Looking for a good sound card, what do you guys suggest?

[Incinerator Drone]

I have a Sony Vaio with 2 GB RAM and a firewire port. It's on Vista right now (ew) but will probably be on XP soon.

I am mostly looking to record guitars/bass, but also eventually vocals/drums/etc. Getting a good guitar sound is the most important thing for me though.

$200 or less is what I'm hoping for. It has to be external as well, hopefully using the firewire.

My brother says look at M Audio or Native Instruments?

[prophetik music]

you don't want a soundcard, you want a preamp, then.

M-Audio makes the Audiophile and MobilePre. both are fantastic, and i believe they make firewire setups, too. they both only have two inputs, unfortunately. they're both about 149$.

if you still want a soundcard, you can get a nice internal or external soundblaster 24-bit at newegg for around 40 dollars.

[Fray]

you don't want a soundcard, you want a preamp, then.

You mean an audio interface with a builtin preamp?

[Incinerator Drone]

Hmm, I'm just going off what my brother said I need, he *is* a music producer though and has recorded guitars on albums off his laptop before, so I figure he must sort of know what he is talking about. I messaged him too to see what he thinks about all this.

The other question is, are these things OS specific?

[Moseph]

I just bought an E-MU 0404 USB interface ($160-ish), although it hasn't shipped yet, so I don't have any personal experience with it. For this price range, it's supposed to have pretty good mic pre-amps.

My understanding of the USB vs. Firewire issue is that Firewire is better because it relies less on the processor to allocate bus usage than USB does, so CPU load is less likely to cause recording errors with Firewire. Anecdotal evidence suggests that recording errors aren't really an issue on USB 2.0 unless you're, say, recording 8 tracks simultaneously (which, obviously, you can't do on something in this price range).

If you're considering a Firewire interface, check and see what kind of Firewire port your Viao has. You need a six-pin port if you want to power the interface through the Firewire connection; if you have a four-pin port, you'll need to plug the interface into the wall to power it. Most USB interfaces can be powered by the computer (although the 0404 I just bought can't).

If you're considering a USB interface, it's probably a good idea to get a USB 2.0 one.

Potentially helpful links to comparisons of Firewire interfaces and USB 2.0 interfaces.

EDIT:

The other question is, are these things OS specific?

Most of these are Windows XP/OSX. If you're going to be using it at all on Vista, definitely check the manufacturer's site, because not all of them are Vista compatible.

[Incinerator Drone]

This is really confusing, I can't seem to find any that even use firewire?

I think I'm looking wrong.

[DahisDream]

http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm

He may be a bit outdated at this point, but this is an astoundingly comprehensive guide for the hardware beginner.