Dave

tellurian · Joined: Sep 27, 2008 Posts: 44 Location: new zealand

I use a tascam us144 thru usb to record and play back and record into either wavelab or ableton.
the problem is i only have stereo out from the tascam so its hard if i use ableton i need two channels out minimum
this is for a desktop pc it has usb and firewire and my laptop has same features.

ultraultralite · Joined: Mar 14, 2010 Posts: 13 Location: in my home studio

4 inputs and 4 outputs are fine? do you care a little/more/extraextra about sound quality? what latency can you live with at maximum? what is your budget?
any thoughts about different brands or doesn't it matter which brand it is? do you need MIDI io as well?

tellurian · Joined: Sep 27, 2008 Posts: 44 Location: new zealand

ultraultralite · Joined: Mar 14, 2010 Posts: 13 Location: in my home studio

then a motu ultralite might be s good interface for you. presonus makes good interfaces too..

[edit]and let us know what you think and so on ... Cool

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 7:58 pm Post subject:

Stevo · Joined: Sep 25, 2012 Posts: 5 Location: USA

From the entry level - m-audio, presonus. Smth more serious - tascam, motu, alesis. Lexicon cards are very very good, the same as with NI soundcards.

bubzy · Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:13 am Post subject:

i have a roland edirol fa-66, it works very nicely.