[production bible 2] Soundcards

gbass · Post by **gbass** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:13 pm

@Daft tnuc: my review was about the USB version, the "normal" PCI version is a completely different animal. Please mark it in the summary with "USB"

mumble · Post by **mumble** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:41 pm

I dont have a sound card !

What exactly am I missing out on ?

emize · Post by **emize** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:01 am

I've a m-audio fast track pro USB.
It works great and its easy to setup

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:06 am

Mumble wrote:I dont have a sound card !

What exactly am I missing out on ?

better converters, multi i/o, lower latency
what are you using built in motherboard sound?

mumble · Post by **mumble** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:39 am

Deadly Habit wrote:
Mumble wrote:I dont have a sound card !

What exactly am I missing out on ?
better converters, multi i/o, lower latency
what are you using built in motherboard sound?

Not sure, probably.

What do they actually do ?

DZA · Post by **DZA** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:47 am

Mumble wrote:
Not sure, probably.

the sound card you got with ya pc when you got it

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:03 pm

Mumble wrote:
Deadly Habit wrote:
Mumble wrote:I dont have a sound card !

What exactly am I missing out on ?
better converters, multi i/o, lower latency
what are you using built in motherboard sound?
Not sure, probably.

What do they actually do ?

take the load of your cpu for starters
would you try running (damn my lack of current pc gaming knowledge) say dead space at top graphic settings on a stock video card or get a card suited for the task?
same goes for sound

ecliptic · Post by **ecliptic** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:23 pm

As far as i can tell, you get what you pay for!

I want this

http://www.mhsecure.com/v5mm/2882_2dExpanded.html

My uni tutor who has worked in the music bizz for nearly 30 years cant recommend this enough, you can get one for around £800 and apparently Beats the pants off a protools HD (digidesign) rig. He swears by the DA/AD converters. You can daisy chain them as well, so sky's the limit!

DZA · Post by **DZA** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:24 pm

mmmm looks sexy

jsilver · Post by **jsilver** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:52 am

http://www.htomega.com/claro.html

Is that sucky

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:17 am

jsilver wrote:http://www.htomega.com/claro.html

Is that sucky

What the hell is "HD" sound anyway? Serious question. To me this looks like a consumer card. It might not be bad but if you are producing I would look at cards that are designed for it.

flateric · Post by **flateric** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:24 am

abZ wrote:
jsilver wrote:http://www.htomega.com/claro.html

Is that sucky
What the hell is "HD" sound anyway? Serious question. To me this looks like a consumer card. It might not be bad but if you are producing I would look at cards that are designed for it.

Think HD sound is 24bit/192khz (think it's what you'll find on blu-ray). Card is possibly the shit for AV stuff (would probably play nice in a media PC) but I wouldn't use it for production.

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:31 am

flateric wrote:
abZ wrote:
jsilver wrote:http://www.htomega.com/claro.html

Is that sucky
What the hell is "HD" sound anyway? Serious question. To me this looks like a consumer card. It might not be bad but if you are producing I would look at cards that are designed for it.
Think HD sound is 24bit/192khz (think it's what you'll find on blu-ray). Card is possibly the shit for AV stuff (would probably play nice in a media PC) but I wouldn't use it for production.

I thought that would be the answer. My old 20 dollar soundblaster card will do 24 bit. HD is just that catch phrase of the day. I doubt many would be able to tell the difference (I can't) unlike with TV's where the difference is obvious but I guess they would have make it higher quality other wise they couldn't use the new terminology.

flateric · Post by **flateric** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:40 am

abZ wrote:... I doubt many would be able to tell the difference (I can't) ...

I can hear a difference. High end is clearer and has more definition (can also have an effect on the low end aswell). Depends what you're monitoring with aswell I guess. If your soundcard is able to work at high samplerates it does have some benefits for plugins (read somewhere that opto compressors like PSP VW + R-Comp work better at higher samplerates).

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:59 am

GBass wrote:@Daft tnuc: my review was about the USB version, the "normal" PCI version is a completely different animal. Please mark it in the summary with "USB"

Oops... missed that... Plz PM in the future

duskky · Post by **duskky** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:18 pm

MOTU Ultralite Mk2/Mk3

I don't think you can get the mk2 new anymore, gotta buy a mk3 which costs about £499.00 apparently. i think i got mine for about £350 about a year ago and the only difference between the mk2 and the mk3 is that the latter has some dsp effects which i'd never use anyway. You could probably find a mk2 on ebay tbh.

Really solid metal case, loads of ins and outs and the software it comes with means it can make quite an effective mixer as well. Never had any software problems. It's firewire only i think. It only has 2 xlr/balanced inputs with phantom power and presets and such, which i guess is to save on space, with the rest being 1/4inch jack inputs. I'm using it mainly for production so i prefer being able to fit it in my laptop bag. Basically it's solid as fuck and ideal for working on your bedroom or taking out for DJing etc. If you've got the cash I'd recommend it to anyone (and have, 3 of my mates own em as well - none of us have had any problems).

you can find some detailed info here: http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/shop/flyp ... t_id/38306

Sharmaji · Post by **Sharmaji** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:44 pm

Ecliptic wrote:As far as i can tell, you get what you pay for!

I want this http://www.mhsecure.com/v5mm/2882_2dExpanded.html

My uni tutor who has worked in the music bizz for nearly 30 years cant recommend this enough, you can get one for around £800 and apparently Beats the pants off a protools HD (digidesign) rig. He swears by the DA/AD converters. You can daisy chain them as well, so sky's the limit!

I use a 2882+DSP, but not the D2 version--haven't had a chance to send it in for the upgrade yet!

it's a fantastic bit of kit; routing is great via software, control it as a plug-in in logic, the pre's are more than useable on anything (and sound nice at the top end, which is a plus since i'm always recording drums); switchable input levels means a ton of tonal possibilities. The DSP plugs are amazing-- really nice, musical eq's, transparent compressor, great choices for saturation/dithering/delay and other basic audio tools.

having a/b'd them myself, i can safely say that apogee's got nothing on the metric halo's converters.

haven't got a single bad thing to say about it. I wish i had 2, and a ULN-2 for the pre's. if you've got the $, you can't go wrong w/ the metric halo boxes.

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:57 am

Just got the Audio Kontrol 1 in the mail. I only had time to load up the drivers hook it up and listen for a minute. I have to say I am pretty impressed already tho. I immediately noticed an improvement in sound quality from what I was using. Must be the Cirrus Logic converters. The headphone amp is quite powerful. Drives my 600ohm Sextetts with ease as well as my k702's. I love the piece of aluminum that wraps most of it, makes it feel very sturdy. It's nice and compact. I haven't got to figure out the controller knob on the top. My only bitch so far is that it would be nice to have 4 inputs rather than two and the little knobs on the front are close together and not easy to turn. I'd sat it's well worth the $250!

jsilver · Post by **jsilver** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:45 am

I guess my question about CLARO type cards is why are RCA cards better? Sample rate? I'm trying to put a lot of stress on the card to test it but it doesn't seem to cause excessive crashing on anything ... I have it on the max ASIO samples to test too.

edit: I've just made a wobbler sub and when I turn the monitors higher I can hear static, even with LFO off .. Could this because I'm using a shite card?

[production bible 2] Soundcards

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