external sound card for recording

[crox]

on a typical Sunday morning, we dump a feed onto a CD, then edit it later. Works fine, other than the hassle of ripping, editing, then re-burning for a master.

 

What good external sound cards are available (for PC) which will happily take a 1/4" jack input or phono for that matter?

 

The main purpose for recording is for spoken word rather than live band, though sometimes I record the band to play it back to see how it sounds and how to improve week on week.

 

Thoughts appreciated!

 

As an after note, we will probably be investing in a rack mounted mp3 recorder, just not yet, hence the above.

 

Edit: having done a search (yes I should have done that first), I am still confused. I am not looking at spending over £100 as I couldn't justify it, but looking at a cheap and cheerful thing to see whether it is feasible moving forward.

 

I normally use SoundForge for editing, which is pretty good, seeing as I really only play with it.

[mervaka]

if its only a stereo in/out you're looking for, perhaps a Tascam US-122L?

 

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/fl...roduct_id/14452

[hazy231]

I have a nice Creative Sound-Blaster External one.

 

Its on mini-jack tho, which is a problem, but I got a few phono - stereo mini jacks and it works fine.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Kris.

[twiggy]

We went for a ALESIS IO|2 which does do the job really nicely however I would really recommend looking for something with a built in limiter to stop peaks in your recording when the speaker get exited or just stands to close to the mic, So although its over you budget I would highly recommend the Edirol UA-25

[fogg]

I use a Alesis IO/14 which is great, its a firewire sound card but a decent firewire card with a texas intrument chip set is a good idea to stop any unwanted drop outs. It had 4 XLR/jack inputs all with inserts, also it has the option to connect to any adat device with the optical input, so you could have more channels if you wished. Cost me about £120. Also having a few extra channels is good just incase! I use it with cubase sx3 no problems.

[Bobbsy]

Well within your price range would be the E-MU 0202 at about £65. It's got a nice low S/N and, in my experience, E-MU products last well and sound good at an affordable price.

 

I'd strongly recommend AGAINST anything from the Creative/Soundblaster range. These are really gamers cards and are not really up to any serious recording work. Two major issues are the S/N (which tends to be around -60 to -65dB compared to around -85dB for any decent card) and also they work natively at only 48kHz sampling and convert internally for any other rates used.

 

Bob

[Solstace]

Well within your price range would be the E-MU 0202 at about £65.

 

Another vote for this one. I bought one to play with after hearing from several friends that it trounced their hi-end HiFi CD players when fed with decent material (like CD content ripped to uncompressed or lossless files). I've since tried it out in several pro situations for recording and playback, and had nothing but joy. Absolute bargain.

[SoLiEn]

I have a lovely TAPCO USB which has two channel input, XLR and 1/4" on both. lovely little box. provides its own phantom power to mics straight off the usb, and powers itself from the usb. cheap too!