sound cards

presently my "new" (3 years old) computer which I plan to use to record and mix on has onboard sound, and that shit is full of ambient hiss, louder on the left channel than the right, so I obviously need a solution

my old computer has an SB Live in it which is like 7 years old, still does the trick but I'm looking for something that's going to serve as a much higher quality replacement for that

what do you use for your sound card?

the only recording capability i need is a single instrument at a time... i'm looking for a great card for editing and mixing, something with extremely low noise and low latency

M-audio delta 1010lt

199$

well, I don't record or anything, but I use an Auzentech X-Fi 7.1 (was highly recommended from head-fi.org/I use it just for gaming+music, sounds great for both so far)

I was also looking at the E-MU 0404 USB, it's very popular, well used/praised on head-fi.org, and i think it's what you're looking for (it's not a gaming sound card though). not sure if it's low latency though. check it out ^^

I use a realtek HD soundcard

M-audio delta 1010lt

199$

Do you own this or are just suggesting, I am doing the same thing as travelyan. Upgrading ram to 2 gigs, new sound card, mics, midi controller the whole shabangabang.

The 1010LT is nice, but having breakout cables off the back of the card might be annoying, and there's a bunch of I/O that you probably wouldn't be using. Make sure you get the best thing to match up with the rest of your recording equipment; for instance, the 1010LT doesn't have any 1/4" I/O (think guitars).

The PreSonus Inspire 1394 (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/PreSonus-INSPIRE-1394-FireWire-Audio-Interface?sku=241483) ($150) may be more what you're looking for. (PreSonus should pay me for how much I tout their products)

I think going direct with a guitar is retarded, amps provide a lot of the guitar's tone. Once I get set up, I will be micing my amps.

Does anyone know if the 1010 has the option of bypassing the built in preamps?

If you have decent preamps and a/d conversion, then plugging a guitar directly into an interface sounds fine for home demo stuff. I do it all the time, and it has it's benefits; people like me who live in an apartment can't crank up an amp, and when going direct I don't have to worry about sound isolation when recording. You're also not tied to one sound, you can try out different effects plugins and dial in just as much or more than you could with your amp and pedals. If you have the money to spend on mics and can crank up an amp in a room that sounds good, then totally go for it.

Why would you want to bypass the preamps? What other preamps do you have?

For my studio, I use a PreSonus Firestudio unit. 8 mic pres, loads of routing options. Overkill for what you need.

For my livingroom, I use a PreSonus Firebox. 2 mic pres, 2 line ins, and it also functions as the computer's sound card. Decent drivers, very flexible. I get fair latency on the unit; like 20ms. The reason it's so high is because this is an old 1.7ghz machine with 512mb RAM. A more modern machine would do 2ms.

If latency is an issue, stay away from USB interfaces. Firewire is great, PCI is great. Having 2 mic pres is good for a guy like you because it allows you to record vocals and guitar at the same time, which is great for jotting down song ideas.

I second the notion of not using an amp. Guitar Rig does a fine job and it's available at any "store".

the existing set up is...

Guitar to PodXT, PodXT to Computer via USB cable. I would prefer to use the 1/4" outputs from the Pod to the computer, and not having to adapter it down to 1/8" to accomodate the line-in on the sound card

Mic to Mixer (XLR), Mixer to Computer (1/4" to 1/8" adapter). again here i want to get the adapter out of the chain

What's your budget for the new interface? I think the Firebox sells for about $300, and like I said, the Inspire is $150. Those would definitely meet your needs, both are firewire interfaces with good pres and low latency. In my experience, PreSonus drivers have been very solid, and their software mixers are easy to use.

right now i have no budget. i was expecting to spend about 200 on a sound card or interface box and i could probably do 3 if i'm really getting my money's worth

i have spent thousands of dollars on guitars and gear and nothing to show for it :-(

For my studio, I use a PreSonus Firestudio unit. 8 mic pres, loads of routing options. Overkill for what you need.

For my livingroom, I use a PreSonus Firebox. 2 mic pres, 2 line ins, and it also functions as the computer's sound card. Decent drivers, very flexible. I get fair latency on the unit; like 20ms. The reason it's so high is because this is an old 1.7ghz machine with 512mb RAM. A more modern machine would do 2ms.

If latency is an issue, stay away from USB interfaces. Firewire is great, PCI is great. Having 2 mic pres is good for a guy like you because it allows you to record vocals and guitar at the same time, which is great for jotting down song ideas.

I second the notion of not using an amp. Guitar Rig does a fine job and it's available at any "store".

i did like guitar rig but latency is an issue, some folks wouldnt be bothered but 20ms between my strum and the sound coming out is not my tea cup

With a good sound card you won't have latency issues. As far as the 1010lt goes, it has done more than I could have ever asked for. I bought it with very little knowledge of recording, as I have grown, I have learned more about how to utilize different features, so in essence, it has grown with me. As for bypassing the pre-amps, I have no idea why you would want to, but the pre-amps are only available on the xlr inputs 1 and 2, so the rest of the inputs (6) do not have pre-amps.

With strumming....20ms is almost undetectable. I mean, I can "feel" the 20ms delay but it's not a big deal.

On my AMD 3700+, 2GB RAM w/XP Pro, I run my Delta 44 PCI interface at 2ms, and I can tell a difference only when doing extremely agressive single-note runs. Here's some neat math for you:

At normal atmospheric pressure and a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, a sound wave will travel at approximately 343 m/s. That's .343m/ms. So if we do some simple algebra, and say that you're standing 3 meters away from your amp - about 10 feet - that works out to 11.4ms of delay, right there.

I'm convinced, however, that there's additional delay when using a computer interface. There's the standard ASIO delay you get, but I think DirectSound (and the Vista equivalent, whatever it is) also add in their own latency. USB interfaces, no matter what brand, are always the slowest. This is because USB uses the CPU to manage its data stream, whereas PCI and firewire interfaces have their own host controller.

And anyway - who cares about the 1/4" to 1/8" adapter? They're electrically identical, and as long as it's not a 6 foot length of mini-cable, it'll make no difference in the tone.

noise is the enemy and i have this belief that the more shit your signal is going through, cords, adapters, etc - the more noise you're adding. that may not necessarily be true... i'm really not an expert here. you're probably right.

i feel like my brand new strat needs copper shielding, but really, how much noise is even audible when you have bass, drums, vocals, and ambient instruments all mixed in

I know a few guitar players who use so much compression that they have a noise problem, it can also be caused by cheap pickups or even single coils. But if you want ease of use, having a card with built in pres allow you to plug your guitar right into the sound card and then use third party software such as guitar rig or amplitube to model your sound. You won't believe what kind of tone youcan get with guitar rig.

Guitars with single coil pickups (ie. your strat) are like antennas, they're really noisy. Guitars also send an unbalanced, high impedance signal which doesn't help. If you want absolute silence from your guitar get EMG active noise-canceling humbuckers. Of course with your strat, that's out of the question, so just live with it or use a noise gate.