[pumapenguin]

Hi all,

I was hoping someone might be able to advise me on which soundcard I should purchase. Ideally I'm looking for a soundcard that I can do a bit of home-recording with - acoustic/electric guitar and flute mostly. Also playing/recording VST instruments using Cubase. I'm basically looking for a great quality card that will offer low latency - ideally between 2-4ms using VST instruments within Cubase. I run a couple of condenser mics through a small behringer mixer/pre-amp into the line in on the soundcard.

I've been considering both the Sound Blaster 7.1 X-Fi Elite Pro and the long established M-AUDIO 2496. I've read a few negative things about the X-FI Elite Pro and as it costs so much more I'm thinking...is it really worth that extra money? Ok - it's got a fancy breakout box and remote control. But do I really need that extra stuff? I just need a soundcard that will allow me to do some decent quality recording.

I have been using the Creative Audigy2 for a number of years and was very happy with the sound quality. I don't need bells and whistles. Unfortunately my newly updated computer setup has a problem with this card - something to do with IRQ settings on the ASUS PQ5 Pro Turbo motherboard bios - and they are not re-configurable. Lots of static and crackling.

At this point I have made a shortlist of cards. I'm hoping that someone out there will be able to help narrow this list down a bit more. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Something else that I'd really appreciate some help on... I currently have two midi keyboards. An M-Audio 88ES and an older midiman 49 key. I managed to break the USB port on the midiman a number of years ago and have never bothered to get it repaired. A couple of questions...

1) If you connect a midi keyboard using a midi cable rather than USB does/can this affect/improve latency?

2) Is it possible to connect one keyboard via midi and the second keyboard via USB and have both playing simultaneously?

Here is the list I am currently considering:

1) ASUS Xonar Essence STX (around £120)

2) Asus Xonar D2 Sound Card (around £85)

3) M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (around £50)

4) M-Audio Delta 44 - Professional 4 In/4 Out 24Bit/96Khz Pci Audio Card (around £120) (no midi port)

5) M-Audio Delta 66 PCI soundcard (around £145) (no midi port)

6) M-Audio Delta 1010 LT Audio Interface (around £135)

7) CREATIVE Sound Blaster 7.1 X-Fi Elite Pro PCI sound card (around £230)

8) E-mu 1212M V2 PCI Card (around £115)

Well, I think I'm going to go with the Asus Xonar D2 soundcard. Excellent signal to noise ratio and it seems very well-designed. I've read a lot of good things about it - however, trawling through the internet I have also heard that there are issues latency on this card. Does anyone on this forum own one of these cards? If so I'd really appreciate feedback the latency matter - I would have thought that using Asio4All drivers it would be possible to get a low latency of around 4ms? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[weib]

I think you'd have to go to recording/production forums to get a better answer.

Most of us here are just appreciators of music

[Dreamslacker]

Originally Posted by pumapenguin

Hi all,

I was hoping someone might be able to advise me on which soundcard I should purchase. Ideally I'm looking for a soundcard that I can do a bit of home-recording with - acoustic/electric guitar and flute mostly. Also playing/recording VST instruments using Cubase. I'm basically looking for a great quality card that will offer low latency - ideally between 2-4ms using VST instruments within Cubase. I run a couple of condenser mics through a small behringer mixer/pre-amp into the line in on the soundcard.

I've been considering both the Sound Blaster 7.1 X-Fi Elite Pro and the long established M-AUDIO 2496. I've read a few negative things about the X-FI Elite Pro and as it costs so much more I'm thinking...is it really worth that extra money? Ok - it's got a fancy breakout box and remote control. But do I really need that extra stuff? I just need a soundcard that will allow me to do some decent quality recording.

I have been using the Creative Audigy2 for a number of years and was very happy with the sound quality. I don't need bells and whistles. Unfortunately my newly updated computer setup has a problem with this card - something to do with IRQ settings on the ASUS PQ5 Pro Turbo motherboard bios - and they are not re-configurable. Lots of static and crackling.

At this point I have made a shortlist of cards. I'm hoping that someone out there will be able to help narrow this list down a bit more. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Something else that I'd really appreciate some help on... I currently have two midi keyboards. An M-Audio 88ES and an older midiman 49 key. I managed to break the USB port on the midiman a number of years ago and have never bothered to get it repaired. A couple of questions...

1) If you connect a midi keyboard using a midi cable rather than USB does/can this affect/improve latency?

2) Is it possible to connect one keyboard via midi and the second keyboard via USB and have both playing simultaneously?

