Hi People
I think I might need to replace my sound card and wondering what my best option is.
Something in the £100 or less would be ideal.
 
My current card is an emu 0404 pci-e and for the last month I have been getting crackles and pops that have become progressively worse and the last few days has become completely unusable. In truth the crackles have been happening for the last 5 or 6 months on and off but recently have become seriously bad and consistent.
It only crackles when I have my Pod X3 Live turned on but there's nothing wrong with the Pod X3 and I'm fairly sure it's not the spdif cable although I would be much happier if it were.
I took the emu out just now and had a look and I can see quite clearly around the two bits that plug into the board there is a brown patch which obviously suggests over heating and possible burn out so I guess it's time for a new card.
 
I just spoke with a guy at Digital Village here in Bristol UK and he recommended the focusrite Scarlett 2i4 for £149 which is a little more than I'd hoped to pay and so I was wondering what the general opinions were with these cards.
 
He also said that no one buys internal cards these days as they are outdated and have been superseded by the firewire and usb cards that run much better at zero latency. Is this true or just sales talk ?
It's been a while since I've researched these things as my emu has served me pretty well for the last 5 or 6 years but things change.
 
My needs are small, 2 in - 2 out with good low latency and midi capability so if there are other cheaper options that are equal I'd like to hear about them.
 
It's very annoying as apart from the spdif problem the card works perfectly so if anyone wants to buy one and doesn't need the spdif it's going cheap
Although it's a shame to say goodbye to the emu I guess one good thing in getting a usb/firewire interface would be that it's portable and if I ever buy a laptop for recording away from home I won't need to buy another interface so that could be a big plus, every cloud as they say
 
Thanks for reading
 
Steve

Steve, I just got the 2i4 last month after reading a lot of reviews and recommendations from Sonar users, I have to say, this is totally worth it!!! The pre-amps, very low latency, and most importantly, great drivers/customer support.....it's an excellent choice. I also have the same small needs as you in the useage and this fits all your requirements. It's worth paying the extra money........look at this as a "fairly" long range plan, and a good interface with good support will keep you happy for quite sometime.
My biggest concern was driver support (since I'm using Win 8) when I was looking for an interface and I have to say Focusrite does a great job.....never had a single drop out, pops, clicks, motorboating etc...and never had to reinstall the drivers since the initial installation (I had multiple problems with my Line6 Toneport driver before getting this).
 
Go for it I say!!!

Thanks Mesh
So much for taking advice, I went out and bought it anyway as I couldn't wait for a response so I'm now sitting here and have it installed and running. First slight disappointment that I had assumed would come as standard but there's no spdif input which is how I ran my Pod X3 into my Emu. It's not a major deal but I'm told it's the best way for signal clarity but I'm sure the difference with my guitar is negligible.
 
The other problem I'm having when in sonar is a high pitched hum that, if I lower the latency changes to a lower pitched hum. Could it be buffers ? It's only there in sonar right now but I've only had it running for about half an hour so will try sound forge, windows media and other things but I think it might be sonar related.
If I disengage the audio engine in sonar the humming stops.
 
Thanks for the advice Mesh
 
Steve

I haven't experienced that hum or any oddities at all after getting this.......you can try lowering the buffers to 32 or 16 (I think the default might be 64)......if that doesn't work, possibly increase them to 128.....you might have to do a bit of trial and error testing. I'm pretty sure it's something in Sonar that's causing this and not the interface itself.

Be sure you are using ASIO drivers with the focusrite.
 
 
I had an 0404 and I was so glad to get rid of it.

I've changed buffers all the way from 16 to 256 but it's not made any difference.
It is in ASIO.
 
The only thing so far that has had any effect is as I said, raising the latency changes it from a high pitched hum
to a low hum.
 
Confused. It's not terrible and once I press play I can't hear it but I'd like to get rid of it still.
 
Steve

Steve, this is very strange......you probably have done this, but just in case you haven't, take a look at this link and see if it can be narrowed down to whom the culprit is.....
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation/default.aspx?Doc=SONAR%20X2&Lang=EN&Req=Troubleshooting.04.html
 
 
Check this one as well, it has more choices....
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation/default.aspx?Doc=SONAR%20X2&Lang=EN&Req=AudioPerformance.23.html

Am I missing some software ?
 
I had thought there would be some proper control software for the scarlett but all I have is the driver which
opens up the same asio control panel that sonar does. Where do I set the sample rates and other stuff in the 2i4 ?
 
Steve
 
I'll go through the list next Mesh thanks.
 
Steve

twaddle
Am I missing some software ?
 
I had thought there would be some proper control software for the scarlett but all I have is the driver which
opens up the same asio control panel that sonar does. Where do I set the sample rates and other stuff in the 2i4 ?
 
Steve
 
I'll go through the list next Mesh thanks.
 
Steve

I'm not at my machine now, but IIRC, when you installed the drivers, it should have installed a Focusrite folder under Windows Start > All Programs > Focusrite. Inside that folder, you can adjust the sample rates and I believe some latency settings.

Ah ha, I set the buffers up from 256 to 512 and that seems to have done the trick.
 
Thanks for your help Mesh and Guitarhacker
 
Steve