Apple soundcards.

Danny boy · Post by **Danny boy** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:41 am

hey people, on the verge of getting an apple laptop and I wanted to know what experience you had of the in built soundcard.

as the Ibook doesnt have an audio in, whats a good "break out box"?

I-mic seems the cheapest and then it goes up to the mad money.

Ive heard the indigo DJ card is good but only available for 15" powerbooks. and I cant spend that on a computer that will be out of date in 4 years.

experience and help appreciated.

and to all MAC users I found this on t'internet.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=756

many thanks.

Danny

feynman · Post by **feynman** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:30 am

Hi,

faced the same question. Got an Apple 15" (new one) and the M-AUDIO FireWire Audiophile Interface plus the soft one needs. Works on stage, all you ever want.

dirtystudios · Post by **dirtystudios** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 7:00 am

avoid the imic...i had two of them, and while they worked fine for a few months, they both crapped out on me pretty quick. also, you might want to avoid the terratec phase 24 firewire as all it seems to do is ouput bursts of static as i mentioned in a previous post. i just received a terratec phase 24 usb and am giving it a try. i'll post my thoughts.

k

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 2:28 pm

I just bought an m-audio firewire 410. Yes, it was kind of pricey, but it's also 100% worth it. It's my 6th soundcard I've had for my ibook. Here's what happened to the other ones:

- Creative USB MP3+: Good card for the money (retails 30$), but only 1 out and 1 input port. Meh. One of the output ports blew out after a year and I went about on a quest to replace it with a...
- Tascam US-122: Hands down the worst soundcard I tried out. Stupid hardware port configurations, shitty drivers, and horrible crackling and popping noises at any audio latency < 25ms. I think this card may have been defective, but either way, I wasn't impressed. It was promptly sent back after 2 days of use.
- M-Audio Audiophile USB: This card does not have 2 output ports as it claims. Rather, it has 1 analog and 1 digital stereo out, making it worthless with an analog mixer. So, I exchanged it for a...
- Audiotrak Maya 44 USB: Guess what? No mac drivers! The box says it supports mac os, but it relies on the stock driver that comes with os x, so you can only use 1 output and 1 input channel. I exchanged it for the...
- M-Audio Firewire Solo: Also a good card for the money. Unfortunately, like the audiophile, it doesn't have 2 independent output ports.... the 2 1/4" jacks on the back of the card are dual mono out. The 2nd output port is also spdif digital. I decided to quit screwing around with sub-par soundcards and just get what I really wanted...
- M-Audio Firewire 410: Thank god guitar center was willing to buy 2 old guitar amps in trade for this card. =) 8 independent outs (all recognized by ableton!), but only 1 analog in (meh, ok by me). MIDI controller, firewire hub. Completely worth the money. Both of the firewire cards have weird drivers, but I'm ok with that.... the cards aren't hot swappable either, which is kind of a pain but a small sacrifice.

So, the moral of my story is this... if you just want an external card to record and playback sound, get a cheap one; it'll serve you well. If you want a card to do anything more than basic playback, spend the money and get good hardware. The "mid-range" sound hardware sucks.

forge · Post by **forge** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:42 pm

sqook wrote:I just bought an m-audio firewire 410. Yes, it was kind of pricey, but it's also 100% worth it. It's my 6th soundcard I've had for my ibook. Here's what happened to the other ones:

So, the moral of my story is this... if you just want an external card to record and playback sound, get a cheap one; it'll serve you well. If you want a card to do anything more than basic playback, spend the money and get good hardware. The "mid-range" sound hardware sucks.

I agree - I did the same - pissed about a few times until I thought I might as well just spend the money - you will end up getting what you want down the line and probably spend more in exchanges etc if you dont get what you want to start with

BTW Sqook - I've been thinking of going from win 3.1 as I'm getting tired of DosShell - but I hear there's a new one out called windows 95 - have you heard about it?

robin · Post by **robin** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:51 pm

sqook wrote: - Audiotrak Maya 44 USB: Guess what? No mac drivers! The box says it supports mac os, but it relies on the stock driver that comes with os x, so you can only use 1 output and 1 input channel. I exchanged it for the...

i have one of these connected to my powerbook. all the outs work fine with the stock drivers. the only thing is that the headphone output isn't selectable so i have to use the outs with an adapter to get headphone prelisteing.

on balance i'm not sure i'd buy another of these (build quality etc and the headphone issue).

i want an indigo dj but don't have the card slot (12" powerbook isn't equipped with one)

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 12:25 am

forge wrote: BTW Sqook - I've been thinking of going from win 3.1 as I'm getting tired of DosShell - but I hear there's a new one out called windows 95 - have you heard about it?

I've heard good things about win95, too... I wonder if it'll support my serial printer and token ring adapter, too. =)

And robin, weird. For some reason, my ibook just never recognized 3/4 on either the input or output ports. I agree that it's quality and craftsmanship have a bit to be desired for...

JAMM · Post by **JAMM** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 1:22 am

imic works fine here.

5dots · Post by **5dots** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 3:10 am

i've had one imic die on me, and the second is probably on its way. i definitely wouldn't trust it in a live sitch. i'm pretty lazy about recording audio though, so if, let's say, i want to sample something from tv or a movie, i'll just turn the tv volume way up and record through the laptop mic - serious lo-fi.

stew · Post by **stew** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:14 pm

sqook wrote:- Audiotrak Maya 44 USB: Guess what? No mac drivers! The box says it supports mac os, but it relies on the stock driver that comes with os x, so you can only use 1 output and 1 input channel. I exchanged it for the...

Interesting...I have the Maya EX 5.1 and all the inputs/outputs work fine under OS X, with a much better latency than under XP. Did you look in AudioMIDISetup for the additional channels? Audio settings in OS X are a bit obscure.

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:08 pm

JAMM wrote:imic works fine here.

Sell it if you have the chance then. I too have had 2 imics. With all these peope saying this i wonder if we should all join and ask griffin for a new one.

one braking down, ok. But all of them?

JAMM · Post by **JAMM** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:22 pm

Funny... but i also play live gigs with the crappy thing, before that always
used the native mini-jack output, a bit scary going from mini-jack to a
big PA system. Looking out for a serious soundcard but to lazy to get one.
greetinz Jamm

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:14 pm

M-Audio Sonica Theatre USB