Sound Card for Low Latency Keyboard MIDI recording?

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

i HAD a 2496, when i first started in sonar..
 
then had a custom PC made,
and moved up to a Audiophile 192 card,
which was a big jump, worth every penny.
 
but i know that maudio is NOT continuing support for either of those cards (i'm still happily on Win XP)
 
so, i'd get busy hunting a new interface (or sound card)!