hi Roddey, you might still want to keep the AKAI in mind if you don't find anything else with that low latency.
 
 
 
 
 

mettelus
Do you have an onboard (Realtek) chip? For mixing only you may actually be able to get that to work.

I've got a Soundblaster Audigy card installed, it doesnt have ASIO drivers, but it does work. I'm having to use the MME 32 drivers. For a long time I was able to use ASIO4ALL, but, when I upgraded to SONAR X3, that stopped working. I am not sure how great the MME setting is, and how accurate... so I wanted to get something better.
 
Even if its just to play back and not record.
 
Is the MME setting as good as anything else, just for playback purposes?

To edit and mix music you'll need ASIO
(it can be done on MME, I can't think of the tech facts right now but there's good reasons not to mix/edit on MME).
 
Would not give up yet on trying to get X3 and your Soundblaster to ASIO....should be possible somehow.
 

the Soundblaster card is not ASIO compliant. I was using ASIO4ALL but it was explained to me that its just a wrapper. I cant figure out why ASIO4ALL no longer works, and basically, I'm tired of messing with it. It wont respond, no matter what.

I use a focusrite Saffire Pro 14. It uses Firewire. It was around $250. I am quite happy with it. I would think the USB versions are probably cheaper and pretty good.
 

I was on a phone earlier, so was hard to type. ASIO4ALL is a WDM wrapper, and intrusive (it will conflict with legitimate drivers). If it is causing you any grief at all, it is highly recommended to uninstall it completely (even having it installed can interfere with other drivers).
 
I made this post a couple days ago on trying to get the Realtek chip "working" for playback. Another caveat I would throw in is to disable everything on the "Enhancement" and "DTS" tabs for the "Properties" on the "Realtek High Definition Audio," especially for mixing.
 
I use Adobe Audition for a lot of mastering tasks and run it in MME mode through the Realtek without issues. The latency is set to 200ms, and although I could probably run this lower, when mixing/mastering that delay is not as important as when tracking/recording.

Focusrite, Presonus and the new Tascam units would probably be preferred at this point on the low end of the scale.  Many here at fine w/ their Focusrite units.  TASCAM are part of Gibson along w/ CAKEwalk, so they will naturally make sure those two work together and TASCAM has some nice new units in that price range.  I'd go w/ TASCAM at this point, all other things being equal.
 
@

I thought some Creative Audigy cards have an ASIO driver supplied by Creative?

As for alternatives, Focusrite seem well regarded, as do Roland. One thing to watch is that interfaces with their own power supplies often seem to work more reliably than ones powered by the USB bus. Not all PC USB ports are equal and they don't always deliver the voltage and current the spec says they should.

Its not a sound card : http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/FCA610.aspx
use the firewire option with a TI chipset firewire card !
As for alternatives, Focusrite is also a vg option ..again go firewire

This may be a somewhat colored perception, but it seems to me that there is a threshold at the $200 mark.
At $200 and lower, average or even sub-par drivers are prevalent, and true ASIO support is hit and miss.
At $250, you jump into better hardware, with near universal ASIO support.
On that note, I can also highly recommend the Akai EIE Pro.
Awesome unit for $250.
 
You say you are holding out for an 8 input unit. That's all well and good, but you may find that 4 inputs will serve you 99% of the time.
The Akai(or a similar unit) may seem overkill for your current needs, but would cover some serious mileage for your future needs, and you might not need to buy another unit at all.