New help, building a computer strickling used for audio recording and have been researching sound cards but i am a noob at this so i jsut want someones opinion on this thanks.
My suggestion, I have a extigy external sound card, and it sounds great. Even after being released awhile ago, it still holds at nearly the same price it did upon the products release. They have all the features that you could ask for. But the new audigy 2NX sound cards are a newer and very similar sound product which can offer similar specs. Hope this was helpful. I like external sound cards... what can I say?
I won't tell you what to buy because everyone has their own preferance but if you plan on using it for recording only and want good quality look for 128 bit with dma, 6-channel stereo mixer, 2-channel power amplifier, 5-channel analog input support minimum. And the 2nx is really nice.
Go to M-audio, E-mu, RME, Frontier, Ardvark, Mackie, the list goes on, look at professional audio cards, if you buy a comercial sound card you will be plauged by cheap converters and will not be happy with their resolution, as for creative sound cards, look for their E-mu line, which have excelent converters and offer a real value. Extigy is for gamers, not audio recording, they can do it, but only in a limited fashion.
also look for a sound card that supports ASIO 2.0 drivers, that will get you lower latency, and in the end better results.
if you are serious, you will look for cards that support at the least 24-bit/96Khz sample rates.
Echo just released the latest versions of their Gina and Layla sound cards, both are 24-bit/96khz sound cards, with exceptional converters. If I were you I'd really try to avoid the audigy sound card if you are serious about recording. When it comes down to it, it is worth the extra cash for better A/D D/A converters.
Tascam makes the US-122, which is a usb device, it supports 24-bit/48khz recording, and it was engineered by Frontier designs, it posesses pretty good converters, and has two Mic preamps that are fairly transparent. You can pick one up on ebay for about $150.
Again check out M-audio, they make affordable audio cards that have good converters, they are reliable, and their driver development team is first rate, however if you have a via chipset look elsewhere because M-audio and Via don't play nicely together.
I use audigy 2nx on my sonar 4 programme. When I use it in WDM and MME driver modes, it works but it just won't work in ASIO driver mode. I read somewhere before that it should be Asio compatible. Where did I go wrong?.Anyone out there please help!
I have The Audiophile 2496(24-bit/96khz)...and it is great. I am always so awed whenever someone asks about recording Creative gets mad love...But I had a computer that we used the onboard AC'97 and got better results for recording than with the Soundblaster Live and Audigy! So sad. I love my Audiophile...but the M-audio delta series is better...Those echo Cards look nice too. Digidesign would be a good one, and it is the Pro tools company, but that will hurt your pocket book...my nod is for M-Audio, and stay away from creative...sorry folks...I have just had Bad luck with their stuff in the past.