May 03, 2004 10:58 pm I've got a Tascam 428 and it isn't bad for 4ch usage. Offers a nice little control surface too if your into that. The mic pres are not the best, so I advise use with a mixer up front however.
USB 2.0 Sound card?
Posted on May 03, 2004 10:12 pm
Reuben
Member Since: Apr 28, 2004
Who has found an loved a USB 2.0 external sound card suitable for laptop recording?
If you have, I've love to know about it!
Sending from mixing desk with 8 aux sends but I generally just get a straight mix with guitar and drums and then add each other instrument one overlay at a time, so it only having 1 input wouldn't phase me in the least.
The main thing is that it is a sytem enhancement rather than a weight which is what the original USB 1.0 cards were.
If someone also loves a good PCMCIA card, let me know as well.
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May 03, 2004 10:58 pm I've got a Tascam 428 and it isn't bad for 4ch usage. Offers a nice little control surface too if your into that. The mic pres are not the best, so I advise use with a mixer up front however.
May 04, 2004 12:54 am Thanks for the reference re: Tascam, looked it up-very nice indeed. How much did you buy yours for? Am I right in assuming that if you plug two XLR or mono inputs in, you will get two separate tracks? Or are the mixers purely that, sending the mixed signal?
May 04, 2004 04:13 am You can get seperate signals on the us-122. A stereo image for sure. Not sure if you can record two seperate mono tracks.
I have a USB 1 sound card - tascam us-122. Have had some problems with latency. But aparently the band width demands of 2 track recording is low enough so USB 2.0 is not necessary. So it is probably not because of the USB. More importantly is the cpu load and free ram etc..
I am using a pentium 3 laptop with about 400 ram. I think the main problem is recording with one hard drive. You really want one hard drive to run the apps and 1 to store info.
I think a 1 gb ram laptop and USB 2.0 sound card (if you want more than 2 track capability) and a 7200 rpm firewire hard drive should give pretty good results. If you can go for a Firewire hard drive and sound card that should be the best I think. I am not an expert though and have had bad luck my setups so far (for various unpredictable reasons) so look into your options or consult the dB!
May 05, 2004 12:43 am Hey, thanks!
There is a thread in the computer section about my old laptop and its issues.
I've seen some mighty fine firewire cards but they're so expensive you could buy a mixer with an internal drive (but that would then of course remove the ability to program drums or other interesting things).
Whilst I am hoping my employer will supply the laptop, I am most likely going to provide the sound card and need to keep the costs down as I have a wife and baby.
Just as a bit of further interest, on a budget of say A$2500 (US$1200) what's good in the multi-tracking workstations with the in-build hard drives etc?
May 05, 2004 11:23 am This is not my field of competence but I am sure you can find something good. If you are trying to keep costs down get a fast computer and a good sound card and then use software based solutions. Or else you will just be unhappy. Try to give yourself technological 'headroom'.
If you go for the all-in-one solution make sure that it has everyuthing you need or that you are able to expand it.
May 19, 2004 09:03 pm M-Audio also has a very good 2 channel USB audio interface that seems to have any driver issues straightened out pretty well and runs very stable. And price is in the lower range as well which makes it a pretty good value.
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