DEFINE "GOOD"...


HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO SPEND?

DO YOU WANT A SOUNDCARD,  PCI WITH BREAKOUT BOX, FIREWIRE, OR USB INTERFACE?

HOW MANY INPUTS AT ONCE?

THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT HAVE TO BE ANSWERED BEFORE ANYONE COULD EVEN BEGIN....

ayaanali22


i bought a custom built PC yesterday it has ASUS MB WITH an AMD ATHLON X3 PROCESSOR,  1TB HARD DRIVE , 4GB DDR3 RAM , NVIDIA GRAPHICS CARD, RUNNING ON WINDOW 7 ULTIMATE 64-BIT  but it has a cheap sound card i dont know which one is it.  and im looking to buy a good sound card. im using v-stuido 100 with sonar x1 so need yer help to choose the best sound card. thanks

Since you are running 64bit you need to make sure it has good driver support. Stick with the known good brands.  On the low price end Echo and M-Audio are good, in the mid range Motu and Focusrite, and at the high end RME and Lynx.  You can get a pro quality PCI card from about $100 to over $1000.  My Lynx II card was just under $1000 off e-bay but I haven't had to upgrade it :-)   In the "sane" price range the M-Audio Audiophile 192 and Echo Gina 3G are very nice quality and have good driver support.

Cards live and die by driver support, it does no good to have great hardware is there is no drivers the next time you change OS.

One of the bigger cards at a appropriate price, the XONAR DX is a acceptable agenda for those who wish something bigger than onboard audio after afire a huge aperture in the abridged ! Its got abundant SNR and appropriate arch buzz addition it comes with an SPDIF optical out adapter too. Priced at $89 it provides acceptable value.

TO : ohhey. yea i checked m-audio audiophile and lynx II card and read few good reviews about them but do u know abt  CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER X-FI? cuz i heard creative got good sound cards.

TO : AT   i know vs100 is my interface and im not asking regarding that. im talking abt my pc sound card. cuz whoever i bought the pc from he has some cheap pci sound card in the computer so i needed to change that to a better one.   thanks for the help

ayaanali22


TO : AT   i know vs100 is my interface and im not asking regarding that. im talking abt my pc sound card. cuz whoever i bought the pc from he has some cheap pci sound card in the computer so i needed to change that to a better one.   thanks for the help

An interface is a soundcard. I think you're confusing something. As mentioned above, you only need one proper soundcard in a PC and you already got the VS.
NOBODY on this forum recommends Soundblasters, but Creatives E-MU is OK.

thx alot guys its really helpful.
beagle: > thx tho yea i was kinda confused i thought my motherboard soundcard has to do someting with recoding on v-studio but i got it now  thx again

im thinking to do the samething cuz im only gonna be using that pc for music using v-stuido 100. so i guess i dnt really need tht sound card then.
and can you please tell me more about hardware like what do i need to get best out of my pc.   as of right now i have ASUS MB WITH AMD ATHLON X3 PROCESSOR.  u think its a good processor for music production or do i need a better one to make it  faster? 

As you are just starting out, consider using what you already have, and not spending additional money until after you have a better idea of what you will be aiming for in terms of music styles/inputs and outputs needed/number of samples or softsyths used/etc.  You may find out that you need a better computer (especially if you end up using lots of large sample libraries), but if all you will be doing is recording a few live tracks, most computers can do that.

It is very easy to spend money on stuff you end up not using or needing.  In general, it is also better - if budget allows - to buy a good piece of gear and stay with it for a long time, rather than to buy cheap, replace with a bit better piece, replace again with a bit better piece... and end up spending far more in the long run than you would have by simply buying something good in the first place.