What do you guys think of this sound card for recording guitars?

[Incinerator Drone]

My brother is giving me a pre-amp that he has used on actual record releases so that should be alright, but he says I should get an external sound card as well. But I'm clueless about this stuff. M Audio is supposed to be good, right?

http://shopper.cnet.com/external-audio-adapters/m-audio-firewire-410/4014-9335_9-32590752.html

If not that, anyone have any other good suggestions? I'm on XP and have firewire.

[Sixto]

That's a good one. Also look at the Presonus Firebox. I've had mine for a little more than two years and it's great. Also comes with Cubase LE 48 track recording software and some other goodies.

[Incinerator Drone]

On a side note, where do you think the cheapest place to find this stuff would be? My brother suggested Ebay but I tend to like to get things brand new and under warranty if they are big purchases.

[analoq]

I've probably owned more audio interfaces than anyone here. M-Audio stuff is generally a good value, but I haven't used the 410 in particular.

I can't recommend the FireBox. I like the form-factor but the pre-amps are underpowered and noisy. The headphone amp is too hot and the knobs are too small and rigid for fine-tuning. Much better interface (and now cheaper) is the Yamaha GO46.

But hey, if you already have a pre-amp then you can get something simple like a Behringer FCA-202. Good solution if you're using an external mixer or pre-amp and don't need MIDI.

cheers.

[Incinerator Drone]

I've probably owned more audio interfaces than anyone here. M-Audio stuff is generally a good value, but I haven't used the 410 in particular.

I can't recommend the FireBox. I like the form-factor but the pre-amps are underpowered and noisy. The headphone amp is too hot and the knobs are too small and rigid for fine-tuning. Much better interface (and now cheaper) is the Yamaha GO46.

But hey, if you already have a pre-amp then you can get something simple like a Behringer FCA-202. Good solution if you're using an external mixer or pre-amp and don't need MIDI.

cheers.

Hmm, well the pre-amp is more like a near-permanent loan. He runs a pretty big techno/electronic label but he doesn't actually record guitars much, and when he does he always makes me play for him anyway (even though I'm not that good,) so it isn't like he would need it without me. But it won't actually be mine either, so I'd prefer to have a decent set-up without it if need be.

Frankly I don't even understand the difference between a pre-amp and an external sound card and all of that.

[analoq]

I'm sure someone will have the patience to explain that to you, but in the meantime try to answer these questions:

- How many inputs and outputs do you need?

- Do you need MIDI?

I'm now assuming you want to record guitar direct with an internal pre-amp, as opposed to mic'ing an amp or using a DI-box, please confirm this assumption.

cocks.

[Incinerator Drone]

Well I'm actually still slightly confused?

Ideally yes, I want to go straight from amp to pre-amp or whatever no mics.

Not sure what MIDI is even used for, but I will probably want to hook up a keyboard sometime... that is MIDI right?

At the moment my only plans are self-recording so I'd only need one input? Or do you record in stereo I guess? And I'm not even sure why I'd need more than one output?

[Incinerator Drone]

Hmm... also I'm pretty sure I only have 4 pin firewire... which means I would need to use the power adaptor that comes seperately? Is there anything bad about doing it this way? It's not quite as convenient but that doesn't matter to me.

[Incinerator Drone]

Ahhhhh god, now I am reading all these customer reviews bashing M Audio saying it can actually fry your hardware / etc. and is tough to get working correctly.

Blah.

One wouldn't think it would be this tough to find something decent and reliable...

[analoq]

I hoped someone else might have assisted you before now, but oh well.

yeah, if you only have 4-pin firewire then you'll need to plug in the included power adapter to run your audio interface. If you don't care then it's not an inconvenience for you.

I've never heard of a firewire device 'frying' hardware, I'd be suspicious of such claims. For other claims of difficulty setting up, etc.. try to buy from somewhere with a good return policy. Every time I've needed an audio interface I had to go thru a few exchanges before I found something that worked for me.

There's only so much advice I could give you. At some point you gotta bite the bullet.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Ideally yes, I want to go straight from amp to pre-amp or whatever no mics.

Wait, what?

Are you talking about running from your amp's line out to your preamp/audio interface? In almost all cases, that produces crappy results unless you use some manner of cabinet emulation somewhere along the line. (sixto can probably explain this a lot better than I can)

It would most likely be better to just run the signal from your guitar straight into the preamp, and then use VST amp modelers.

[SnappleMan]

As far as these things go you want to make sure you're buying something that you know will be supported in the future. The Presonus Firebox is decent, but the drivers aren't the best around so support might not be the greatest. If you MUST go firewire, I can only really recommend to you two brands, the RME Fireface and the Echo Audiofire. I've used all three, and I own two of the Echo Audiofire products.

Like analoq said, you usually have to go through a few returns to find what you really want, ESPECIALLY when getting into this whole new world of Firewire interfaces. From my experience, Echo will always give you the best value for your money. They have the BEST drivers in the price range, best (USA made) hardware, and they actually read every email you send them, try to re-create whatever problem you're having exactly, and then fix it in a driver update a week later.

So yeah, my recommendation is the Echo Audiofire 8. Though at $450 it might be too expensive for you, in which case check out the Audiofire 4, though I haven't used it, if it's anything like the 8 or the 2, it's golden. (I also own an audiofire 2 which I take with me when traveling, it's equally impressive.)

Something to keep in mind though, there's no telling how far firewire audio interfaces will go, and any product you buy may be discontinued much faster than a PCI card would, so you're best off doing the research, and picking something that has very good support now, so that when you want to keep using it 5 or 10 years from now, the last drivers available for it will support whatever insane software applications the world comes up with. MOTU, RME, Echo and M-Audio have permanent holds at different levels of the the interface market, so your best chances are with them. I'm not bashing the FireBox, as it's also a great product, but Presonus is known for signal processing and effects, not audio interfaces (as far as I know at least) so I'm a bit wary of their commitment to that type of product if the industry rejects it.