USB sound cards

[bhuman]

I was wondering whether anyone has heard of a USB sound card that is not too expensive, works well, has atleast a stereo output and perhaps a stereo input, maybe more, with MIDI.

It doesnt need to be for recording. Just play back from a laptop.

 

Ben

[WJProctor]

Try some of the Creative ones, I bought one a few years back. Its probs not on the market now, but they are a good price, good quality and normally come bundled with some useful software. Worth a look anyways.

[dbuckley]

Edirol UA-1 series

[rob.d]

Tascam do a unit called a US122- as it happens it is designed for recording, but its relatively inexpensive, and I've thought about a purchase in the past because it looks reasonably nifty and it'd circumvent the duff headphone output socket (flippin adaptors...!) on my laptop. It comes with various bits of recording software, so even if you dont want to record through it, it might come in handy someday. I think they on the net at £105 or so, would this be over budget?

 

hth

 

rob <_<

[Bobbsy]

I used the Tascam US-122 for a show recently when my main playback PC was busy elsewhere and was very impressed. I notice that the US-122 has now been replaced by a US-122L which has a different layout...but hopefully still good. However, if you can find the original anywhere, there may be bargains to be had.

 

Try some of the Creative ones, I bought one a few years back. Its probs not on the market now, but they are a good price, good quality and normally come bundled with some useful software. Worth a look anyways.

 

Sorry, but I would never recommend any Creative product for any serious audio use. They are primarily gamer's cards and have a number of major flaws. Line inputs are exceedingly noisy (I know the OP is primarily looking for playback, but...) at around -65dB when even mediocre cards can hit around -85dB. Also, they work internally at only 48kHz sampling and resample internally (not very well) to provide any other rate. There is always an alternative that does a better job for the same money.

 

Bob

[J Pearce]

Bobbsy, seconded re creative cards. Although, the EMU cards (marketed by creative) are quite good.

[johnlinford]

I've had big driver issues with creative cards in the past.

 

While I currently swear by my MOTU, it's probably a bit out of your price range.

 

M-Audio do a nice USB one in their Audiophile range, which is quite cheap. If you can stretch to it I'd go for the Edirol mentioned earlier, which has balanced I/O.

[Solstace]

I've just been using an EMU 0202USB for various show playback or system setup tasks in the last few weeks and absolutely love it. Feed it with decent (uncompressed) audio and it's really rather good! At £100 it doesn't do MIDI though, but if you're prepared to spend an extre £30ish and have an extra USB device to find a hole for, it's not a bad solution!

 

£0.02 in the pot, at any rate!

[Bobbsy]

Bobbsy, seconded re creative cards. Although, the EMU cards (marketed by creative) are quite good.

 

Agree 100%. The EMU cards are as good as Soundblaster are bad. As far as I know, Solstace is right though. I've not yet seen an EMU card with MIDI...they've all be specifically for recording and playback of audio only. There may well be others I've not seen yet though.

 

However, although Creative now own EMU, they keep their name away from the marketing there...thanks goodness!

 

Bob

[J Pearce]

My EMU 0404 has midi. I know the upper level cards do, may just be the 0202 that doesn't.

[scaryrobot]

The US-122 has an issue with picking up the noise from the switching power supply from my laptop - I can't record or get a decent playback with the PSU connected. (every time you move the mouse or the hard disk works, you can hear it). Perhaps this is a problem with my particular unit - or even bad grounding arrangements in my laptop, however.

[mackerr]

The US-122 has an issue with picking up the noise from the switching power supply from my laptop - I can't record or get a decent playback with the PSU connected. (every time you move the mouse or the hard disk works, you can hear it). Perhaps this is a problem with my particular unit - or even bad grounding arrangements in my laptop, however.

Have you determined that it is the US-122 and not just your laptop? If you use a different USB audio adapter does the problem go away?

 

Mac

[paulears]

The midi implementation on soundcards (when they used to be fitted) was always grim - very often voltage rails were a bit unpredictable and music equipment often performed rally badly. The advent of cheap usb midi interfaces solved the problem - hence why they are rare now. M-audio do some nice cheapish ones that are pretty good (in fact, the 2 x 2 version is oem'd in a steinberg box)

[jamesperrett]

ar unit - or even bad grounding arrangements in my laptop, however.Have you determined that it is the US-122 and not just your laptop? If you use a different USB audio adapter does the problem go away?

 

Mac

 

This sounds like a typical laptop ground loop issue and most (if not all) USB interfaces will show the same problem. Unlike older laptops, many modern laptops have their negative supply connected to earth through the power supply. Using balanced connections on whatever external gear you are connecting it to will help - especially if you can disconnect pin 1 on any XLR's or the sleeve of any TRS connections.

 

Cheers

 

James.