Sound Card?

[Bob Watson]

My nephew is building a new computer for me and I was wondering what kind of sound card to put in it. It'll be a fast one, though I haven't decided which processor I'll use yet. He is suggesting an Athlon.I want to start to learn about recording with my computer. I have an old version of cakewalk, v9.0, to start off with. I also have a powered Peavey XR 600 that I can use as an outboard mixer. I am not looking to do anything fancy, just learn a little about recording with a computer. I figure I can upgrade later on. I would greatly appreciate any advice or input on this subject.

[Dave Boothroyd]

If you want a high quality single item that will handle Midi and Audio, cope with analogue and digital inputs, and even do synchronised transfers from 8 track ADAT tapes, you have three choices.
Digidesign 001 or M box- but that sort of commits you to ProTools which is a bit daunting.
M Audio Delta series- but you need an extra unit to use ADATs.
The new one from EMU. osts about £250 (GBP) over here and does it all. It comes with a nice software sampler too.
Have a look on www.soundonsound.com for reviews- don't worry about the subscription bit- it's only the recent editions that you have to pay for.
Once you come down from this level, you need to check that you have the inputs etc that you are actually going to use. If you want to do optical transfers from minidisk for example, or do you need to record more than one stereo track at a time?
Soundblaster Audigy cards are reasonable basic cards now they are sorted out- but it is worth going for one that has front panel connections.
Cheers
Dave<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 13 February 2004 at 12:32 PM.]</p></FONT>