Hello,
 
I've a modern PC with lots of ram running Win10x64 and want to get back in to DAW writing. My main input is a USB keyboard and most of my writing will be done digitally using the keyboard. I may record audio, but for now, it's not a priority.
 
I have an old M-Audio 2496 I re-installed after somewhat foolishly believing that a recently-engineered Soundblaster Z would be the latest and greatest for DAWs. I was wrong, the Soundblaster is a disaster--requiring unusable latencies to avoid the crackles. However, the 2496 is not all that great either (I remember being able to use it on an older PC, but perhaps the latest Win 7 2496 drivers have poor latency). It doesn't seem to communicate well with Sonar's latency/ASIO page, and I believe what Sonar shows the latency to be is very underestimated.
 
Anyway, I'd appreciate some recommendations on sound cards (?) that allow for low-latency DAW work. Also, based on my recent research, I'm not sure if a sound-card is the right term anymore--many of them seem to be USB or eSata based solutions. In any case, I want to be able to record a new track along side a dozen others (with effects) using my keyboard (USB/MIDI) without too much delay between the time I strike a key, and hear the sound. As it is, I almost have to just mouse-in the notes manually.
 
Finally, how much latency delay is reasonable or realistic for a solution that is $300 or under?
 
Thanks for your help!

Most sound devices (sound card or the M-Audio) can use ASIO drivers or MME drivers.  Try them both and see if one driver works better in your situation than the other.  Normally ASIO is better but not always.
 
What are you using for your midi instrument sounds?  Try using the TTS-1 GM/GS/GM2 soft synth sound module while composing or entering midi.  One synth will cover all your instrument needs with almost no latency.  Once you have the midi you need, switch to the sounds you want and render to audio.  Once again, audio has much less latency than most soft synths, particularly those that are accessing the hard drive to generate your sound.
 
To see if a USB interface works as you desire check out this Behringer UCA202 Audio Interface for about $30 on Amazon.  http://www.amazon.com/Beh...ds=usb+audio+interface

If all your worried about is the time between striking a key and hearing the sound, that's one way latency (as opposed to round trip).  Most of the current USB interfaces with ASIO drivers can handle 10ms or less one way with no problem. 
 
Go to Sweetwater (for example) and do an advanced search for USB/FW (you can filter for just one) audio interfaces under $300.  That'll give you an idea of your choices.  Then you can research the models you're interested in.

It's called an Audio interface. A sound card implies a PCI or on board audio device. 
 
Most of the popular audio interfaces around $200-400 will work fine. Low latency midi has more to do with how many effects ( look ahead type)  plug ins you have running and not much to do with the actual midi system supplied with the interface. I always bypass all my effect bins while tracking audio or recording midi. 
 
Here's my blurb I wrote to give you some thoughts while shopping. 
 
http://www.cactusmusic.ca/Articles/Johns%20Audio%20Interface%20blurb.rtf
 
 

I, on the other hand, routinely monitor audio through the DAW while recording audio and MIDI with quite a lot of plugins active, especially delays. I don't use software synths much apart from drums though, and the system load is low enough to allow low latency figures without issues.

I guess the key question has to be what the interface budget is. Just because at the moment low MIDI latency is what'a required doesn't mean low audio round-trip latency might not be useful in the future.

If the budget will stretch to it RME have very solid low-latency drivers and hardware indeed, with latency over USB very close to the best that PCI interfaces can acheive and a good record of keeping drivers updated. In a lower price bracket Focusrite are very well regarded.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I'll spend some more time playing with my current set-up to see if my long-latency issues are coming from my processing or the audio drivers themselves. If I need to purchase a new audio interface, I'll look in to those suggested in this thread. Thanks again!

Just a follow-up for anyone searching in the future:
 
I did get my old M-Audio Delta 2496 to play nice with Sonar, but I found that I had to set the latency to around 23msec (1024 samples) according to the ASIO driver. This caused live keys to be delayed just within the acceptable range, but any shorter delay would cause my more busy projects to suffer the usual low-sample artifacts (static/drop-outs/pops, etc.).
 