Here is the list I am currently considering:

1) ASUS Xonar Essence STX (around £120)

2) Asus Xonar D2 Sound Card (around £85)

3) M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (around £50)

4) M-Audio Delta 44 - Professional 4 In/4 Out 24Bit/96Khz Pci Audio Card (around £120) (no midi port)

5) M-Audio Delta 66 PCI soundcard (around £145) (no midi port)

6) M-Audio Delta 1010 LT Audio Interface (around £135)

7) CREATIVE Sound Blaster 7.1 X-Fi Elite Pro PCI sound card (around £230)

8) E-mu 1212M V2 PCI Card (around £115)

Well, I think I'm going to go with the Asus Xonar D2 soundcard. Excellent signal to noise ratio and it seems very well-designed. I've read a lot of good things about it - however, trawling through the internet I have also heard that there are issues latency on this card. Does anyone on this forum own one of these cards? If so I'd really appreciate feedback the latency matter - I would have thought that using Asio4All drivers it would be possible to get a low latency of around 4ms? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Onboard sound is out of the question, I suppose since you're probably looking at proper ASIO support; ASIO4ALL latencies are higher than cards with native ASIO support. Not to mention, you're likely to end up having odd issues like crackling sound on playback. That's what I experienced with Cubase, ProTools (h2o) & FooBar (Playback).

I'd say that you can go for the 2496. It's fairly well established and you shouldn't have any issues with it. IMO, you should be looking at the I/O options to fit your requirement once you start looking at DAWs in that price range.

You might want to buy a decent basic soundcard with native ASIO support and spend the savings on getting nice samples/ plug-ins instead. Perhaps even a nice mic preamp.

You can actually buy USB to MIDI adapters.
Audiotrak has one model which is a breakout cable (USB to 2 MIDI ports) and it's relatively inexpensive.
USB to MIDI isn't going to affect the latency any more than a MIDI port on a soundcard unless you're on an ancient computer where USB host actually consumes significant processing power (Pentium MMX era).

[soujiRo]

SKip the creative cards.
Skip the ASUS cards.

1) If you connect a midi keyboard using a midi cable rather than USB does/can this affect/improve latency?

I am 99% sure on this one. No, the latency will not be affected/improved.

2) Is it possible to connect one keyboard via midi and the second keyboard via USB and have both playing simultaneously?

Yeah

I would have thought that using Asio4All drivers it would be possible to get a low latency of around 4ms?

It all depends on your computer hardware config and the audio interface(Which would be a better choice) and/or soundcard that you're using. To go as low as 4ms is...not really needed.

[blackdra19]

Originally Posted by soujiRo

SKip the creative cards.
Skip the ASUS cards.

i heard that the Fata1ity series from creative are decent?

[soujiRo]

Definitely not for recording/monitoring purposes. These are for gaming. If you're wondering, the difference between certain soundcards used for (home) studio work and gaming/movies are
1- The type of input/outputs available
2- The amount of input/outputs available (these determine how many instruments, microphones, headphones, monitors, etc. that you can connect to it.)
3- Type of sound produced (as neutral as possible)

^Just to mention a few off the top of my head.


If you want an example of soundcard made for home studio work you can look at the ESI-Juli@. I've been trying hard to find this bloody card in SG but failed ~_~


Its a damn good card which has swappable I/O, decent recording capability and runs audio extremely well (even on most monitors). I'd suggest TS get that if he's willing to ship from overseas in here (or find a 2nd hand seller).

[Dreamslacker]

Originally Posted by soujiRo

If you want an example of soundcard made for home studio work you can look at the ESI-Juli@. I've been trying hard to find this bloody card in SG but failed ~_~

Don't think the TS is local based on the prices he quoted. But I suspect the ESI/ Audiotrak products are even harder to find over there.

Have you tried asking Jaben to bring it in for you? They're the distro for Audiotrak after all.

[soujiRo]

Did that already. They told me that they can't help. ESI products are easier to find overseas anyway (if TS is really not local).

[videofusion]

miss my juli@ sold it two years ago, it was a good card

[soujiRo]

Originally Posted by videofusion

miss my juli@ sold it two years ago, it was a good card

I just cried a little inside

[Dreamslacker]

Originally Posted by soujiRo

Did that already. They told me that they can't help. ESI products are easier to find overseas anyway (if TS is really not local).

Try getting something else from Resolution?
They do have some Audiotrak/ ESI stuff in stock last I checked. I remember eyeing the Presonus Firebox back then (they had an offer for SAE students that bundled Cubase).

[soujiRo]

I got something else instead of the Juli@ already. I guess its better anyway. Yeah Resolution is a cool shop, but I get most of my things from Hung Bros! (:

Do you know of any other shops selling studio equipment? Like Sinamex, Resolution, etc

[Dreamslacker]

Originally Posted by soujiRo

I got something else instead of the Juli@ already. I guess its better anyway. Yeah Resolution is a cool shop, but I get most of my things from Hung Bros! (:

Do you know of any other shops selling studio equipment? Like Sinamex, Resolution, etc

Choices pretty limited in Sg. You can try Team 108 though. They distribute some pro-audio stuff and they do entertain end-users.

[Knight_Rider]

Originally Posted by videofusion

miss my juli@ sold it two years ago, it was a good card

Xonar Essence ST for you sir?

[videofusion]

Nah, not touching PC based for movies and music for the past 3yrs already