What sound card to buy?

Posted on Jan 10, 2005 08:29 am
dbriley
Member Since: Jan 10, 2005

I'm looking to get into home recording, and obviously my first piece of kit (besides a computer which I already have), should be a sound card.

Here's a list of the sort of thing I'm looking for:

* MIDI I/O (for a keyboard to use Reason)
* At least 4 inputs. I'll probably only usually use two at once, but a bit extra capacity will stop me from being frustrated if I ever need it.
* Headphone monitoring
* Some sort of breakout box

I'll be mainly recording vocals, bass guitar and electric guitar. I may also invest in a condenser microphone to record acoustic guitar at some point.

I'm trying to decide whether to go for a mobile interface, so that if I buy a laptop in the future I can use it with that, but it's not that important.

Could someone explain to me the difference between balanced/unbalanced inputs?

Also, I'm a bit confused about the different input levels which are measured in dBs. Which ones are used for what types of equipment? I've got some sort of an idea, but I'm not sure. Many of the M-Audio cards have two of their inputs with built in instrument/mic pre-amps, but what sort of equipment can be connected to the other inputs which do not have that?

Many thanks,

Daniel

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