need a sound card advice to build up a home studio

djavu · Feb 19, 2005, 09:25 AM

i d like to build up a semi-professional home studio for personal and professional use...i currently have sound blaster live! 5.1 and i use sound fonts also to support my arrangements.
i am curious about which sound card to choose; would you suggest AUDIGY 4? i know it has six ins and six outs (which is currently enough for my needs) but does it allow real time multi channel recording?
other than that, would you suggest getting a DELTA series card for live recordings and an AUDIGY ZS to use sound fonts and use them together?
What about E-MU s?

**dj_stick** · Feb 19, 2005, 02:49 PM

All Live/Audigy cards support multichannel realtime recording in ASIO, if you use the kX drivers.

But depending on your uses, you might want a pro-card.

What sort of recording are you planning? mainly vocal? rock band?

djavu · Feb 19, 2005, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_stick

All Live/Audigy cards support multichannel realtime recording in ASIO, if you use the kX drivers.

But depending on your uses, you might want a pro-card.

What sort of recording are you planning? mainly vocal? rock band?

mostly instrumental+vocal music; some sort of ethnic music but im not currently thinking of recording live drums + keyboards + guitars+etc that form up a band!

**dj_stick** · Feb 19, 2005, 05:37 PM

how many microphones/inputs do you think you will need to use in the forseeable future?

djavu · Feb 21, 2005, 01:39 AM

most probably not more than six (even only four would do the job for some time period)...

djavu · Feb 21, 2005, 01:46 AM

what about E-MU s?

**dj_stick** · Feb 21, 2005, 01:51 AM

the E-MU cards are based on the same 10kX architecture - so you should be happy with one of those cards, provide one has enough inputs for you

djavu · Feb 22, 2005, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_stick

the E-MU cards are based on the same 10kX architecture - so you should be happy with one of those cards, provide one has enough inputs for you

so should i go for an AUDIGY 4 PRO or an E-MU? or something else?!

thanks...

**dj_stick** · Feb 22, 2005, 05:03 AM

audigy 4 is more consumer or pro-sumer, includes all the gaming goodies, but also some high qual inputs

but the E-MU cards provide professional grade stuff, including word clock for syncing… it all depends on the use really

djavu · Feb 22, 2005, 05:19 AM

i ve come across a threat somewhere else that says there is not much difference actually between an AUDIGY 4 or an E-MU, DELTA it just depends whether you play games with your computer or not. Is that true? and one final thing, is there much difference btw an E-MU and DELTA ? If you were to choose a pro card that ll have 4 or 6 inputs would you prefer an E-MU or a DELTA 44 / 66 ?

thanks..

Spielfreek · Feb 27, 2005, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djavu

i d like to build up a semi-professional home studio for personal and professional use...i currently have sound blaster live! 5.1 and i use sound fonts also to support my arrangements.
i am curious about which sound card to choose; would you suggest AUDIGY 4? i know it has six ins and six outs (which is currently enough for my needs) but does it allow real time multi channel recording?
other than that, would you suggest getting a DELTA series card for live recordings and an AUDIGY ZS to use sound fonts and use them together?
What about E-MU s?

Over the last few weeks I've built what you might call a home studio (PC+KX+SX) to record my group. If you don't want more than 16 bit, and are on a budget, 2 standard Audigy 1 cards from ebay (I got mine for £15 & 22) will give you 8 channels without any great effort. I've used SX with this and it works great - the KX software is really great (but don't expect to learn it in a day!). PC is only a 1 GHz machine, but I still manage to get 10 mS latency without pops and crackles, however, I did build the PC from scratch on a separate partition and only loaded on the bare minimum of stuff. Also tuned it (search for xpmusic for details). For microphones, ti reduce noise, I have constructed 4 preamps using a 4 channel low noise amplifier I had - it's single ended so you can even run it on batteries if you want to. Have fun!

rushko · Mar 4, 2005, 03:40 PM

I would rather go for an EMU, M-Audio or Terratec if u're gonna use it for semi-pro recordin, I'm in the same dilema and I was thinkin bout EMU0404, it's cheap enough, it's got what it takes for home studio. I like terratec also, I was usin it a few years in a home studio for demo recording and was very satisfied.

Feb 19, 2005, 09:25 AM	#1
djavu DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	need a sound card advice to build up a home studio i d like to build up a semi-professional home studio for personal and professional use...i currently have sound blaster live! 5.1 and i use sound fonts also to support my arrangements. i am curious about which sound card to choose; would you suggest AUDIGY 4? i know it has six ins and six outs (which is currently enough for my needs) but does it allow real time multi channel recording? other than that, would you suggest getting a DELTA series card for live recordings and an AUDIGY ZS to use sound fonts and use them together? What about E-MU s?

Mar 4, 2005, 03:40 PM	#12
rushko DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 54 Rep Power: 0	I would rather go for an EMU, M-Audio or Terratec if u're gonna use it for semi-pro recordin, I'm in the same dilema and I was thinkin bout EMU0404, it's cheap enough, it's got what it takes for home studio. I like terratec also, I was usin it a few years in a home studio for demo recording and was very satisfied. __________________ [COLOR=DarkOrange] ABIT NF7-S V2.0 + Manta Rays XT bios D26 BARTON 2500+ 210x10.5@2205MHz 3x256MB Infineon PC3200@420MHz, 11-3-3-2.5 Maxtor 80GBx2, LiteON SOHW1213S, SONY DDU1621 Samsung SyncMaster 997DF Sapphire Atlantis R9800pro@XT 400/350 Chieftec DX-BDU + PSU 360W[/COLOR]

Feb 21, 2005, 01:39 AM	#5
djavu DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	most probably not more than six (even only four would do the job for some time period)...

Feb 21, 2005, 01:46 AM	#6
djavu DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	what about E-MU s?

Feb 22, 2005, 05:19 AM	#10
djavu DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	i ve come across a threat somewhere else that says there is not much difference actually between an AUDIGY 4 or an E-MU, DELTA it just depends whether you play games with your computer or not. Is that true? and one final thing, is there much difference btw an E-MU and DELTA ? If you were to choose a pro card that ll have 4 or 6 inputs would you prefer an E-MU or a DELTA 44 / 66 ? thanks..