Recommend me a decent sound card good for producing music

Y

YBWM

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Hi!
I have a little issue I need some guidance with, I need a decent soundcard that I can use when producing music.
Just an example (I can't explain it better): if you want to play hd-movies on your PC you need a graphic card that can decode the hd-video = hardware decoding, if your card can't play hd-movies the CPU will decode the video.
I need a soundcard that can decode the sound by itself i.e. the sound processor decodes the sound, not decoded by the CPU etc. Just as the example above but a soundcard instead of the graphic card example.
I don't know what the feature I need is called but I think it's called ASIO, and I don't know how to check if the soundcards has this feature.

I am going to use the card when I produce music in FL Studio and Cubase so ASIO is important.

So, guys, what soundcard brand/model do you use? And what can you recommend me?
Currently now the soundcard in my PC is a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Champion (SB0460) and I think I need a better card for producing, also this is a PCI card and i would rather have a PCI-E card.

I can't spend a fortune on the card, maximum price is ~220$ (~175€)

Hope I can get as many replies as possible :)

Thanks //YBWMRecommend me a decent sound card good for producing music
 
No problem man... you just need to know the correct terminology to search for here, then I think you'll be able to make the best decision.

You sound like you're looking for an "Audio interface". Some basic soundcards will get the job done on a small scale.... but the general term that the devices you're looking for are marketed as is called "audio interface". You can find examples of what's current on sweetwater.com, americanmusical.com, guitar center, samash, etc... To find ones that are good (some still better than the brand new stuff lol) but might not be sold new in big stores anymore (find em on ebay) you can do a search for 'audio interface' on this site or on Google and you're bound to run into threads that can help.

It's going to be tough finding a PCI-e audio interface... especially at that price range. RME is the only company that comes straight to my mind when you mention PCI-e. There may be a few others I'm not aware of. However... PCI-e doesn't sound very necessary at this point. It's more bandwidth sure, but the performance won't be leaps and bounds better than USB2.0 or Firewire interfaces. PCI interfaces in general are on the way out due to marketing reasons... and whereas they do offer lower latency... it's not that big of a difference to warrant only looking at PCI interfaces. I'd recommend adjusting your search to include USB and firewire. (Thunderbolt and USB3.0 are beginning to be made... but will certainly be out of price range... and again, probably not necessary). It'll make things easier.

All that being said... i'd recommend looking at Roland Quad Capture (USB), Echo Audiofire (firewire), Echo's new USB interface, the new M-Audio stuff (nothing older than the Profire) (firewire and USB), MBox 3 (i think it's USB). Depending on how many ins and outs you need. Quad Capture would be first on my list if I were starting all over.. and i'd keep it until I needed/wanted a $1,000 interface. I hear hardly zero complaints about it's sound and it's drivers. I previously owned an Audiofire 4... fantastic overall interface.

The interface won't really "process" or "de-code" the audio like your videocard example. The CPU will do all of that... but the interface's ASIO drivers will help determine how smoothly that process occurs within FL Studio and Cubase. Also... a good interface will cleanly record and playback your music. The ones I listed above should do all of the above very well for the money. Practically all devices marketed as an "audio interface" will have ASIO drivers. The ones above I know for a fact are good drivers however... since all ASIO drives are not the game, which it sounds like you already sort of indicated.

Good luck! hope that helps
 
One of the best cards I've ever owned was the M-Audio Audiophile 192 PCI card. Low latency, excellent audio quality (very flat), and cheap considering it's capability. Right now I'm using an M-Audio FireWire Solo, but I've been eyeballing another Audiophile 192 for the near future.
 
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