New and good USB Audio

[abort]

Working on an inferior m-audio fast track (it sucks bad) until I move, having all my good gear packed for moving. Also it might be a month befor I actually get all of it unpacked again. Soooo

Needing advise on USB Audio cards that Don't Suck, and I'm a cheep ass soooo

I'm looking at this one ==> http://www.guitarcenter.com/Tapco-Link- ... 1323612.gc

or this one ==> http://www.guitarcenter.com/Lexicon-I-O ... 1435686.gc

Can I do better for the money? My limit is -300$ hoping less.

[SubFunk]

No particular tip in this pricerange as a USB unit, firewire yeah: the presonus firebox is for 300 euros top. (apart from the audio quality and features for the money! search the net about problems with that unit, it is so rock solid, a true everyday performer )

tapco is mackies 'we have to get a chunk of the behringer brand market' brand, stay far away from tapco, it want be any better the what you got! probably even worse.

[robleighton22]

im considering the native instruments audio 2 dj. under £100 and is meant to be very good sound quality, same as audio 4/8 dj.

currently hav a motu 828 mkII, but it just doesnt work in a windows environment. so i either want to sell it or keep it until i eventually by a mac, but the audio 2 dj looks amazing value. only £89 at www.westenddj.com. very tempted

[SubFunk]

Oh, of course... just slipped my mind. the whole NI range is surely worth looking into!

[leedsquietman]

If you don't need much I/O the Audio Kontrol 1 is a great interface.
The Fast Track PRO is a much improved unit on the basic Fasttrack.
The Edirol UA-25EX is not a bad unit either.

USB2 is going to be the way to go. USB interfaces sucked for a long time, but this was partially because not many USB interfaces existed and most of those that did only ran USB 1.1 so longer latencies and much less bandwidth was available.

Firewire interfaces are going to be phased out within a couple of years, Apple dropped FW support on the Macbook and tellingly, Apogee just release their first USB 2.0 interface for Mac, and RME's Fireface UC is supposed to be the dogs nuts of USB 2 interfaces, boasting super low latencies (as low as 14 samples on Mac OSX) - although it will be over 1200 dollars. Firewire still offers more I/O but getting good combinations of drivers and FW chipsets can be a headache.

[robleighton22]

If you don't need much I/O the Audio Kontrol 1 is a great interface.
The Fast Track PRO is a much improved unit on the basic Fasttrack.
The Edirol UA-25EX is not a bad unit either.

USB2 is going to be the way to go. USB interfaces sucked for a long time, but this was partially because not many USB interfaces existed and most of those that did only ran USB 1.1 so longer latencies and much less bandwidth was available.

Firewire interfaces are going to be phased out within a couple of years, Apple dropped FW support on the Macbook and tellingly, Apogee just release their first USB 2.0 interface for Mac, and RME's Fireface UC is supposed to be the dogs nuts of USB 2 interfaces, boasting super low latencies (as low as 14 samples on Mac OSX) - although it will be over 1200 dollars. Firewire still offers more I/O but getting good combinations of drivers and FW chipsets can be a headache.

also, if u hav windows, definitely check what users say about any problems. i have a motu 828mkII usb - all reviews of this will say it is/was one of the best soundcards in its category. however, they fail to mention the problems windows users have. for me, if i have my wireless card on i get guaranteed audio dropouts, crashing and hissing. given i use this as my primary soundcard, it makes listening to songs on youtube, etc pretty difficult. if i had known motu had such a bad reputation on windows i would not have bought it.

if u go for firewire on a pc laptop make sure u hav a ti chipset, otherwise definitely get a usb soundcard.

[SubFunk]

^^^ agreed, we have major trouble at work with motu under windows.

[castors]

currently have a motu 828 mkII, but it just doesnt work in a windows environment. so i either want to sell it or keep it until i eventually by a mac, but the audio 2 dj looks amazing value. only £89 at www.westenddj.com. very tempted

http://www.atlashandlinguk.co.uk/

[abort]

If you don't need much I/O the Audio Kontrol 1 is a great interface.
The Fast Track PRO is a much improved unit on the basic Fasttrack.
The Edirol UA-25EX is not a bad unit either.

USB2 is going to be the way to go. USB interfaces sucked for a long time, but this was partially because not many USB interfaces existed and most of those that did only ran USB 1.1 so longer latencies and much less bandwidth was available.

Firewire interfaces are going to be phased out within a couple of years, Apple dropped FW support on the Macbook and tellingly, Apogee just release their first USB 2.0 interface for Mac, and RME's Fireface UC is supposed to be the dogs nuts of USB 2 interfaces, boasting super low latencies (as low as 14 samples on Mac OSX) - although it will be over 1200 dollars. Firewire still offers more I/O but getting good combinations of drivers and FW chipsets can be a headache.

also, if u hav windows, definitely check what users say about any problems. i have a motu 828mkII usb - all reviews of this will say it is/was one of the best soundcards in its category. however, they fail to mention the problems windows users have. for me, if i have my wireless card on i get guaranteed audio dropouts, crashing and hissing. given i use this as my primary soundcard, it makes listening to songs on youtube, etc pretty difficult. if i had known motu had such a bad reputation on windows i would not have bought it.

if u go for firewire on a pc laptop make sure u hav a ti chipset, otherwise definitely get a usb soundcard.

That's a given though, you gotta turn your wireless off for production on most Laptops, at least when you work anyway.
wireless scans for networks continuously and will cause problems.

--------

Thanks for the heads up on my purchase, its been a while since I had to buy anything audio related so thank you thank you.

I'm extremely hesitant on buying under 200$ but yeah back when I went on my shopping spree 2yrs ago I got that fast track for like quick trips and airline delays and such. Actually thought it was the pro but nono it was the guitar.

Yeah I'll stay clear from that tapco, motu.

thanks guys!!!

[aisling]

tapco is mackies 'we have to get a chunk of the behringer brand market' brand, stay far away from tapco, it want be any better the what you got! probably even worse.

Not to go ot, but I came into a pair of tapco powered studio monitors, and while they are definitely NOT genelecs, I am rather pleasantly surprised at how good they are....

[abhicary]

Working on an inferior m-audio fast track (it sucks bad) until I move, having all my good gear packed for moving. Also it might be a month befor I actually get all of it unpacked again. Soooo

Needing advise on USB Audio cards that Don't Suck, and I'm a cheep ass soooo

I'm looking at this one ==> http://www.guitarcenter.com/Tapco-Link- ... 1323612.gc

or this one ==> http://www.guitarcenter.com/Lexicon-I-O ... 1435686.gc

Can I do better for the money? My limit is -300$ hoping less.

Yeah! You can go for both devices. Both of them gives nice performance.

[outsidesys]

I recently picked up one of these: http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/Expre ... /index.php

Very convenient when everything is done within the laptop.

[leedsquietman]

The Echo Indigo is an awesome card with really great low latency, but it suffers from not having any preamps or XLR inputs, meaning if you are recording guitars, vocals, etc, you need to go through a mixer or a preamp first.

[SubFunk]

tapco is mackies 'we have to get a chunk of the behringer brand market' brand, stay far away from tapco, it want be any better the what you got! probably even worse.

Not to go ot, but I came into a pair of tapco powered studio monitors, and while they are definitely NOT genelecs, I am rather pleasantly surprised at how good they are....

i not even disagree, but it is a hit and miss and very low manufacturing quality

[Fizmarble]

I just picked up an m-audio fast track ultra on amazon for 300. Fantastic latency. I am using it to process two vocal tracks and a guitar live. I am well pleased so far.