Soundcard, another what to buy...

Hey!

I'm on the lookout for a new soundcard. I've decided not to go for USB or Firewire but instead PCI. Today I have a M-audio Delta 66 with the Omni i/o breakout box. It seems like I have blown the inputs on the Omni i/o or the delta. The omni i/o isn't available anymore so I have to get something new..

Anyone got any suggestions? Someone mentioned the EMU 1616-card. Any experience? That creative-logo makes me nausious... What's it like compared to the Delta? I know about the effects but I really don't care about that (especially since they don't work above 48khz).

What I need:
1. I need it to have XLR-inputs
2. I need to be able to connect my electric guitar
3. I need a breakout box like the Omni I/o with headphone connector (preferedly a large one)
4. It needs to support at least 96khz 24bit
5. Low latency (at least as good as the delta)
6. Good drivers
7. It has to work well with Asus motherboards (I'm using the Asus P5Q-E), and yes I know people here say they suck with DAWs.
8. It of course has to work extremely well with Sonar 8 ;-)
9. I play the occational game from time to time. So it really should be able to use it for games as well (and again, I know you shouldn't use your Daw for that kind of stuff but no one's perfect.. )) ;-)
10. Ease of use

What I don't need (of course it's not bad if they do have this but it's not necessary for me)
1. Midi
2. 192khz
3. On board effects
4. 8 thousand inputs. All I need is at least one XLR, one for guitar (that's tele right?) and one line in.


Many thanks in advance!
/M

FIRST and most important - you didn't list your budget. Recommendations won't mean much if I give you recommendations which are out of your price range.
Second, this statement:

I'm on the lookout for a new soundcard. I've decided not to go for USB or Firewire but instead PCI.

and this one will limit your choices extremely.

1. I need it to have XLR-inputs

some recommendations:
M-audio 1010 $599 has 2 XLR inputs and a total of 8 balanced (including the 2 xlr) analog inputs and it also has SPDIF and MIDI
EMU-1820 $399 has 2 XLR inputs/mic pres and a total of 6 analog inputs.
EMU-1616M $450 2 XLR mic pre inputs and a total of 4 balanced inputs but it has superior A/D converters.

there are others available, but without budget info, that's a good start.

7. It has to work well with Asus motherboards (I'm using the Asus P5Q-E), and yes I know people here say they suck with DAWs.

I'm not sure you're going to get many recommendations based directly on your motherboard unless someone happens to have the same one and happens to have a soundcard which meets your other criteria. most of these soundcards won't have problems with specific boards, especially if you're not going with firewire, but to get a direct recommendation on your motherboard compatibility is probably pretty difficult.

9. I play the occational game from time to time. So it really should be able to use it for games as well (and again, I know you shouldn't use your Daw for that kind of stuff but no one's perfect.. )) ;-)

I do the same thing and my m-audio delta 44 does just fine for ALL sounds - as you know from my posts in the sonar forum.

10. Ease of use

based on this requirement I don't think I'd go with the EMU stuff. the EMU has a software patchmix panel that is quite complicated. it's very powerful and once you get it set up you can probably just leave it that way forever - but it's not SIMPLE to setup. there are lots of others on these forums who use the EMU cards, however, so getting help should be easy enough.

I use the E-MU 1616M, and I'm pretty satisfied with it. With regard to your requirements:

ORIGINAL: metz

Hey!

I'm on the lookout for a new soundcard. I've decided not to go for USB or Firewire but instead PCI. Today I have a M-audio Delta 66 with the Omni i/o breakout box. It seems like I have blown the inputs on the Omni i/o or the delta. The omni i/o isn't available anymore so I have to get something new..

Anyone got any suggestions? Someone mentioned the EMU 1616-card. Any experience? That creative-logo makes me nausious... What's it like compared to the Delta? I know about the effects but I really don't care about that (especially since they don't work above 48khz).

What I need:
1. I need it to have XLR-inputs
2. I need to be able to connect my electric guitar
3. I need a breakout box like the Omni I/o with headphone connector (preferedly a large one)
4. It needs to support at least 96khz 24bit
5. Low latency (at least as good as the delta)
6. Good drivers
7. It has to work well with Asus motherboards (I'm using the Asus P5Q-E), and yes I know people here say they suck with DAWs.
8. It of course has to work extremely well with Sonar 8 ;-)
9. I play the occational game from time to time. So it really should be able to use it for games as well (and again, I know you shouldn't use your Daw for that kind of stuff but no one's perfect.. )) ;-)
10. Ease of use

What I don't need (of course it's not bad if they do have this but it's not necessary for me)
1. Midi
2. 192khz
3. On board effects
4. 8 thousand inputs. All I need is at least one XLR, one for guitar (that's tele right?) and one line in.


Many thanks in advance!
/M

The ones in bold are the only ones that it might not fulfill. The strengths of the unit are its very high sound quality for the price range, good build quality, and flexibility. As the name implies, it has (technically) 16 inputs and outputs. It has on board DSP. The Patchmix mixer software mentioned above is kind of complicated, but I haven't found it necessary to mess with it once you've got it set. If you want a really good end result for recorded audio, I would recommend it highly. If low latency is a primary need, you might have to look elsewhere. It's not terrible, but it's not the absolute best in that department.