Good soundcard recommendations?

[100_PERCENT ROEMER]

Hey All,

I'm looking to help one of my students rebuild their music-production rig and one component that is sorely lacking is a dedicated soundcard. We're using a mixer that has 1/4" outputs so ideally we would have a soundcard that could accept a jack of that size.

I have an old m-audio Audiophile 192 in my ancient desktop, and it always worked well for me ( http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-US41750-Audiophile-Hi-def-Card/dp/B00064ABSG/ref=pd_sim_e_3 )

Is this card still considered to be decent? I've never had an issue with it when I was using it and it's definitely affordable. We're using FL version 11 on our current rig.

Thanks!!

EDIT: Would it be possible to bypass the soundcard issue entirely and just use a nice USB-compatible mixer like this one instead?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ProFX12

Edited August 29, 2013 by SILVERWOLF

[Furilas]

I've only ever used external interfaces and mixers, so I can't really comment on your sound card question. But I can tell you from experience that while the mixer you linked is a nice one as a mixer, it's pretty lousy as a USB recording device. It only passes the main mix through USB, and NOT in stereo. None of the panning controls seemed to have any effect on the sound going to disk. It also has an annoying buzz whenever the USB is plugged in, though I imagine that's just an electronic problem in my particular unit.

In short, as a mixer and USB playback device, it's decent. For recording, be aware of its limitations and save your receipt.

[The Mac Attack]

I have an old m-audio Audiophile 192 in my ancient desktop, and it always worked well for me ( http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-US41750-Audiophile-Hi-def-Card/dp/B00064ABSG/ref=pd_sim_e_3 )

I'm in a similar situation upgrading my PC and thought I could just use my old PCI m-audio sound card to get me by for the time being. It wasn't quite so simple, because if you're getting a new motherboard you'll need check what kind of PCI slots it has. From what I can tell, the newer PCIe slots won't take a legacy PCI card.

You're probably just better off going external.

[Flexstyle]

As long as (a) there are drivers available for Win7/Win8/whatever you're using to build the new desktop, and ( your new motherboard has a PCI slot, I'd say stick with the old M-Audio card. I've got an M-Audio Delta 1010LT in my rig right now, and that thing is super-stable with great audio quality. Not looking forward to having to use USB on the next rig, because I've never had a truly stable USB sound card yet.

EDIT: If the new PC has firewire, see about using something with that. It's far better suited to transmitting audio data.

[100_PERCENT ROEMER]

One of the things we'd like to do is use both a laptop and a desktop for our production, and the advantage of going external for our soundcard/whatever is that added level of versatility.

Any recommendations for mixing gear that would work for that purpose in the $300 range? The old m-audio card doesn't have new drivers or support unfortunately.