Good PC Sound Cards For Home Recording?

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I blew up my last card by rocking too hard (first the line in, then the mic and line out) and my replacement SB16, while basically serviceable for listening (and equipped with a much-needed MIDI port), kind of sucks on the recording end. There's a generally scratchy/metallic tone to everything, and more seriously, it seems to be a bit 'gappy' in recording - for, say, a given 4 minutes of recording, I'll end up with a wav that's maybe 3 minutes, 45 seconds. That lost time obviously means it's a tremendous pain in the ass to make things sync up across the full length of a track when I'm working in ACID. So - what I'm looking for is a decent sound card that doesn't drop data and can really handle recording well. I would just get another VIA Envy24 card, but I'm concerned at how fast I fried the last one. Under $50 would be ideal. Anybody have any raves or horror stories to share?

― Doctor Casino, Friday, 2 December 2005 00:12 (nineteen years ago)

Oh! I dunno about under $50. I just did a whole bunch of PCMCIA-card shopping and wound up pretty happy with an Echo product, but their PCI cards run more expensive than $50 -- I think the MIA-MIDI is like $130 or so.

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 2 December 2005 01:42 (nineteen years ago)

there's something like this

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496-main.html

which has rca & spdif i/o as well as midi

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 2 December 2005 01:49 (nineteen years ago)

there's also this for a similar price (around $130ish, surely could be found for less)

http://www.edirol.net/products/en/UA-20/index.html

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Friday, 2 December 2005 01:53 (nineteen years ago)

The second item Jim P. lists here is very tempting, but ultimately out of my price range as it is at least $150. Does anyone know of anything a little less tricked out? I've got MIDI covered with my cheap little Sound Blaster...sort of, anyway, as some MIDI files are now crashing Anvil Studio that didn't used to before. But I definitely don't need RCA connectors or Dolby 5.1 or anything of that nature. Basically I want wav in and wav out, with really reliable parts.

On a semi-related note, can I take a moment to complain about the sudden impossibility in recent years of getting non-USB MIDI device-to-PC cables? I guess it's for laptop users or whatever, but to me, paying $40 for a $10 part's features is pretty insane, especially considering how frigging long MIDI's been around. And it's not like you're blasting so much data around that you need the power of USB to move it all. Technology leaves me behind once again.

― Doctor Casino, Friday, 2 December 2005 03:16 (nineteen years ago)

The M-Audio Audiophile 2496 (as mentioned above) has been around for a long while now so is pretty stable (in my experience) as well as offering good quality at a now bargain price.

What do you mean by 'wav in and wav out' - in and out of the computer? That's what the RCA conectors are for.

― Oak (small items), Friday, 2 December 2005 12:49 (nineteen years ago)

i have the MAudio 2496 and can vouch for it. works great to my ears! probably won't get anything decent below that price. I think it's the lowest priced sound card in all the music supply catalogs.

― AaronK (AaronK), Friday, 2 December 2005 13:50 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for the input, everyone, I'll consider saving up for the MAudio 2496. Oak: RCA connectors would be awesome if I was singing through a VCR or Nintendo, but my amp, keyboards, mic, etc, are all designed for use with jack plugs.

― Doctor Casino, Friday, 2 December 2005 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

You know, they do actually manufacture leads that have a jack plug on one end and a phono (RCA) plug on the other end.

― Oak (small items), Friday, 2 December 2005 23:11 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but now I'm having to replace all my cables just so I can use a MORE expensive sound card...

― Doctor Casino, Friday, 2 December 2005 23:32 (nineteen years ago)

i have a cheap behringer mixer going into my 2496 Card. eurorack 6 or whatever the 6/8 input mixer they have is. it allows me to plug my guitar straight into a preamp and then have line level going to the card.

there are also adapters that will change 1/4" phono to RCA. there's an adapter for every need, don't shy away from something just because the style of jack it calls for doesnt match :)

do consider also the various USB interfaces. they're a bit pricier, but taylored specificaly to guitar and vocal bedroom recording.

i chose the card route though, and you'll probably find it's a better and more flexible solution too...

― AaronK (AaronK), Saturday, 3 December 2005 02:22 (nineteen years ago)

If you really don't care about midi, look for a used Echo MIA. That's the model before the current "MIA-midi" model. The MIA's specs are similar to the M-Audio Audiophile (I actually think it sounds better), except it actually has balanced 1/4" trs i/o and no midi.

Echo still supports the older cards in their line. (I use a Layla 24/96 and a MIA have had very good experience with them.) You might even get down at your $50 pricetag too if you buy used on ebay.

― martin m. (mushrush), Saturday, 3 December 2005 23:14 (nineteen years ago)

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