Advice on Soundcards for Recording

Subject: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Jonah
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 12:04 PM

Hi,

I think this came up in a recent thread, but I can't find it.

Anyhow, I'm enquiring for a friend, who's looking for something around the £200-£300 (or the $ equivalent)

He doesn't want anything fancy, just clean recorded sound with a bit of midi (for drums, maybe) and maybe a few effects. (he has no need to record loads of tracks at once)

The two things that appear to fit the bill are:

Guillemot Isis (though I've heard bad things about this) or

Midiman Delta Audio 2496

Anyone used either of these, or have any other ideas?

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thank you

Jonah

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: English Jon
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 12:48 PM

Guillemot make good "all rounder" cards, but the Midiman will sound nicer.

Having said that, 200-300 buys you a bloody good audio card, whatever you get. I'm currently running an Audiowerk 2 (audio sounds good but 2 input channels limiting) and a Soundblaster (for midi) in 1 machine, and that seems to work pretty well.

getamac. sorry, did I say that?

Good luck!

EJ

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Jonah
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 02:25 PM

Thanks English Jon.

Somehow it's always harder when you're buying for someone else

Jonah

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Jonah
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 05:57 PM

Anyone else?

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Justa Picker
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 06:06 PM

Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1 Very sweet card indeed, and within the expressed budget mentioned previously.

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Jonah
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 06:30 PM

Thanks, Justa Picker - the page about that card doesn't seem to work at the moment - have you used it for mucic? It seems more of a 'general purpose' card

jonah

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Jonah
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 08:10 PM

Surely someone can comment a bit more - there must be people here who've tried HD recording

A link to a previos thread? Anything....

Or are all the 'useful' people on holiday?

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: IvanB
Date: 02 Aug 01 - 09:59 PM

Actually, Jonah, if you click on the 'Links' item above (the one in the Mudcat Cafe banner) and then open the dropdown at the top middle of the page, there's a 'Home Recording' category that will give you links to more than you ever wanted to know about the subject.

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Jonah
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 02:05 AM

Thank you Ivan, that's very useful.

I didn't realise that was there.

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: hesperis
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 11:55 AM

Soundblater live is great for midi work, and pretty good for home recording. The best feature is the ability to use system memory for soundfonts, which lets you use higher quality sounds for midi than the ones that come with your card.

I use the AWE64, and am a bit hampered by the on-board memory, which is expensive. So I haven't been able to update my card, and can't use the best samples out there.

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Justa Picker
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 12:08 PM

Further to Hesperis's comments, what I especially like about the Sound Blaster with Live Drive, is that the "Live Drive" portion is a front loaded section that sits in a 5 1/4" bay (i.e. over or under your CD Rom - with an internal ribbon cable that connects it to the PCI card within) thus negating the need to reach around to the back of your computer and attach or detach cables. All you need to connect to the rear of the computer are your speakers. With the live drive front mounted, there is midi in and out, mic/line input, headphone output, and digital in and out. Makes doing a dump from any external analog or digital recorder a breeze. I use it for transferring home recordings onto the hardrive. The overall sound quality is excellent, and it can more than handle everything you need to do, Jonah. If the link above didn't work, it's based on a URL of: http://www.soundblaster.com (I've noticed that Creative's website and many others are exceptionally slow or not loading at all, currently. No doubt victims of the Code Red virus.)

Subject: RE: Help: Advice on Soundcards for Recording
From: Jande
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 12:42 PM

I have to agree with both Hesperis and JustaPicker. I used the AWE64 for many years and within the last year got myself the SBLive Platinum with the Live Drive. For ease of use the Live Drive is Tops! (just make sure you place it below your removable drives [eg: CDROM drive or swap bays] as the wires get in the way of the opening of these.)

The midi sound quality is excellent if you use the soundfonts (the ones that come with it are more than adequate, though there are many others available on the Web.)

It uses a full-duplex technology, so that you can record on to a second track while listening to the first, and you can record midi as an audio (wave) file simultaneously while you are recording audio input. Fore example, I create a midi tune. Set my recording control to "What-U-Hear" (sic) and then set that playing and record both as I sing along to it. Voila! Music and vocals! Or, special effects AND live guitar.

I believe that it still comes with a copy of Cakewalk's Home Studio as well, which is an excellent first level music program.

Do keep trying the link above. You have more than enough in the budget for this card.

~ Jande (very Picky About Sound Cards)