Best Soundcard(s) for Sonar and Windows 10

I'm using Sonar Platinum on a Windows 10 PC through an M-Audio ProFire 610 soundcard at the moment. Unfortunately M-Audio is no longer updating the drivers for this product and although it seems to be working fine I wanted to reach out and see if I could get recommendations for a new soundcard. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks for the replay. My current card has a firewire connection but I can go USB if that's a better option. This is a home studio so I only really do one instrument at a time so two ins and outs would be fine (no live drums or anything like that). As far as budget I want my recording to sound as professional as possible but yes I'm on a budget of sorts. I would love to get something that's under $500 if possible. I hope this helps. Just trying to narrow down my choices and I'll take it from there.

I recommend the Roland Octa-Capture, you will enjoy this audio interface.
 
Check it out for yourself  View the Octa-Capture

BrooklynGtrMn
I'm using Sonar Platinum on a Windows 10 PC through an M-Audio ProFire 610 soundcard at the moment. Unfortunately M-Audio is no longer updating the drivers for this product and although it seems to be working fine I wanted to reach out and see if I could get recommendations for a new soundcard. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 
I don't get it? You say it seems to be working fine so why get a new one?
 
If it starts to be the cause of issues then it's time to change, otherwise why waste your money?
Unless you have money to throw away and are wanting to treat yourself to an early Xmas present I would advise spending the money on something you have a need for.
 
Steve

Just because your budget is $500, doesn't mean you need to spend that much.
 
I am in a similar situation as you, and started with a PreSonus AudioBox 44VSL. It's a good piece of kit, but the driver was a bit unstable on my Win7 machine and failed completely under Win10. That old driver is still the current driver, and even has a Win10 compatibility statement. Bah.
 
And there was the occasional time when I wished for just ONE more input.
 
So, I picked up a Tascam US-16x08 for $200 on a Musician's Friend Stupid Deal of the Day. Even at its normal street price of $300, it's money well spent. v1.04 of the driver fixed an issue in Reaper and has been rock-solid for me. So good, in fact, that I've made it my default Windows Playback and Recording sources. My old Bose PC speakers are in a closet.
 
It may seem like a lot of I/O, but the provides some real flexibility. For example, I have a condenser mic for vocals plugged into IN1 and a dynamic instrument mic plugged into IN5. The US-16x08 has separate phantom power enable switches for IN1-4 and IN5-8, so I have it enable for IN1 and disable for IN5.
 
I've also just picked up 4 more condenser mics that I plan to use to record a 13-member women's a cappella group at the local university. I've got the inputs for that unplanned session. No scrambling required.
 
Tascam now develop their drivers in-house. That was a big selling point for me, since the US-16x08 is a new device. Some of their older legacy interfaces with 3rd party drivers my be another issue.
 
Good luck!
 
http://tascam.com/product/us-16x08/overview/
 
EDIT: I should add that I'm running at the minimum ASIO sample size (64), and have yet to experience a glitch.

http://www.m-audio.com/support/download/drivers/profire-6.1.1
 
this driver works with windows 10...

Hey Everybody,
 
I read a lot of posts on this thread and feel the need to add a post in hopes for some feedback according to my specific desires in a mobile interface and instead of creating another thread, this thread seems to fit pretty well.
 
I have a great studio setup at my location but I am vigorously researching for a mobile solution.
My Roland Quad capture failed and when I sent it in, they said it is not worth fixing for the cost and offered a new one for $163. I am looking elsewhere at this point since that is the case before I go buying a new quadcapture with that discounted price because there is a lot of new stuff and even some really good older stuff out.
 
I am going to get a really good laptop setup but for now I have a get by i5 laptop, not too fast but with an SSD drive, USB 3.0 available for an interface or second drive if needed and 8 gigs of ram.
 
Please keep in mind that: 
 
