Hello Everyone,

I am in need of a good sound card that has at least 2 XLR inputs, gain controls, at least 6 audio outputs, phantom power would be nice, works with vista and is under $500; if under $300 is possible that would be even better. Firewire or USB good also.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Kevin

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Kevin

Anyone at all? So no one uses sound cards external to the one that comes with the computer?

What kind are you using then?

Or am I making a mistake and should be looking for a different way to add voice overs to my tracks?

Help?

Kev

you better have to look for an external firewire mixer for input and simply use a regular 5.1 soundcard for output. the Audigy is a great card, giving you a firewire port to connect something like an Alesis Multimix.
all stays in your budget.

Hello Kevin,

Soundcard sort of implies a card in a computer. Probably most folks are using some sort of external module. I use a Digidesign 002Rack, for example.

I think the only hitch in your request and the $ limitation would be the 6 outputs.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Anyone at all? So no one uses sound cards external to the one that comes with the computer?

What kind are you using then?

Or am I making a mistake and should be looking for a different way to add voice overs to my tracks?

Help?

Kev

It's not that no one uses external interfaces (soundcards), it's that your specs plus your budget requirements eliminates a lot of contenders. For example, I use an Echo AudioFire 8 firewire interface. It has 2 dual function XLR mic level, TRS line level inputs with input trim controls, 6 additional TRS line level inputs, 8 line level outputs plus a pair of stereo S/PDIF digital I/O. Thing is, you asked for gain controls and other than the input trims on the 2 mic inputs it assumes you're feeding it with a mixer and will handle the input gain settings from there - I don't think of trim controls as something you'd use to ride gain during a session. Also it's MSRP is >$500.

I use an Edirol FA-101. It has 2 XLR ins w/preamps (the preamps are a bit weak however, I am using external pres these days). The two pres provide phantom power. It also has 6 1/4" inputs and 8 1/4" outputs. I believe it'll also go in/out via TOSlink.

I just checked on Ebay and it looks like they're going new for under $400.

M-Audio Firewire 410 fits your specs perfectly and is a good choice. I particularly like M-Audio because they keep up with driver updates both on the mac and pc side when new OS versions are released, and they are particularly agnostic mac/pc (unlike many companies!)

External firewire device, 2 mic preamps with phantom and xlr/trs input, 8 outputs. 24/96, plus you get midi and s/pdif i/o as well.

If you have a 6-pin firewire card, it can be fw bus powered.

All in all a great little box for use with an NLE system for typical post production tasks.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWire410-main.html

Street price about $300 US.

Good soundcard guide and suggestions (this is from one of my favorite music recording websites but the suggestions are all still good for quality sound into video, too):

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