SoundCard Question?
- Thread starter Tha Master MC
- Start date
The BEST soundcard IMO is the RME DIGI9652 (or HDSP 9652 if you need the third ADAT I/O port). That card coupled with an RME ADI-8 DS A/D/A is one hell of a sweet sounding system. I'm considering purchasing this setup myself. Think about it, how much cleaner could your signal get when you've got a top of the line Analog -> Digital, Digital -> Analog convertor? NOT MUCH. Yes it's a $2200 setup, but who's coming with a cleaner signal for the PC than this? Nobody except MAYBE Apogee and that topic is heavily debated. I've heard the Apogee A/D versus the RME A/D and I can't tell a difference, so for the money my heart is set on the RME product. If I had the money I wouldn't hesitate for a second... then I could throw away this piece of shit analog mixer until such time where I had more than 4 pieces of MIDI gear and was forced to buy a really clean sounding Digital Mixer and another RME ADI-8 DS.
To me at least, there is a point where top-of-the-line converters don't help to make a better end product. Sure, audiophiles can tell the difference between $1500 converters and standard pro-level ones, but the end consumer sure can't. Particularly in a full mixdown, where you have adlibs, many tracks of music and drums, etc. I think that to some extent, if a consumer can't discern, then it is wasted money.
Way more important than the recording gear is the recording techniques. The techniques will make the biggest difference. Once the techniques are down pat, then go for the best equipment.
Not withstanding that rant, you should start with something halfway decent. I would recommend the Delta products or STAudio C-Port DSP2000. They're features are very comparable (i think the dps2000 has the edge there though). The quality is similar (delta has a slight advantage), but the DSP2000 will run you $400, while the Delta 1010 is $650.
-=bumpus=-
Way more important than the recording gear is the recording techniques. The techniques will make the biggest difference. Once the techniques are down pat, then go for the best equipment.
Not withstanding that rant, you should start with something halfway decent. I would recommend the Delta products or STAudio C-Port DSP2000. They're features are very comparable (i think the dps2000 has the edge there though). The quality is similar (delta has a slight advantage), but the DSP2000 will run you $400, while the Delta 1010 is $650.
-=bumpus=-
I just began posting on the cubase.net forums and there was a huge war over Apogee vs. RME. Shit was hilarious... in any event, I started e-mailing this dood over there who works in a high quality studio and he has both RME & Apogee and sent me two 10 second clips and I couldn't tell the difference on my KRK V8's...
@bumpus: you are absolutely correct about mixing technique and that's essential. but personally, I would rather have spent the money on the higher end equipment to begin with. then i'm not making the same purchases over and over again. that's just me though. i like my current setup very much and my goal is to have the gear recoup itself. once that's been accomplished, it's on to some higher end gear within reason money wise.
That's true... so for this dood, someone just starting out... The earlier suggestions will mos def work for em and give em a very clean signal. From there, it's up to him. I've recently been brainwashed with mad information and now live by this statement: Your sound is only as good as your Analog to Digital converters.
:classic:
Then again, we don't exactly live in the 70's anymore and even the cheap shit sounds pretty damn good... Thinking back to about a month ago, I had such beautifull plans until things got super fucked. lol, just venting a little now... haha
:classic:
Then again, we don't exactly live in the 70's anymore and even the cheap shit sounds pretty damn good... Thinking back to about a month ago, I had such beautifull plans until things got super fucked. lol, just venting a little now... haha
Every soundcard has A/D converters built into the card. It's what reads the voltage levels over the wire (analog) and converts them into binary data bits. Without this conversion going on, it would be impossible to record the industry standard wave, and other computer formats. So the pupose of external A/D converters is to have the conversion process done with as little loss of quality as possible... When soundcard manufacturers build there products they don't spend much time on the A/D conversion process. They buy a chip from someone who is doing it well enough for the specs of the card they're building and they call it good. It's just a trade-off is all. If someone made a soundcard that had the very best A/D conversion process it would cost a hell of alot more than what there target market can afford. So these external units cost anywhere from $1,200 to any amount you can fathom and they do there job accurately and without loss of quality. HOWEVER, the quality achieved isn't MUCH... It's audible to the ear, but the question you gotta ask yourself is if it's worth the extra cash for what you're trying to do. I hope that explanation helps.
