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Thread: Decent soundcard for recording instruments

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    Senior Member greektony's Avatar
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    Decent soundcard for recording instruments

    I have been in a band and playing instruments since I was a wee whippersnapper and was wondering if anyone could suggest a decent soundcard which I could use to record guitars, drums vocals etc with. I am not very teched up on the music side of the pc industry so any suggestions or pointers will be most appreciated.

    It will just mainly be me recording so it only needs to really be able to record 2 inputs at a time. I have all the software sorted (Cubase.Cakewalk/Audacity) and i want a better sound than using my motherboards mic socket!!!! I am not interested in anything over £200 unless it is really worth spending this much. The closer to £0 the better
    Well, I can cut it in half!

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    a few producers on my site have been saying good things about the M-AUDIO - Audiophile 2496, might want to take a look a that, it is only £69,

    I would suggest an M-Audio card for recording music, even if it is not the one above
    Iain M

    "Sleep All Day, Party All Night
    Never Grow Old, And Never Die"

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    780 nanometres redlight's Avatar
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    Ian M is right an M-Audio card
    M-Audio Audiophile 192 4In/Out Soundcard

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    I have an Edirol UA-25 interface. It's brilliant. My friend has the cheaper UA-20, and if you can do without the XLR input, then you can get that, but overall the AU-25 is alittle better.
    Direct monitoring, what more can you ask for?

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    I'd suggest an external interface like the E-mu 0404 USB, Google shows £133

    http://www.emu.com/products/product....&product=15185

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    Hi

    You could look at the Alesis iO|2 as an option too. A touch over £100 from various sources online. I bought one a few months ago and though I haven't used it much yet (no time!) it seems pretty good and got decent reviews.

    It comes with cutdown Steinberg Cubase LE software which will get you started. USB connection, doesn't need a power pack and works nicely (e.g. with laptop) for live/portable recording.

    Hope this helps!

    Oaf

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    Senior Member greektony's Avatar
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    Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll investigate them all further this weekend. The Alesis iO|2 sounds good theoaf, as it would be ideal for using on a mates laptop when my band want to record some practices.

    Cheers boys (& girls?)
    Well, I can cut it in half!

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    Senior Member greektony's Avatar
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    ok people, I have had a look at all the suggestions, and the idea of a seperate standalone usb sound 'box' is the most appealing. I have decided that as I am a little flushed with cash, to spend a bit more on something that I know I won't want to replace/upgrade in 6 months time as i isnt good enough.

    Having a look at TheOafs suggestion I have looked a model or 2 up at these:

    http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=95
    &
    http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=96

    Do these allow simultaneous recordings on all tracks into cakewalk etc? I am now interested in recording my band live so would need about 10ish inputs to be working all at the same time (5/6 for drums, bass, guitar & vocals) if i were to stretch my budget a little. I realise that the first link above does not fill this criteria but does the second link and if not, anyone have a link and opinion on one that does
    Well, I can cut it in half!

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    Senior Member Colossous's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by greektony View Post
    ok people, I have had a look at all the suggestions, and the idea of a seperate standalone usb sound 'box' is the most appealing. I have decided that as I am a little flushed with cash, to spend a bit more on something that I know I won't want to replace/upgrade in 6 months time as i isnt good enough.

    Having a look at TheOafs suggestion I have looked a model or 2 up at these:

    http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=95
    &
    http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=96

    Do these allow simultaneous recordings on all tracks into cakewalk etc? I am now interested in recording my band live so would need about 10ish inputs to be working all at the same time (5/6 for drums, bass, guitar & vocals) if i were to stretch my budget a little. I realise that the first link above does not fill this criteria but does the second link and if not, anyone have a link and opinion on one that does
    The multi-input will be good for recording but everything will be recorded "dry" - you'll need an effects unit and really a Front end input channel to get the best from your recording !! Not cheap for multi track recording unfortunately !! Also you'll need drum mic's and instrument mic's/di's as well as lots of mic stands !!
    Last edited by Colossous; 27-05-2007 at 12:19 PM.
    Hark the children of the Resolution !!

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    Well there will be no point in a flashy sound card with high bit rates and top end analog to digital converters if you're using cheap and cheerful mic's to record.

    If you're definately sorted for mic's then emu, terratec and maudio are good brands to go for, make sure you get a model with mic preamps or get seperate preamps.
    "You've gotta laugh when you fall off a sofa!"

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    Senior Member greektony's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Colossous View Post
    The multi-input will be good for recording but everything will be recorded "dry" - you'll need an effects unit and really a Front end input channel to get the best from your recording !! Not cheap for multi track recording unfortunately !! Also you'll need drum mic's and instrument mic's/di's as well as lots of mic stands !!
    will not the effects processing in cakewalk/cubase solve the dry recording problem and make them sound more natural? The place we practice at has loads of mics, so the only real expense is the recording unit itself.

    On a side note I already have a standalone recording unit, but WAY prefer the idea of being able to properly edit and mix any recordings on a pc
    Well, I can cut it in half!

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    Do you really need to record two inputs at the same time? Most of the software lets you just record say guitar or piano in one track, and then sing into a second track and they play back together, even though you only recorded them one at a time. Its up to you what you prefer though.

    Personally though, I found my old Creative Audigy (cheap) to do a good job of all this. I'm sure you can do better with specialist sound cards, but I didn't find the need to. The recording quality was good enough already, and midi was made better by using "Sound Fonts".

    So I'd suggest just a soundblaster if you want to keep it cheap and simple, and yet the soundblasters work great in windows, watching films, playing games etc.. too. I've got the X-Fi Music Edition now, and its even better than the Audigy. Again, I'm sure theres better if you buy specialist stuff, but for what I want to do, its ideal. The most important thing is making sure you actual inputs are noise free. If you play guitar into a PC straight through a cranked amp for example, its likely going to have lots of noise in the background. But you can improve on all this stuff.

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    A decent channel strip (mic pre-amp) adds to the richness of the sound on the way in and can help reduce noise/hiss etc on the tracks before effects are added which will give you more scope to work with, you can work with the pc alone but if you go for a full live band sound you'll need Help at the front end - drums for example you might want a noise gate to clip the fade out for a more punchy sound ? If you want to cut it back to just two channels then theres a lot of choice, digi-designs M-box (pro tools industry standard), Mackie spike (cubase) to name a couple all have good pre-amps built in and will sound good out of the box but you only have two channels !!
    Hark the children of the Resolution !!

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    Edirol UA-25 and a SHURE sm57 mic. You could get both of these for about £150 on the Bay. You won't be displeased.

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    Greektony, you would - quite honestly - be better asking these sorts of questions over at the Sound on Sound forums.

    Personally I wouldn't recommend M-Audio, their drivers have a history of unreliability. Edirol are decent enough, as are E-mu. Terratec are reliable but there are better quality options out there. I would rather go for Echo, or RME.
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    Senior Member greektony's Avatar
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    Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. With the research I have done it is all slowly starting to make sense! Cheers for the sound on sound forums chis, i'll go check them out
    Well, I can cut it in half!

    www.theeraserheads.com

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