opting for a new soundcard.

[MegaHurtz]

Jhello, Im opting for a new soundcard.. There being a price drop and all,
I was thinking of buying an M-Audio fast track ultra. "USB"
Anybody got any other suggestions for a hevy dsp soundcard.. "with some decent pre`s/converters".
Or should I yust wait for the next gen to come out?

[MichaelBenjamin]

maudio does cheap keyboard controllers which i would not buy a second time. i dont know about their cards.
my internal emu0404 has bloated drivers but worked flawlessly with almost anything for the last ~8years i would buy this again if it broke.
external tascam usb also works good, but i only got this since a year.
the sapphire firewire is a pain under windows, i would suggest usb instead. i have this on the shelve at the moment.
esi gigaport usb is fine if you need 8 outputs without inputs for a cheap price.

[MegaHurtz]

Aah, great tips
What I need is a card that can handle a lot of plugins,(say the most) for effordless sequencing.
And to be shure any mike that i`d like to use fits, some transperant pre`s would be nice.
But more than two I dont need.

[MichaelBenjamin]

the usual cards dont process any plugins, they just translate the signal stream to analog/digital, so you are rather looking for a newer cpu/ram if you want low latency and many plugins to run.
heres a good overview, where you cn select what you want to have and it filters out the available stuff:
http://www.thomann.de/nl/usb_audio_interfaces.html

[Nu Audio Science]

The new MOTU USB is small cheap and the drivers are supposed to be as rock solid as their firewire and PCI interfaces
Besides that you have the RME USB that is without doubt currently the best USB drivers around

Edirol have a great reputation too for their USB interfaces(Especially when used with Linux)

Beyond those three makes i would touch nothing else USB with a big long pole

If you are feeling a bit spendy and can use firewire you could look at the Xcite from Sonic Core
That is the most powerful DSP capable interface currently on the market
I use their PCI cards but they are very costly

NAS

[aliasant]

The new MOTU USB is small cheap and the drivers are supposed to be as rock solid as their firewire and PCI interfaces
Besides that you have the RME USB that is without doubt currently the best USB drivers around

Edirol have a great reputation too for their USB interfaces(Especially when used with Linux)

Beyond those three makes i would touch nothing else USB with a big long pole

If you are feeling a bit spendy and can use firewire you could look at the Xcite from Sonic Core
That is the most powerful DSP capable interface currently on the market
I use their PCI cards but they are very costly

NAS

LOL

I have a Motu Traveler and all I can say is that the Drivers are Rock Solid on Macs but Rock Bottom in Windows.
They still dont really work that well after years of developing it and getting support from them is almost impossible.
The AD/DA and mic pres sound superb. I got a later version of the Traveler mkII that has better, more stable preamps in it but I had to return 2 travelers that both had serious problems before I got the good one....

[Disco_Steve]

yea my mate dan has a motu, it is old but the drivers just don't work.
my emu does have bloated drivers, but I too cant recommend it enough, the sonics are great. very good converts on them. but the latency is very poor. my old m-audio 1010tl had the best drivers i've ever come across though, very low latency loads of in and out. so I would recommend the M-audio. RME specs are good, but for loads of in and out with good pres at a good price has to be the focusright. my other mate chris has a 24 channel set up. for less than £1k great pres for your money. great sound, proper impedance matching on the liquid channels. fantastic!!
he did have problems with his old laptop with it though, the fire-wire card was incompatible and it didn't really work, the new laptop though, no problems.

[aliasant]

I did build a new PC with a nice ASUS P5..something Mobo with built in Firewire and I thought that should be enough to run the MOTU that I already had but no. Not even a brand new mobo with Intel i7s is good enough for MOTUs drivers. Lucky for me I had an extra PCIe Firewire card that works ok but not great. It loses the connection sometimes but not nearly as bad as with the mobo firewire.

[attic]

You might look at Presonus. I have a Motu2408mk3 on Windows do not go that route. Motu has zero support and they only pretend to make drivers for windows, unless you want lots of bsods and headaches. If I was buying right now it would be a mixer not an interface. I would go with the new Presonus StudioLive Mixer. This one. http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=52

[MegaHurtz]

looks like those pci-e cards still the best.

[Tzarls]

Funny, I use a MOTU 2408MKiI under XP and I´ve never have a problem with it.

Anyway, are you looking for something "pro" and expensive (and hi-q) or are you on a budget and want a good bang-for-the-buck? I´m thinking of buying one of those first M-Box things (the ones with the Focusrite preamps) mainly for using with my netbook. You can get them used on ebay from less than $100.

[attic]

Funny, I use a MOTU 2408MKiI under XP

I have heard the 2408MKiI are more stable then the mk3 on windows. Not to hijack the post but is the Maudio 410 any good? I need to find another cheap temporary sound solution as the motu is ok most of the time, but anytime I output a standalone exe. from Synthmaker it doesn't work........ however the VST's work fine.

[Nu Audio Science]

I use MOTUs everyday of the week in the studio recording bands
Never had a single problem with any of them be it PCI or firewire
Then again i make sure my DAW PCs have the correct firewire chipsets

Drivers on windows have always been rock solid
I know of two users out of about a hundred users i know who had issues and both of those where defective hardware which was replaced
MOTU are not the most communicative on the planet but their drivers are solid

NAS

[Nu Audio Science]

Funny, I use a MOTU 2408MKiI under XP

I have heard the 2408MKiI are more stable then the mk3 on windows. Not to hijack the post but is the Maudio 410 any good? I need to find another cheap temporary sound solution as the motu is ok most of the time, but anytime I output a standalone exe. from Synthmaker it doesn't work........ however the VST's work fine.

Nope MK3 is exactly the same
Kind of would be really considering it is the exact same chipset using the exact same driver

Lots of stuff in this thread about MOTU pretending to support windows when people should just go buy a good firewire card
All your troubles would disappear

NAS

[MichaelBenjamin]

just buying a good firewire card sound easier than it is. i tried 3 different cards, 2 with the ti chipset everyone was suggesting, and still it broke sometime, lost connection and made wierd interferences. comparing to usb where i never got any problem like that i see not a single benefit in another plug standard that does exactly the same.