SoundCard advice

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Hades
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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by Hades »

ashley BORG wrote: Next time I'd go USB. My iMac only has 1 firewire slot and its 800 not 400. Which meant I had to get a firewire to USB adapter.
As great as firewire has been to me the last 13 years or so, its just supported anymore. And the speeds between the 2 are barely noticeable.
I thought firewire 800 takes 400 and 800, all you need is the right cable, no ?
So you're saying you connected your firewire soundcard to a USB port cause your soundcard was 400 and not 800?
It even says so on the focusrite website that you can hook this up to a 800 port :
1x 6 pin Firewire 400 socket - also compatible with Firewire 800 and Thunderbolt
Obviously for thunderbolt you need a convertor cable, but I don't think you need a convertor cable to connect a 400 to an 800, just the right cable "ends". (6pin/8pin, those kind of things)
But even if you'd need a convertor piece, I would still take a firewire convertor then.
If you hook it up via USB there's not much point in buying a firewire soundcard.
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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by sergiobR1 »

the results of my friends are obvious, my actual CPU SUCKS, 2gb ram, and the mother it's for gaming, so, the built-in interface must be awful, and, compared to my friend render its so much high quality and 0 latency !
with my actual CPU i have to automatize a lil to right cos i've got 4k of buffer size.

i just want to get a real sound, and be able to hear the spectrum as it is. with no latency.

i never had an external soundcard ever, so i think im going to follow everyone opinion, and im going to buy some average soundcard to get down my latency, i've been reading since now and seems I have to get one to know what im going to need on a non-distant future.

thank you guys for the attention and replys !

AND SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH !!
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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by msl »

Mono-xID wrote:I suggest not to buy a super expensive soundcard when starting out with producing. See if you're still on it in 2 years, you can upgrade anytime if you're shure that's your thing.
+1 yeah no need to buy hi-end at the start. But you could possible look for a used Babyface, or if you have firewire the TC Konnekt ones, the D/A on them is as good at my apogee. Nothing wrong with USB btw.

Mono-xID wrote:I'm still on my first audio interface, a crappy M-Audio Fast Track Pro. I just don't see a reason for me to upgrade.
You'll hear the reason though when you do. Believe me, it will be night and day if you upgraded to a hi-end convertor (apogee, lynx, mytek, etc)… those Fast Track Pro's are muddy as hell, it will be like a vail lifting, so long as you have decent monitors or phones already.


OP Drivers are important, RME etc have good ones, so you get lower latency. fyi i run at 128k buffer.

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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by Mono-xID »

msl wrote:
Mono-xID wrote:I'm still on my first audio interface, a crappy M-Audio Fast Track Pro. I just don't see a reason for me to upgrade.
You'll hear the reason though when you do. Believe me, it will be night and day if you upgraded to a hi-end convertor (apogee, lynx, mytek, etc)… those Fast Track Pro's are muddy as hell, it will be like a vail lifting, so long as you have decent monitors or phones already.
Not saying you are wrong, but i'm so used to this set-up over the years. I think i can translate my mixes at least decent as i've listened A LOT of music over this set-up. The better you know the flaws, the better you can compensate. I'll refuse to pay that much for a soundcard yet tbh. Maybe some day, but i'm happy with this set-up for almost 6 years now.

Edit: I've no problems with latency here as i'm all in the box.
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Re: SoundCard advice

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I'd say it's overkill to use hi-end converters for production. It sure is difference, transparency and living transients comes with the price.
Today we have so may good AD/DA in sound interfaces so people can get away with good results if they just avoid buying the cheapest ones.

The price to pay to get "small" improvement is a lot, which it always is on high-end stuff. :)
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Re: SoundCard advice

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Mattias wrote:I'd say it's overkill to use hi-end converters for production. It sure is difference, transparency and living transients comes with the price.
Today we have so may good AD/DA in sound interfaces so people can get away with good results if they just avoid buying the cheapest ones.

The price to pay to get "small" improvement is a lot, which it always is on high-end stuff. :)
This. I'm not willing to pay a grand for a fancy RME interface as i don't think it would make my music sounding so much better. If i'd be a pro which is making a living with music it would make sense to me. But this is just my hobby so i don't need hi-end stuff.
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Re: SoundCard advice

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Mono-xID wrote:
msl wrote:
Mono-xID wrote:I'm still on my first audio interface, a crappy M-Audio Fast Track Pro. I just don't see a reason for me to upgrade.
You'll hear the reason though when you do. Believe me, it will be night and day if you upgraded to a hi-end convertor (apogee, lynx, mytek, etc)… those Fast Track Pro's are muddy as hell, it will be like a vail lifting, so long as you have decent monitors or phones already.
Not saying you are wrong, but i'm so used to this set-up over the years. I think i can translate my mixes at least decent as i've listened A LOT of music over this set-up. The better you know the flaws, the better you can compensate. I'll refuse to pay that much for a soundcard yet tbh. Maybe some day, but i'm happy with this set-up for almost 6 years now.

Edit: I've no problems with latency here as i'm all in the box.
Ditto mate

Have the same M audio fast track pro. Happy as Larry with it.