1. Black Friday weekend/Cyber Monday weekend after Thanksgiving and I want to be able to pick it up at the store, not wait for shipping, in order to take advantage of this down time and rock out! lol
2. I need USB 2.0 (or 3.) connection without the need for external power (truly mobile, at any location setup)
3. I would really like to have dsp effects so I can add compression  the recorded signal. I know a lot of people say to record without any effects so it is non-destructive in the box but I have to give it up to the old school because using some compression on the way in it seems like I get a signal that comes out better overall int he mix than a clean signal that I try to compress and control more aggressively as needed int he mix. I think it has to do with some magic that happens with the way the compression works at the time of the performance and how it effects the way they perform. Not sure but anyway, I could sacrafice this if needed but it would sure be nice to have. MOTU and RME definitely offer this. It looks like the Presonus VSL series might offer ti but hard to tell if it is only post or can be recorded in.
4. I am willing to pay a good chunk of money but would love to save it for other things if there is a lower cost option that will do the job with very decent quality so I know I can ( I am very good inside the box) get the sound to a place in which it is truly ready to compete professionally and be released. This is mainly the preamps. They have to be good. Transparent is fine, actually my preference since I can do a lot to the sound in the box. I don't want fake color, low quality converters and preamps that introduce sub quality noise or sound. Tube saturation or coloring? No thank you. The plugins we have today can really do so much today in combination or otherwise that I would rather not color or saturate, distort etc. on the way in. Compression? That I would like to have the ability to record, pretty much solely.
5. I HAVE TO HAVE a good low round trip latency capable unit that should be able to go down to 32ms buffers or at least a really low number at 64ms (as long as the computer can hang of course)
 
So... @Mesh
I have been trying to find a round trip latency report on the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 which I imagine uses the same driver coding as the Scarlett 2i4 and Focusrite Scarlett Solo. (just assuming but that is not necessarily so - i.e. I heard that at least a while ago, the Roland Duo-Capture did not have the low latency performance that the Octa-Capture and the rest of the higher priced Roland Capture series had and also heard the preamp may not be as good, maybe just rumors... not sure)
 
I just found out the Presonus VSL software support for the Prersonus 22VSL and 44VSL is being discontinued. I do have a link to back up where I read this (Sweetwater) 
This was very disappointing because I read about how the Presonus VSL series driver was written to be able to bypass the buffer limit that USB 2.0 ports automatically have, thus being able to get as low latency as your computer can handle without the USB port or the interface being hardly a bottleneck at all. - Then I read the VSL software discontinuation - does not sound like a good investment for the future now.
 
So - with this collection of information and based on the unit being used with a very powerful new generation (Skylake) laptop, SSD drives (multiple for OS/Programs, Samples/Loops and another for Project files/recording onto), what is a good mid range or surprisingly reasonable price interface that has good RTL (low latency for playing softsynths), good pres, plugs in via SUB or USB 3.0 at least without outside power and hopefully able to record compression when recording into the unit via the preamps?
 
Sorry if the long post. I just wanted to really express my situation and what I am looking for after researching all night and half the day today, reading and Googling like crazy already.
 
I almost grabbed a MOTU unit as multiple units by them do everything I want except... the units I liked seem to need external power when using USB.
 
P.S. - I love and have been very successful with the Presnous preamp and compressor sound of the Presonus Eureka, thus my interest int he Presonus units or something that provides that clean, round, warm, pleasant but transparent sound, not colored, thin or cheap or saturated.
 
Thank You!
 
Lance
 

Wow very nice! Hadn't seen that! For mobile purposes I need something that does not need an external power supply though but I actually might consider that from my main studio!

Thank you!

Hi Lance, sorry for the delayed reply....I just saw the rest of the posts.
 
The RTL on my 2i4 in my current PC build (IIRC) was around 10 seconds......it's been awhile since I checked as I only checked it when I got the 2i4 about 2 years ago.
Although this might a bit late (since You've already got an interface), this list does include the 2i4 as well as others that have good RTL. http://www.michalkaszczyszyn.com/en/tutorials/latency.html#database>  
 
Best of luck with the Presonus.

oh, i thought you were looking for a sound card,
not an interface......

batsbrew
oh, i thought you were looking for a sound card,
not an interface......

 
Ha Ha,, my first reaction too!  So the only correct reply was the dude with the SoundBlaster,,( which reminds me? What ever happened to CJ?) 
 
Just FYI folks..
DSP compression is pointless because it happens after your A/D.. think about this for a minute.. About the only point in the input signal chain that can give you some nasty sounds are your pre amps, then the A/D.. putting a compressor after these in the chain is no better than putting it on your DAW track. It's not going to prevent clipping. 
I would think it's intended use is for monitoring control. 
 
The lower end Focusrite interface like my 6i6 are not stellar performers with RTL. They are average at best. But if your like me and never enguage input echo then it's not an issue. 
I can get mine as low as 7ms which is almost OK. But the system will be on edge so I leave it at 12ms. 
 
And to the Sound Blaster dude. If you want to see how good your "sound card" is do a loop back test and observe how far out of sync your overdubs are. 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...r-offset-m3178396.aspx
 
USB buss power is known to sometimes create noise issues on a lot of systems. Always make sure an interface at least has a power supply as an option.