Help! I'm setting up a home studio

[KitC]

BALDO

I can understand where you're coming from. In truth, my first 2 cards were 'blasters starting out with an AWE32 then an SBLive. While we now know they are not the best for recording, unfortunately, that is not the sentiment of a lot of users. I used the AWE to learn about soundfonts and as my first midi interface to my keyboards. I even actually cut a tune or 2 on my SBLive!

I then stepped up to a Terratec DMX 6Fire and the difference was like night and day soundwise. Giga-compatible and analog i/o that was blessedly quiet, had no DC offset and a noise floor that was way, way below that of the Live. That Envy24HT chip was the bomb at the time.

I'm now using an Emu 1820m whose mother company is <urk!> Creative, but I can tell you this ain't no 'blaster. There were a few probs early on with the drivers (what new product doesn't go thru growing pains?), but things have matured since then. I'm getting quite low latencies with this card - I'm usually at 5 ms but have to go to 50 ms when mixing because I really lay on the fx and vsts, and I like to automate practically every parameter there is.

The 'blasters have their use but I have to side with you in saying that this ain't no card for serious recording. They're really meant for gaming.

[nedster]

mga sir .. question po...

ano po b maganda na entry level na sound card???  mg kaiba po b pg ung pang multitrack at ung mga ordinary sound card   panu po mg
mga mga 2 inputs lng pwd ba un ??

kc i'm now using soundcard na kasama ng mobo... pg sa line in ng soundcard naka lagay ung line out ng power mxr wla cya sound pero nka clip ung meter?? pg sa mic in meron pero noisy.... panu kaya magana solution

tnx,.. more pwr..

[KitC]

mga sir .. question po...

ano po b maganda na entry level na sound card???  mg kaiba po b pg ung pang multitrack at ung mga ordinary sound card   panu po mg
mga mga 2 inputs lng pwd ba un ??

Kung locally available ang pinaguusapan, the best for serious recording is the M-Audio Audiophile 2496. Bakit hindi audigy? Everyone will say na gaming card un but let's look at specs. The biggest flaw of the audigy is that it samples everything at 48 kHz. Kahit na 44.1 ka or even 96 kHz, it will resample everything to 48 kHz then spew it out to your software at the sample rate you require. Sample rate conversion introduces digital artifacts, and in some cases, aliasing, a sort of metallic sound in the higher frequencies. There are other factors like relatively noisy inputs. My SBLive, for example, has a noise floor at -76 dB and a phase correlation problem skewed somewhat to the left.

kc i'm now using soundcard na kasama ng mobo... pg sa line in ng soundcard naka lagay ung line out ng power mxr wla cya sound pero nka clip ung meter?? pg sa mic in meron pero noisy.... panu kaya magana solution

tnx,.. more pwr..

The mobo soundcard is not a good choice for recording. It's inside the electrically noisy confines of the case in close proximity to a digitally noisy cpu and other chips. Most pro soundcards are generally hardened against that noise; other soundcards put their converters outside of the computer case in a breakout box.

Always use line ins from line outs. Never use mic ins because the mic in applies gain and uses a different impedance value; isa pa, the mic in is a mono input. Most mobo line ins operate at consumer level. Most mixer outs operate at +4 dB; try to check if it is switchable to -10 dB.

[peeves24]

have any of you guys tried this



i recently ordered one from the US and its going to be here in a month. i'll use this between my laptop and my old soundcraft spirit folio mixer to record our rehearsals.

almost bought the alesis multimix 8 which would have given me a mixer to go with the USB interface but i opted for something more portable AND cheaper.

if this USB thingy happens to be junk, my only consolation will be to think that it didnt hurt my wallet  

[KitC]

I'm not very fond of usb 1.1 interfaces. Low data bandwidth, limited number of audio channels (for 1.1), and high cpu utilization make them less than ideal. IMO, another minus point is the use of RCA phono plugs for connectors. I'd rather go firewire like the Alesis Multimix 8Firewire, Phonic Helix, or the pricier Mackie Onyx. But you are right that the UCA won't hurt the wallet at all.

[nedster]

kitc .. salamat sa info ...

add question panu b connect firewire sa pc.. my sarili ba tong pci card
curious lng po .. sobra newbie pa heheh.. tnx ulit

[KitC]

kitc .. salamat sa info ...

add question panu b connect firewire sa pc.. my sarili ba tong pci card
curious lng po .. sobra newbie pa heheh.. tnx ulit

A lot of mobos released in the last couple of years have firewire ports on them. You will most definitely NOT find these firewire ports on budget mobos. The problem with most mobo's firewire implementation is that they use the Firewire 400 chipset (1394a) which has a max bandwidth of 400 megabits per sec. There is one mobo manufacturer that utilizes the FW800 (1394b) - Gigabyte. They usually implement FW800 on their Athlon 64 939 mobos. The onboard FW400 is suitable for most firewire audio although there are some onboard chipsets that are not. FW400 will even work with the Fireface, but you can only daisychain several Firefaces using FW800.

You can also get pci firewire cards. Just make sure they use the Texas Instruments chipset; these have been verified to work very well with firewire audio interfaces. Other chipsets are hit-or-miss.

[nedster]

salamat ulit... malaking budget pla talaga .. . .
 
iba pc .. soundinterfaces mixer hehehe...

pg m audio 2496 po connect un mixer line out ryt?? bali isa stereo track record at a time.. ?

[KitC]

pg m audio 2496 po connect un mixer line out ryt?? bali isa stereo track record at a time.. ?

Yup! Pwera lang kung may gadget ka na may s/pdif i/o. Yung 2496 can also accept digital input on rca coax simultaneously with the analog i/o giving you a total of 4 possible tracks. Ang kelangan mo lang is a good A/D converter.

A quick, down-and-dirty way is to use another card with electrical s/pdif outputs; bale, use the soundcard as an A/D converter. You can even use onboard s/pdif but don't go looking for pristine audio. Don't try to record with the 2nd card using wdm along with the 2496 because you WILL run into sync issues. May disadvantages lang nga if you use onboard or a 2nd card's s/pdif (especially if it's the most common soundcard in the Phils.); ung s/pdif nila operates only at a sampling rate of 48 kHz - sorry, no 44.1 kHz.

[nedster]

tnx ulit :d