Would love your advice on a decent sound card for Virtual Instruments

[fido88]

Hi there folks, thanks in advance for your advice.

I'm looking for a reasonable soundcard (around <$250 range) that is stable, solid, and predominantly used for running a bucketload of Quantum Leap VSTIs. Live recording as well, but not as huge a priority with this setup. I'm also running Windows 7 Pro x64, so driver stability is important as well. Using Sonar as main system. I also have 12 GB of RAM ready to go, and I'm planning to use it!

I was wondering about the following.
1) For VSTIs, does one soundcard make much difference from another in terms of performance, or does everything pretty much rely on the CPU nowadays?
2) In actual practice (rather than theory), does PCI/PCIe have any real-world advantage over USB devices in the context of VSTIs?
3) Without starting a card war, are there any standout cards for the <$250 price range? Note I don't need lots of physical inputs, just at least a decent stereo pair. But VSTIs will be my main focus. My previous card way back was an X-Fi Platinum, so I'm guessing most things will be a bonus

Thanks again for your comments!

 

[krushing]

1) For VSTIs, does one soundcard make much difference from another in terms of performance, or does everything pretty much rely on the CPU nowadays?

Everything relies solely on the CPU. The interface helps with the realtime latency, though - and of course the d/a converters have an indirect impact as well, but I don't think that's usually anything worth worrying about - pretty much everything has more or less decent conversion these days and the differences only really come out in the high end of things.

2) In actual practice (rather than theory), does PCI/PCIe have any real-world advantage over USB devices in the context of VSTIs?

Not really.

3) Without starting a card war, are there any standout cards for the <$250 price range? Note I don't need lots of physical inputs, just at least a decent stereo pair. But VSTIs will be my main focus. My previous card way back was an X-Fi Platinum, so I'm guessing most things will be a bonus

Quality-wise, there isn't really much difference. Features, driver stability, manufacturing quality - yes, differences. Most of them seem to be pretty much the same, though - decent enough for any "bedroom" musician.

Thanks again for your comments![/QUOTE]

 

[ObiK]

I recommend the Echo or M-Audio line myself. Great bang for buck. I am currently running the Profire 610.