Nedd to Upgrade Soundcard, Recomendations?

do you record yourself playing or singing at all? if so i would recommend the echo mia midi as a starter card ($130) but if you don't have a mixer of some kind that takes 1/4" cables or S/PDIF then you might go for an m-audio audiophile 2496. it uses RCA-style cables that will plug into consumer electronics.

if you see yourself ever doing more than noodling, or recording yourself or a live instrument with a microphone, i'd really push the echo mia midi + a mixer like the soundcraft compact 4 (also $99) which appears to be purpose built for home recording. the extra money you spend will pay off in the long run. even with the audiophile you'll probably need a mixer anyway to record yourself, so spend $30 more and get balanced inputs and outputs (which reject hum and noise better than RCA unbalanced connectors).

welcome to the forum.

What type of software are you running?

ORIGINAL: astraltrekkor

Looking to upgrade the Realtek that came with my HP Pavilion. Op sys is XP 2002 sp2, Pentuim 4 @ 2.8 GHz. 512k ram. I just kinda noodle around on the weekends so not looking to break the bank. Have my eye on the E-MU 0404. Just wonder what the more experienced have to say. First post! Thanks in advance for recommendations

Sounds like a good idea to pick up.

Thanks Beagle, I'm leaning towards the EMU 0404 over the Audiophile 2496 for two reasons. The 24/192 Bit depth sample rate and the 64 bit Driver availability.

For now I only have one midi device to plug in, but who knows what the future holds.



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from what i understand m-audio has yet to ship out 64-bit drivers for the audiophile.

astral, unless you have a really fast computer with tons of hard drive space (and your target output is DTS audio) i would not consider one card over another because it can do 192khz sample rates. since you are upgrading from a realtek sound card i will take the liberty of assuming you are in the beginning stages of your digital recording experience. thus you will probably not reap any of the benefits from recording at 192khz. i would recommend 44.1khz unless you know for a fact that your final output media will be using a higher bit rate.

Thanks For the input Jack