Soundcard + Software reccomendation?

[lonewolf121188]

I'm getting a Flextone III Plus and I wanted to do some recording. I was wondering if you guys could point me to a good sound capture card under/around $150. Heres my wishlist (in order):

XLR in
1/4 inch in
MIDI (either joystick or circular in + out)
24bit processing
5.1 speaker support
optical (or coax or Digital DIN) out
Dolby and EAX support

I know im not going to get everything for under $150, but it would sure be nice to! As for software, I don't really have a limit, just whatever I need for multi tracking and generally cleaning up my sloppy playing .

[JESTER700]

Originally Posted by lonewolf121188

I'm getting a Flextone III Plus and I wanted to do some recording. I was wondering if you guys could point me to a good sound capture card under/around $150. Heres my wishlist (in order):

XLR in
1/4 inch in
MIDI (either joystick or circular in + out)
24bit processing
5.1 speaker support
optical (or coax or Digital DIN) out
Dolby and EAX support

I know im not going to get everything for under $150, but it would sure be nice to! As for software, I don't really have a limit, just whatever I need for multi tracking and generally cleaning up my sloppy playing .

Not for $150. I'd say an Audiophile or MIA, for under $200. Good 24 bit convertors, MIDI, and SPDIF. You could get a Revolution card for 5.1, but it's not up to the level of these.

[lonewolf121188]

I've got a mad dog predator (see here http://www.mdmm.com/products/audio/6channel.asp) for 5.1 dolby and EAX, and its got the joystick/MIDI port on it, but its only got a 1/8 inch mic in for recording...terrible. XLR is the main thing, everything else is just candy.

[Two hands31]

I'd say keep the soundcard you have now for non-recording purposes, and pick up a USB or Firewire interface for recording. I've got a Tascam US-122 and it does all you've described (minus the 5.1, etc. which you already have covered with your sound card) and then some. And it comes with software.

It'll cost you a little more, but I think you'll be happier keeping the two things separate.

[lonewolf121188]

wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a PCI card than an external? I could have 2 cards and disable the one im not using...

Heres my computer specs, if anyone wants them:

2.4GHz Pentium 4
512MB RAM
180GB total Hard drive (60GB Primary, 120GB slave)
Windows XP Pro

I think thats all that applies to recording...

[Two hands31]

It would be cheaper, yes. But then you have two internal soundcards. If you have the ability to run both (I don't know much about this technical-wise lol) then go for it. But you probably won't be able to find one thing that'll do both.

[lonewolf121188]

I know how to disable a card when I'm not using it, that shouldn't be a problem. Like I said, this is mainly for a sound capture card, not necessarily a sound playback card.

In retrospect...do I really need the XLR in for recording or is 1/4 inch in fine? I ended up getting a Flextone III Plus today (in the mail, along with a 1527!), mainly because its got the XLRs...

[Jamie]

M-Audio mate, that's all you need to know. Delta 44 or something like that. Genius.

[Jamie]

sorry, should have been clearer. that'll give you 4 jack ins & outs, all can be used in mono TS or balanced TRS format so you just go xlr to trs and stay balanced throughout your signal chain.