Hi!
I was wondering what PC soundcard you guys were using… I personally have a cheap sblive 5.1 and getting quite fed up with it (and with Creative Labs in general)
I want a card that supports 5.1 DTS and that has ASIO capacibility…
Any suggestions?
TIA!
Hi! I have a sblive as well… (with kx ASIO drivers: http://kxproject.spb.ru/index.php?skip=1)
I hear good stuff about Terratec (www.terratec.com) and M-Audio (www.m-audio.com).
cheers!
Yeah I have an old(ish) terratec EWS64
and a SB Audigy
the terratec has good quality sound and plenty of features + ASIO2 drivers t work nicely with all software although this may have been fixed with their newer cards.
Many people complain about the audigy but I find it an excellent all round card it has ASIO drivers with reasonable performance and very compatible!
Hi
I’m using a cheap soundcard based in the C-Media 8738 chip.
Don’t laugh. Here is the trick. It has S/PDIF I/O on co-ax and optical. I have connected the co-ax I/O to my old Roland S-770 samples which happens to have Apogee ADC and DAC. This way I’ve got top quality conversion for less than $60 NZ (I picked up the sampler for $250 NZ a couple of years ago, this machine was brought by the original owner for $15 000 NZ !!! in 1989).
I think this is a good option for those of us who have been in the game long enough to have a sampler or the like taking up rack space and not getting used.
Only problem is latency, I’ve got it down to 20mS with Direct X 9 and ASIO > Direct X driver within Cubase SX.
Hey…
I’m runnin a Pulsar2 on the main logic DAW, and have a turtlebeach montega (it was gratis;p) in a 2nd comp - used to handle all MIDI i/o routing (MIDIoverLAN sends it to the logic DAW), also got vstack installed to handle a couple of vsti’s (controlled in logic via MIDI as regular synths)…
Nice…
Dan //
btw..
Rowan, i notcied this TB card also has a digi i/o - located on the card itself via four pins. Is there anyway i can do a similar hack u done?
Ta…
Dan
Hay Dan
I’ll try to find a manual for your card on the net and get back to you.
Rowan
heh, soz - i should be doin that really ;p…
sure google will turn up the goods - it normally does…
cheers…
After a quick search I couldn’t find any thing. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere. If you find it post the link and i’ll have look.
I’m sure it could be done.
Rowan
I am a cheapo too!
Live 5.1 with APSlive drivers for Win98 I can get a latency below 10ms.
I’ve got the KX drivers for the XP but haven’t tried them yet!
I’m Using an Echo Darla - 2 in 8 out. Good card, starting to become a bit old by todays stanard though :/.
Hey there
I am using a RME Hammerfall (The best audio card you can get) on my main music computer (running Cubase SX under WinXP) and a Pulsar I on my secondary computer (running V-Stack on Win98SE).
Kent
I use a m-audio audiophile for audio. For extra midi in/out i use a yamaha 192 and the onboard gameport.
Works fine.
js
My card: M-Audio Delta 1010LT
OS: WinXP
Software: Cubase SX
working all well exept the “normal” problems with VIA chipsets and audio, but i’ll get a new mainboard soon 
I agree with Mr.Musicman that the RME cards are the best ones you can get, for a short time I also owned a Hammerfall with a nice ADI 8 AE AD/DA Converter running under Win98. IT ROCKED!!! Never heard clearer sounds before or after having that card.
But I think it was a bit too professional and expensive for me. I sold it (for a better price than I had actually bought it ) and got my M-audio card.
;D ;D ;D
greetz
Johannes
Okay
I got 3 sblive’s for midi I/O in the three studio pc’s.
1 I use one to support my synth pc / sampler /drum kit.
1 I use for Ableton Live synced drum kit and my TR606
for live and studio work.
and
1 in my main recording PC for midi I/O in which I also have an M Audio Delta 44.
4 in 4 out ( 4 of these can be added to a system ie 16 I/O ) this runs at 24 / 96. ASIO. Latency is negligable.
Records quite nicely and has a breakout box.
Go check out the driver updates and supported OS for the M audio delta series…very wel supported.
There you go
Ian
Hi! thanks for all those replies…
I have KX drivers currently installed on my sblive 5.1 problem is, the SR is locked at 48KHz for some reason and my main audio app (audiomulch) is not (yet) compatible with this SR (must use “standard” 44khz)
So this is why I am looking for a new card atm…
What are those ASPlive drivers that were mentionned?
And what is the cost range of a hammerfall card?
Thanks again
Some years ago I had a lot of different sound cards in my PC at the same time (e.g. a Gravis Ultrasound, AWE32, SB Live and XG compatible), not at least to get as much MIDI ports as possible But in the meantime I also switched to RME Hammerfall DSP (+Multiface) - no driver & latency issues anymore + 8 analog IOs for realtime processing + support for Linux. For me this card + the PC software are a replacement for the even more expensive Fx gear
Best Regards, Thorsten.
Hey Xcen
The best (for the price) RME card you can get is
Hammerfall LE (Digi 9636) list price EUR 368,-
but remember that its an “only digital card” and need a Analog/Digital converter (stereo A/D/A or ADAT).
Alternative RME makes some A/D and D/A card to use with Hammerfall:
AEB 4/I four 24 Bit analog Inputs for all RME cards EUR 139,-
AEB 4/O eight 24 Bit analog Outputs for all RME cards EUR 159,-
AEB 8/I eight 24 Bit analog Inputs for all RME cards EUR 189,-
AEB 8/O eight 24 Bit analog Outputs for all RME cards EUR 199,-
Check out the RME homepage www.rme-audio.de
BTW about using soundblaster card for audio:
It is no good unles you use 48KHz samplerate.
The card is intern lock to 48KHz, and if you try to use 44.1KHz your recording will get out off sync.
The card will convert to and from 48KHz and use some time on it that the DAW software does not know.
See you
Kent
Yamaha DSP Factory over here, still a great card, bought second hand it can be quite a bargain :-).
Only thing negative about it (about me, eventually?) was that I am too dumb to use it with Logic, so I switched to Cubase some time ago. There the integration of the card is quite well done (if you don’t care about yesterday’s graphical appearance of the mixer representation…)
Regards, ilmenator
I confirm that RME are probably the best quality/price compromise !
I tested different card on Audio precision system and Neutrik high quality audio testers …
And the RME is far above !
In analog as in digital … ( one of the best jittering in all i tested …)
Other more expensive cards are , it’s not a surprise, better …
But my conclusion is :
RME : best quality / price
HOONTECH :I was surprised to test the 8 analog input rack version , a good card … at low price !
I’ won’t speak about the SB or other cheap card … the bandwith is so little !!! ;D
Maudio made good card too , but never checked …
As Terratec, Echo, Marian …etc …
I just want to say that the difference between 2 cards at the same price is now really low !
And it’s clear that the professionnal cards let the cheapest far behind us .. as we say in french !
For conclusion my net card will be RME !!! ;)