Vaguely decent sound card

[wee_merv]

I originally bought a USB Edirol based on good reviews and they where fairly cheap, I have to say that it was good and I liked it. However last month I bought a USB Presonus and in my opinion it is a lot better, I was kindly surprised so just thought I would put my experience down.

 

 

[paulears]

What seems absolutely certain, is that these devices have all got so much better over the past few years that dire ones rarely see light of day - it only takes a few negative reviews to kill them off!

I've not noticed until now, but I have a Tascam US-1641 in the rack next to me, and it just works - and I rarely even give it a thought. That is what the better ones do - just work transparently!

[chelgrian]

Not familiar with their product range at the minute, but the M-Audio stuff has always had a good reputation, and I'm sure they do something to suit your budget, if not new then definitely second hand!

 

M-Audio are dreadful, the largest number of complaints on the QLab mailing list comes from M-Audio users and are related to dodgy drivers and units losing communication with the drivers and needing to be hard reset (ie more than power cycled) before they will talk again.

 

Also Avid (who acquired Digidesign who had bought M-Audio formerly Midiman) no longer own most of M-Audio. Avid retained rights to a few designs which they used with ProTools LE however the majority of it was divested to inMusic who own Akai Professional, Alesis and Numark. This happened in May 2012.

 

http://www.avid.com/US/press-room/Avid-Divests-Consumer-Businesses-and-Streamlines-Operations

 

In terms of something that is built and supported properly I would recommend the OP looks at the MOTU MicroBook II

 

http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/motu-microbook-ii-usb-audio-interface--94271

 

It's slightly above budget and only has one mic pre-amp. However products with more pre-amps and outputs have a corresponding increase in price.

[Solstace]

Seem to be having a great time over the last few months with my Presonus Firestudio Project 8-in, 8-out FW interface used both on Macs and PC's. Seems that their smaller USB and FW offerings use the same X-MAX mic pre's which I've yet to find fault with, and their driver support seemed a lot more comprehensive than the competition I compared at the time of buying. Paid about £330 for my unit, but their 2-channel units seemed to be around £100-150 in the same store.

[Bobbsy]

 

M-Audio are dreadful, the largest number of complaints on the QLab mailing list comes from M-Audio users and are related to dodgy drivers and units losing communication with the drivers and needing to be hard reset (ie more than power cycled) before they will talk again.

 

Also Avid (who acquired Digidesign who had bought M-Audio formerly Midiman) no longer own most of M-Audio. Avid retained rights to a few designs which they used with ProTools LE however the majority of it was divested to inMusic who own Akai Professional, Alesis and Numark. This happened in May 2012.

 

http://www.avid.com/US/press-room/Avid-Divests-Consumer-Businesses-and-Streamlines-Operations

 

In terms of something that is built and supported properly I would recommend the OP looks at the MOTU MicroBook II

 

http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/motu-microbook-ii-usb-audio-interface--94271

 

It's slightly above budget and only has one mic pre-amp. However products with more pre-amps and outputs have a corresponding increase in price.

 

The ownership change could be an issue but M Audio are certainly NOT crap. I have two of their units (one for about 9 years now and the other for 5+ years and both just work and work reliably and well. I've never had any driver issues and never lost a cue during a show.

 

If your source is Qlab, perhaps the problem exists with Qlab themselves, not M Audio. Or have you drunk the Apple Koolaid to believe that anything written for Apple is perfect in every way. FYI, there are frequent Qlab problems and complaints on the Theatre Sound List which are not reliant on the choice of interface.

 

More later but I have to go work on a 32 track recording session with my "dreadful" M Audio gear that never works--even though I've been on this project for 4 days now without a slightest of hiccups.

[Thomas1987]

 

M-Audio are dreadful, the largest number of complaints on the QLab mailing list comes from M-Audio users and are related to dodgy drivers and units losing communication with the drivers and needing to be hard reset (ie more than power cycled) before they will talk again.

 

Also Avid (who acquired Digidesign who had bought M-Audio formerly Midiman) no longer own most of M-Audio. Avid retained rights to a few designs which they used with ProTools LE however the majority of it was divested to inMusic who own Akai Professional, Alesis and Numark. This happened in May 2012.

 

http://www.avid.com/US/press-room/Avid-Divests-Consumer-Businesses-and-Streamlines-Operations

 

In terms of something that is built and supported properly I would recommend the OP looks at the MOTU MicroBook II

 

http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/motu-microbook-ii-usb-audio-interface--94271

 

It's slightly above budget and only has one mic pre-amp. However products with more pre-amps and outputs have a corresponding increase in price.

 

The ownership change could be an issue but M Audio are certainly NOT crap. I have two of their units (one for about 9 years now and the other for 5+ years and both just work and work reliably and well. I've never had any driver issues and never lost a cue during a show.

 

If your source is Qlab, perhaps the problem exists with Qlab themselves, not M Audio. Or have you drunk the Apple Koolaid to believe that anything written for Apple is perfect in every way. FYI, there are frequent Qlab problems and complaints on the Theatre Sound List which are not reliant on the choice of interface.

 

More later but I have to go work on a 32 track recording session with my "dreadful" M Audio gear that never works--even though I've been on this project for 4 days now without a slightest of hiccups.

 

Thank you all for these comments Gents, some really useful lines of investigation there I think! Now I just need a day off to read up! Thank you!

[chelgrian]

If your source is Qlab, perhaps the problem exists with Qlab themselves, not M Audio. Or have you drunk the Apple Koolaid to believe that anything written for Apple is perfect in every way. FYI, there are frequent Qlab problems and complaints on the Theatre Sound List which are not reliant on the choice of interface.

 

More later but I have to go work on a 32 track recording session with my "dreadful" M Audio gear that never works--even though I've been on this project for 4 days now without a slightest of hiccups.

 

Good for you that your M-Audio works for you. I guess from your comments that you are not using a Mac and not using QLab. It's perfectly possible that the Windows drivers work and don't provoke the hardware or firmware problems that causes issues on Mac OS.

 

However the original poster *is* using a Mac therefore it is not helpful to recommend something that is known to cause problem under OS X.

 

QLab powers a very large number of shows from Broadway to the West End to numerous provincial and amateur shows I suggest that you are seeing selection bias that only those with problems will post to mailing lists about it.

 

In fact the most recent post about QLab/interfaces for OS X on the theatre sound mailing list about QLab are about corrupted MIDI solutions boxes (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/theatre-sound-list/4vdge5Gy4KI) problems with Focusrite Saffire drivers not reloading mixer settings on reboot (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/theatre-sound-list/kkTwc5A_gBI) and thread complaining about an unreliable M-Audio Firewire 610 for which they wanted advice on a replacement. In last the year there have been surprising few threads about QLab on that given how widespread its use is.

 

I never claimed that that anything written for 'Apple' is perfect nor have a drunk any Kool-aid.