quote:

Originally posted by flutlicht junky Im looking for a sound card between £100 - £225 with as may inputs as possible (want to use cubase v3 external instrument in for my synths) - ideally balanced but I wont have to run long leads so its not too bad. DOnt mind the idea of second hand so more expensive options with not too high ebay value would be good too Looking at: Delta 1010 Tascam FW1804 Terratec Phase 88 or Phase 88 rack I run XP pro, cubase v3 on a AMD 3500+ Do the TA'ers have any advise or suggestions or cards i should avoid? FJ

Don't forget the E-MU 1820m, though I can't even find them on the major retailers. Have they been discontinued? I have an 1820m and it works fine for me, the quality of the converters are, apparently, a step up from most in the same price bracket (£300ish new I think, unsure now however, I bought mine a little while ago) though I couldn't tell you if that was true or not.

eBay item in the UK ?

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Talkative, malfunctionant.

Last edited by excite331 on Feb-17-2007 at 14:52

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Originally posted by No Left Turn You kind of have a point, but I really don't get what you're trying to argue. There's a pretty big difference between spending $200 or less for a sound card and paying $500 for one. I don't care what the 2 cards are, the expensive one will be better in quality (of course, being relative to what the person wants in a sound card). When you get up to the $1000+ area, IMO, there really isn't much difference between anything unless you're gonna compare something like Pro Tools|HD192 to a DM-2000.

Prism Sound ADA8XR springs to mind. A snip at 7.5 grand. Or you could spend about 4 grand a peice on an Apogee AD16 and a DA16.

Beyond that Prism Sound do discrete AD/DA convertors called the AD-2 and DA-2 respectively for about 8 grand each. Those are supposed to be amazing.

Theres always something better. The point is if you only have 200 quid in the bank, then you can't possibly afford a MOTU Ultralite. Unless you take out a loan or skim off your overdraft. And if you keep thinking about getting something better, you can keep on saving but new products will come to market. Older products will fall in price and you will either be saving forever or paying more than you originally intended.

When someone says 'I want to spend 200 quid' I assume thats exactly what they want to spend. Maybe a little more to get something that they need but not double the money.

Thanks for everyones comments.

Thinking about it some more I should not mind paying good money for a decent soundcard. After all if I'm happy paying £450 for a synth I need a good soundcard to get he best out of it!!

So looking to get the RME multiface cos its got 8 i/o plus a further 8 over ADAT and rock solid PC drivers!

Thanks All

FJ

If you have a £450 budget then you are in MOTU Ultralite territory. You can get an 828mkII for that outlay too although I 've heard people experience some problems with their 828 unless they have a specific firewire card and MOTU's warranty is stingy as hell. They can only guarantee it for 3 months. 3 months!

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Originally posted by Derivative If you have a £450 budget then you are in MOTU Ultralite territory. You can get an 828mkII for that outlay too although I 've heard people experience some problems with their 828 unless they have a specific firewire card and MOTU's warranty is stingy as hell. They can only guarantee it for 3 months. 3 months!

It has only 6 TRS inputs and 2 mic / line though.

The Multiface has 16 inputs available, 8 TRS and 8 through ADAT Lightpipe. Plus RME are an awesome company for PC audio products, obviously there no Apogee but they also have good convertors (better than Motu it seems in many reviews, but as I wont need them its irrelevant).

FJ

I dunno how much a multiface is. I want to sell my Delta 1010 and get something with okish convertors and an instrument level input for my guitar. The Ultralite seems to have that covered. Also, it has 8 analogue ins and 10 analogue outs.

If the Multiface has that many more inputs it just makes me wonder - is RME skimping on something else? Does it have preamps? I know the Ultralite has an onboard preamp and its quite good for the money.

I just googled some info on the Multiface and it just seems like a Hammerfall card in a breakout box. And it only has 8 analogue ins. Unless I am missing something and its modular like Hammerfall? It still clocks in at a higher price than the Ultralite and they seem to have similar specs...

Last edited by Derivative on Feb-23-2007 at 12:38

Full wack about £650 but seem for £400.

Digiface and Multiface are a breakout box for a PCI card.

The Digiface has three ADAT channels which if u use a AD/DA converter e.g. the Behringer ADA8000 you can get 3 x 8 = 24 channels of analogue audio in. ADAT is only max of 48hz (?) though.

The Multiface II has one ADAT channel and 8 analogue inputs at 96hz.

They do a firewire version called the fireface 400 or 800.

Not too sure on the preamp/convertor specs but the reason I opting for this one is despite what is said the Motu is best of Mac and RME best on PC. Yes you can get either to work on both but it appears they are ore stable on a particular platform.

It just makes it easier when I upgrade my PC that my soundcard is still likely to work too.

The PCI card for RME also takes some of the ASIO load off the CPU and you can get some pretty low latency if you want. 3ms is the lowest ppl have recorded though I dont believe this is practical in normal studio work due to audio drop out.

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the Motu is best of Mac and RME best on PC

I don't know where this come from ???????
To choose rme is wise, not because yo have a pc though!

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Does it have preamps

The Fireface 400 has 2 preamps while the Fireface 800 has 4, I don't think the converters of the motus can be compared to the rme one, rme has really good class A mic preamps.

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Originally posted by Seppa I don't know where this come from ??????? To choose rme is wise, not because yo have a pc though!

PPl still having issues with Motu on PC, not least due to the correct firewire chipset having to be used (TI or Lucent) which is std on Mac but not on PC esp in Europe where VIA is often used.

My statement is hardly a cast iron fact but reading through forums there do seem to be issues with the the use of Motu on PC (more for older 2408 and 828 it seems). But as with anything you can check manufactures specs.

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Originally posted by Seppa The Fireface 400 has 2 preamps while the Fireface 800 has 4, I don't think the converters of the motus can be compared to the rme one, rme has really good class A mic preamps.

I know RME had good converters which I assume refer to internal AD/DA converters? Didnt know about the preamps tho; thanks for the info!!!

Does this apply to the Multiface II as well as Firefaces??

FJ

Some motu do have issue when runned in 96khz on pc.this is due to the pc drivers. But that shouldn't concern anyone who is not being forced to run at 96khz (eg ssl Console). The reason is, if you produce at 96khz you gonna need to convert it to 44.1 in order to played on cd or else. the fact is, you'd be better record at 44.1 straight away without converting later. the loss when converting is very obvious. give it a try and see for yourself. That is why the majority of people shouldn't be concern about this issue and therefore motu runs as well on pc as on mac in my opinion. running a system in 96khz clearly means you're from another league and therfore you wouldn't even use a motu to start with weather you use mac or pc.

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I know RME had good converters which I assume refer to internal AD/DA converters? Didnt know about the preamps tho; thanks for the info!!! Does this apply to the Multiface II as well as Firefaces??

The fireface 400 has the best preamps rme has to offer they are even better than 800 ( the uk representant told my partner). the firefaces 400 has the same input converters as the 800. the output converters have a slightly narower range, but i wouldn't pick on that.
I don't know much about the multiface in terms of converterters. go on the website and check the specs.as for preamps the multiface has none.
if i were you i'd save and go for the fireface 400. you'll be set for a real long time with that