I put a price watch out for a few audio interfaces and eventually purchased the Scarlet Focusrite 2i2 for $99. Just got it and tested its performance versus my M-Audio Delta 2496. The Focusrite ASIO maxes out at 10msec latency with 1024 samples, so that was a bit concerning since I couldn't include more samples when I needed them (larger projects).
 
However, even when I reduce the # of samples on the Focusrite to say 512 (5msec delay), it still performs like the champ on projects that would cause artifacts when playing through the M-Audio Delta 2496. I'm not knowledgeable about the hardware/driver inner workings, but I would have assumed the # of samples and latency value would tell the whole story, but obviously not. The Focusrite performs much better given the same reported ASIO parameters.
 
I suppose I'll keep both audio interfaces installed if in the future I need to raise the # of samples on the M-Audio Delta 2496 to 4096 (its maximum ASIO setting) when not recording live MIDI on a very complex project.
 
Thanks again for your help.

wait, i thought you said you were looking for a sound card?
 
you'll get better performance out of a PCIe card, but you have to know if your PC has a slot for it..
that old 2496 card is only PCI
 
also, you gotta look for newer drivers.
 
i don't think you'll find anything worth having for $300....
 
my best suggestion for a modern soundcard would be this:
 

RME Hammerfall HDSP 9632

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HDSP9632

jpaul
Just a follow-up for anyone searching in the future:
 
I did get my old M-Audio Delta 2496 to play nice with Sonar, but I found that I had to set the latency to around 23msec (1024 samples) according to the ASIO driver. This caused live keys to be delayed just within the acceptable range, but any shorter delay would cause my more busy projects to suffer the usual low-sample artifacts (static/drop-outs/pops, etc.).
 
I put a price watch out for a few audio interfaces and eventually purchased the Scarlet Focusrite 2i2 for $99. Just got it and tested its performance versus my M-Audio Delta 2496. The Focusrite ASIO maxes out at 10msec latency with 1024 samples, so that was a bit concerning since I couldn't include more samples when I needed them (larger projects).
 
However, even when I reduce the # of samples on the Focusrite to say 512 (5msec delay), it still performs like the champ on projects that would cause artifacts when playing through the M-Audio Delta 2496. I'm not knowledgeable about the hardware/driver inner workings, but I would have assumed the # of samples and latency value would tell the whole story, but obviously not. The Focusrite performs much better given the same reported ASIO parameters.
 
I suppose I'll keep both audio interfaces installed if in the future I need to raise the # of samples on the M-Audio Delta 2496 to 4096 (its maximum ASIO setting) when not recording live MIDI on a very complex project.
 
Thanks again for your help.

Smaller sample buffer size eg 128, 256 or even 512 is better while recording = lower latency. When mixing and playing back low latency is not important so you don't need the small sample buffer size. When playing back there's nothing wrong with increasing the buffer size if necessary. The better your device drivers and the power and speed of your CPU the less often you will need to fiddle with buffers sizes going between recording and mixing. You can leave them set low all the time.

The M-Audio 2496 was a good audio device in its day but current drivers are not a strength of m audio. That's another reason you'll find the Focusrite unit much better.

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The M-Audio 2496 was a good audio device in its day but current drivers are not a strength of m audio. .............

Yes, it doesn't look like MAudio is going to upgrade the latest 2496 drivers (Delta 6.0.8, March 2012; which are suitable for my purposes; Sonar Plat/Win7x64).  I was wondering: can anyone confirm that they work under Win 10?


 
Hope I'm not hijacking - this is the only thread that came up for "2496."  Thanks, RonL
 
Edit - There are reports on other forums that the 2496 works with Win10, but no confirmation that Sonar was the DAW AFAIK.