VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Drew]

A recent OS crash forced me to make an emergency computer buy as I was about to do a fairly lengthy narration and had to get back up quickly. Since then I've been using the Realtek AC97 sound card in the mother board. It's okay. Certainly better than a lot of the stuff you'd get in an over-the-counter computer. It's fine for mono. But there are times I'm called upon to record in stereo multi-track. That's when it falls short. Very noisy. Plus, the card is not duplex.

On my prior system I was using a Soundblaster Live! PCI card. Despite it's consumer grade, gamer rep, it did a pretty good job in both mono and multi-track recording.

This time around, in an effort to save pulling the computer out of the silence case, figuring out how to pull the CPU case off, etc., I went with a Soundblaster Live! External USB. In a word: Blech! The features I enjoyed with the Soundblaster PCI have either been left out, or I can't get 'em to function. Regardless, after a week of toying with it, it's packaged back up and going back to Circuit City today.

Now, I've got my eye on two PCI's. The Delta 44 or the MIAMIDI by Echo. Both are full duplex and reasonably priced. I'm rather partial to the Delta, as it comes with a break-out box. Any thoughts on either?
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Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

[allensco]

Hey Drew, I use the Mia/Midi by Echo. I love it! Although it's a PCI card, there is NO noise, at least not on my machine. The price is not bad either at $129 US.

[Drew]

It has the break-out cable for quarter inch hook-up, correct? No stepping down to 1/8", right?
_________________
www.voiceoverdrew.com
Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

[nick reed]

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/PCI/MiaMIDI/index.php

It looks to me that the break-out cable is midi & RCA. 1/4" i/o's are on the back of the card.

Nick

[allensco]

Yes, the 1/4" i/o jacks are on the back of the card. There is a litle "pig-tail" for the digital/midi hookups.

[dmgood]

I also have the MiaMidi and like it alot. I still have a Soundblaster Live in my PC. The sound difference is noticeable.

I have had several unexplained glitches where the signal level displayed in Audition freezes and a constant tone is being generated (probably the last bit of sound being held indefinitely) requiring a reboot, but that is quite rare and is probably some conflict I just have not figured out (virus scanner, disk caching, whatever...)

When I was a Voice123 member, I also had problems uploading multiple auditions. I think it had to do with their proprietary flash upload utility. Worked fine as long as I deferred back to the Soundblaster Card for playback. Not sure what that was about either. And their customer support on the issue was, shall we say, useless.

If I was to do it again with what's currently out there I might be looking at a firewire device. But the MiaMidi is definitely a very good card at a very reasonable price.

[Hart]

[VO-Guy]

[Drew]

Well, it turns out the retailer was not happy about how I opened the sealed, molded, plastic package containing the USB audio interface. A repack fee would be imposed upon my person. However, such fees would be waived if I elected to exchange for it's PCI sister or trade up.

Well, I thought, what the hey, and went looking for it's sister on the shelves. Out of stock. Soooo, I traded up to an Audigy 4 PCI.

Gotta say...it ain't a bad little sound card. Definitely better than the Realtek AC97 in the mainboard, and better than the SB Live! 5.1 I had in my old system.

Plus it loaded easily and my system was back up within 15 minutes.
_________________
www.voiceoverdrew.com
Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

[Charlie Channel]