TopicPosted on 03/12/2004 at 12:39:52Computer based recording. What is the best for my budget?
Hi folks,
I have a tiny spot in my basement I use for my setup. They are:
Roland RS-5 Keyboard/controller synth Roland JV1080 Sound Module
ART 340 15 Band EQ Behringer 1204 FX mixer ( nice little unit for the money)
Crown XLS 420A
JBL Cab 25's
Oh Yeah, my faithful SM-58
Dell 850MHz PIII laptop running Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0 Win 2K.
I have another desktop computer I was planning on using for the recording. Its a PIII 1 GHz 512 PC133 80GB with firewire pci card.
My budget is anywhere from 200 to 300 dollars. I wanted to outfit my desktop with a PCI 24 bit card for recording. Can anyone tell me the very best card I can buy in this price range? If a firewire based solution is better, I can go that route also. I am very new to PC recording and just getting my feet wet. I appreciate any suggestions anyone has.
this all depends on how many tracks you wish to record at the same time. i would suggest the m-audio delta 66. it has four ins and four outs. this means that you can record four tracks of audio at the same time, and send four audio tracks out too. it is a pci board with a break out box. it can record up to 96,000khz/24 bit and send out this quality as well. it will run you aproximatly $400. $100 dollars over your budget but well worth every extra penny. i have never really tried any firewire cards but have tried many pci card and for the money your not going to get a better deal in my opinion.
Hi, and thank you for the info and the link. I was actually looking at a few different M-Audio products.
The Delta 66 with breakout box looks real nice and I can get in on ebay for much less than 400 (thank goodness).
Also looking at the M-Audio 2496 PCI 4 in 4 out plus Midi. Dont know if this is an older card. So far the Delta66 is winning with the nice breakout box.
And lastly, the M-Audio FireWire 410. REALLLY nice features. Connects via firewire so theres no PCI card. Has 2 Balanced XLR inputs, monitoring features, and dual independant headphone jacks in front. 4 in and 10 out.