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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by msl »

Yeah I'm not talking about super expensive, though I wouldn't mind if I won the lottery, just the good mid level stuff (Babyface, Duet, etc) will have a big improvement over the Fast Track, I know this from personal experience having used a Fast Track briefly. As for the advantages for producing, it helps with mixing, cause of better depth, better transients, clearer bass and hi's, and if your recording hardware better per's. Having good monitors first is more important though.

Its an experiential thing, you gotta hear it for yourself, its kinda like seeing HD tv or listening to a really good hi-fi system for the first time.

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Re: SoundCard advice

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msl wrote:Babyface
still 549 quid. For just hearing the transient better a tiny bit? Hell no, i'd rather buy a waldorf pulse 2, dark energy etc. for that money. Something to play around. Still don't believe that a better interface would change the sound of my productions. I remember when i checked some of my mixes at a mates studio who uses a MOTU (dunno which model but was around 500 quid) interface and i heard no difference. Maybe i'm just not able to hear these fine differences. If so,i don't care.
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Re: SoundCard advice

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Mono-xID wrote:
msl wrote:Babyface
still 549 quid. For just hearing the transient better a tiny bit? Hell no, i'd rather buy a waldorf pulse 2, dark energy etc. for that money. Something to play around. Still don't believe that a better interface would change the sound of my productions. I remember when i checked some of my mixes at a mates studio who uses a MOTU (dunno which model but was around 500 quid) interface and i heard no difference. Maybe i'm just not able to hear these fine differences. If so,i don't care.
well if you believe you won't hear the differences, then I guess it's no use to update.
Like I said before : my Echo Audio soundcard worked more than fine, but my Apogee still sounds far better.
But it is a more "tiny" improvement so to say. I'd give my Echo Audio 8/10, and my Apogee 9/10 or 9,5/10 (though I know it sounds stupid to say it like that).
Though I do believe Echo Audio is already a step up from M-Audio soundcard-wise.
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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by Lost to the Void »

Mattias wrote:I'd say it's overkill to use hi-end converters for production. It sure is difference, transparency and living transients comes with the price.
Today we have so may good AD/DA in sound interfaces so people can get away with good results if they just avoid buying the cheapest ones.

The price to pay to get "small" improvement is a lot, which it always is on high-end stuff. :)

You know I am in slight doubt about this.
I used to use a lavry converter, it was hella expensive, and I sold it and moved down to Benchmark Media, in terms of price this was a massive switch. I was also testing my live PA interface (Mackie Onyx satellite) and I really couldn`t pin a definitive difference down. The difference I did spot weren`t consistent, and could have been down to expectation bias (obviously I didn`t ABX either).

After seeing some videos and reading some articles, I`m not so sure there is much of a difference, in objective terms, between pro consumer and high end.

I`d love to do some objective ABX testing.
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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by Mattias »

I assume in the super high end class it all comes down to owning mega speakers, rooms and brilliant ears. Very tiny difference either way.

Benchmark is solid as hell by the way, I upgraded from Benchmark DAC HDR to Lynx Hilo, the difference sound-wise isn't massive, but it's there. For me it was all about the small upgrade soundwise and the functions compared to the Benchmark.
I thought you had Prism converters?
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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by Lost to the Void »

Ah prism, I had troubles with my unit and then a nightmare dealing with their support.


I actually think better speakers will make far more difference than converters (except when recording). Once you start talking about rapid micro transient response then really it is the speakers that can be the weak link as you need very good speaker response times, which is what you pay for when you go into really high end monitors, especially in the low mid frequencies.

But with converters and sound cards, I really don`t think you`ll notice much, if any, difference between pro consumer and high end that can`t be put down to expectation bias.
I think the only time you will really notice anything is in high dynamic material, such as foley recordings, classical recordings etc. Certainly not in the low dynamic slap bang wollop of techno.
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Re: SoundCard advice

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Yeah agreed
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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by Alume »

So im in the market for a new soundcard. The main reason is because I currently jumped into hardware world.

So I figured I need alot of ins, atleast more that 2 because I might buy something in the future. And I really dont want to spend to much money.

A friend of mine found me two alternatives:

http://www.bax-shop.nl/usb-geluidskaart ... tails.html

http://www.bax-shop.nl/usb-geluidskaart ... tails.html

The holes up front in the focusrite.. It looks like its for xlr and jack at the same time. is that right?
Do you guys have any more advice?

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Re: SoundCard advice

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Alume wrote:
The holes up front in the focusrite.. It looks like its for xlr and jack at the same time. is that right?
yep, it's very common. jack goes into the (big) central hole.
XLR go into the 3 smaller ones.
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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by msl »

Alume wrote:A friend of mine found me two alternatives:
At that price point all interfaces are pretty much the same, just get the one with the features you want, I'd prefer the focusrite cause its more mobile, not sure i'd want to lug around the akai from the look of it.


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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by Alume »

The Akai wasnt a real option i dont really trust/like the brand. I now bought a Focusrite 6i6. 4 analog inputs is enough for atleast a decent amount of time.

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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by arc »

I would've went with a UR44...

Image

Don't be put off by the fact that it's made by Steinberg. Their interfaces are top notch.

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Re: SoundCard advice

Post by TvSkY »

im currently running a steinberg ur824

brilliant interface . best converters i have had on a "non boutique" interface and drivers and stability that rival my old RME cards


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