Re: sound card

[David J Greiner <aiwaz93@juno.com>]

Greetings,

    If you have UBS ports try the Roland UA-30 (check www.edirol.com for
the specs).  
I was a bit skeptical about USB audio quality, but after I got it I loved
it.  It was only 
about $230 from http://www.zzounds.com

   -David-


On Mon, 2 Apr 2001 21:04:27 -0700 "Rick Walker (loop.pool)"
<GLOBAL@cruzio.com> writes:
> a very quick disclaimer:
> I'm a relative newbie to computer music composition, having been 
> involved
> with the World Beat movement for 22 years as an artist and producer 
> so take
> everything I say here with a grain of salt.   I've tried my best to 
> research
> this particular area but there is much that I am ignorant of.   If 
> I've got
> anything wrong, please help educate me and don't waste time flaming 
> me.
> Thanks.
> 
> 
> I've found that the Soundblaster live card (which I used for my 
> entire first
> CD of abstract electronica) had tremendous problems with
> my VIA motherboard and was advised by one of my computer gurus (Si
> Moorehead, one of the geniuses at EMU/Creative) teh the VIA
> motherboards are notorious for conflicts.   I finally gave up and 
> bought a
> brand new Intel motherboard and, presto,  everything is working
> hunky dory.
> 
> Be advised:  I have heard that the A/D/A converters are not very 
> good (below
> pro specs, certainly) and that because they use a
> 48k sampling rate that every time you do anything in the 44k 
> sampling range
> (like EVERYTHING having to do with CD manufacturing) that
> it forces the sounds to go through this crummy conversion on the way 
> in  and
> on the way out.     How I circumvented this problem
> (and avoided buying an expensive DAT machine in the process) was to 
> buy a
> MidiMan FLYING COW  A/D/A converter that supports
> 24/96 recording, SPDIF and has balanced stereo ins and outs.   It 
> set me
> back about $350 as I remember and allows me to SPDIF everything in 
> and out
> of the SoundBlaster live card thus (I hope I've figure out 
> correctly)
> circumventing the SoundBlasters A/D/A converters all together.    I 
> also
> just read that ART has a new stereo A/D/A converter (I think called 
> the
> DI/O) which the catalogues are selling for
> only $250.    As long as you buy a Sound Blaster Live card that has 
> SPDIF in
> and out (a waste of time if it doesn't) you do NOT have to spring 
> for their
> most expensive card.    If it has SPDIF it is as good a card as they 
> make.
> You just pay for the breakout box and all of their software (much of 
> which
> is pretty superfluous if you are doing serious recording/composing) 
> by
> purchasing the expensive card.
> Total outlay for a pretty cool and quite setup:    $350!!!!   Not 
> bad.  I
> believe it is the cheapest way I know of achieving 'champagne' high 
> quality
> results on a 'beer' budget.
> 
> One last thing:   Windows '98 has a new version out which has 
> really
> resolved a lot of the conflicts with a lot of drivers.   Download 
> the
> upgrade and install it.  It has made a huge impact on the stability 
> of my
> system (which got pretty damn wobbly last year).   I must confess 
> that
> for music applications I still don't trust Windows ME yet.     
> Anybody have
> any good luck stories with it, yet?
> It always seems the best bet to wait two years for any Windows 
> operating
> system before they work out the kinks.
> 
> yours,   Rick Walker (loop.pool)
> 
> 
> 
>