Pro audio card (real pro)

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flamethrower205

flamethrower205

Illustrious
Jun 26, 2001
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Hi,
Building a comp for my friend, who is a professional musician. He needs a good sound card (pro grade, not an SB Live or anything). What are some goods ones like that (can't be too expensive though up to 300$).Also, which speaker set is good?

U got a problem?! Then dial 1800-328-7448!
 
There's a big difference in price between pro grade and SB Live.
What's he going to be doing with it? Is he just listening to stuff, but wants good sound, or is he going to be using it for recording?

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>
 
You can always try <A HREF="http://www.digidesign.com/products/homestudio/homesystems/" target="_new">this</A> for $1000. It kicks ass. DigiDesign Digi 001, comes with Pro Tools LE.

Haven't heard of Event, and couldn't find anything on them. Do you have some links?

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>
 
I didn't see any event audio cards. Could you please tell me where to find? Also, is RME a good company for audio products; will the DIGI96/8 give great audio wquality- better than SB Live Platinum for instance?

U got a problem?! Then dial 1800-328-7448!
 
You will not be able to get a pro-quality sound card for $300! The best you can get is an Audigy Platinum or Hercules Game Theater XP. The rest aren't worth it until you get into the $1000 range.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor
 
In sound quality, probably not enough to notice with computer speakers.

In functionality, huge difference.

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>
 
How much you can do with it. If you want to do recording and editing, I wouldn't recommend an Audigy. It's just not up to snuff.

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>
 
If you're looking for a serious card, get the one I mentioned. ($1000)
If you're looking for a cheap card, get an Audigy or Game Theatre XP.

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>
 
Ok enough of this you want real pro quality only two manufacturers

Digital Audio Labs: Card Delux 2 in 2 our balanced 24/96 sound card

Lynx Stusio tecnology: lynx one 2 in 2 out with XLR brakout cables, also does MIDI in/out SPDIF in/out AES/EBU in/out

Lynx Two same as above but either 4 in 4 out, 2 in 6 out, 6 in 2 out.

Ignore all this Creative labs crap and get proper pro sound cards believe me these may be more expensive but they are really worth it
 
I believe there are many cards in many price ranges, depending on the features you need.

Questionlist:
1.Do you need low latency? ultra-low?
2.Do you need multiple i/o? how many? balanced audio?
3.Do you need digital i/o?
4.Do you need on-board dsp?
5.What applications do you use (unfortunately this is of some importance still)
6.What os do you use/plan to use?
7.need mic amps and internal mixing/monitoring?


The price will depend on all of the above factors. Those saying that "you need this $1000 card as its the only professional out there" typiclly don`t know what they are talking about. There are typical "pro" cards out there that costs little more than a sblive, but they may have very few features (only digital i/o for instance).

Answer the above questions, and I will try to give you some advice.

Some brands to investigate:
*Creamware. Very powerful dsp. somewhat high price for a given number of outputs. expandable and low latency

*m-audio/midiman. big range of pure i/o boards (no dsp). not very expandable but good prices and driver support

*yamaha dsp factory. slightly dated but contains all of the dsp from one of their multi 1000 dollar digital mixers. Expandable, but offers few i/o out of the box.

Knut
 
Hmm, do any of the Pro cards support multiple microphones and Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor
 
I can`t remember any cards supporting that. But there might be.

Why would you want your mic amps in the soundcard instead of in an external mixer where they belong?

Dolby 5.1 mixing is done by plugins and software packages these days. It is possible to buy very expensive hardware boxes from dolby from this, but I dont think its worth it...

Knut
 
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