Should I get a new audio card/interface?

[JonPorobil]

My laptop turned 4 this month and its extended warranty expired. I'm now embarking on my next project - building a desktop to my own specifications. I'll be buying critical system components one and two at a time with my next few paychecks. Since I'm paying for the project as I go, I don't have an upper boundary on my budget. That's a nice perk, but even so, I don't want to spend money unnecessarily.

My question to the Songfight community is this: Should I take this opportunity to get a new sound card? I've been using a USB 2.0 Lexicon Lambda for about two years, and I've been fully satisfied with it, but... Would I be better off finding a sound card that's actually internal to the computer (PCI or PCI-e)? It seems reasonable to assume that it would reduce latency and possibly would be less of a burden on the PC's processing, but would the gains be significant enough to warrant spending extra money on them?

Take, for instance, this M-Audio card, which has all the connections the my Lexicon has and then some. Buy.com lists it for $180. I know for sure it would be better than my motherboard's onboard audio, but is it better than my Lexicon? And if so, is it $180 worth of improvement over my Lexicon?

I haven't really shopped around for PCI sound cards yet, so I guess what I'm asking is whether it's worth my time and effort to shop around, or should I stick with what has been working on this computer?

[Lunkhead]

I have a desktop computer with PCI slots, but I personally would not buy a PCI audio interface. There would be no way I could ever take it along somewhere to use with a laptop. If I wanted to get a new desktop but keep using the PCI audio interface, I would have to get a new desktop that also has PCI slots. That would limit my options now and may be even more limiting in the future if PCI becomes (more?) obsolete. I personally prefer the all-in-one form factor, too, now that it's possible to get for example a 27" iMac with a quad-core CPU and 8GB of RAM. I am not going to buy a Mac Pro next time, I'm going to get an iMac. Also, it's unlikely that you'll get a noticeable performance improvement over USB2 or FireWire, in my opinion.

[jast]

If you decide to get a PCI card, do check out the E-MU 0404 PCI. It's what I use. Linux support isn't all that great, but it has pretty awesome specs for the money (I paid 99,- €) and it works pretty well on Windows.
(FWIW, on my somewhat dated desktop computer, last upgraded in May 2007 with (then) low/mid-price components, I use the card with a latency of 7 ms.)

[JonPorobil]

I have a desktop computer with PCI slots, but I personally would not buy a PCI audio interface. There would be no way I could ever take it along somewhere to use with a laptop.

Good point, but it's not like I'm getting rid of the Lexicon. It'll still be there if I need the portability - and I will, since my piano is in a different room from where I'm putting the desktop.

If I wanted to get a new desktop but keep using the PCI audio interface, I would have to get a new desktop that also has PCI slots. That would limit my options now and may be even more limiting in the future if PCI becomes (more?) obsolete.

Yeah, I did my first real ground-work yesterday in terms of pricing parts and determining what specs I want, what specs I need, and what kind of stuff I can do just as well without. I'm getting either an Intel i5 or i7 processor (depending on whether I can find a good deal on the latter), and pretty much every motherboard with Intel architecture is going to have PCI slots, though they might be PCIe, which I'm fairly sure isn't backwards-compatible.

I personally prefer the all-in-one form factor, too, now that it's possible to get for example a 27" iMac with a quad-core CPU and 8GB of RAM. I am not going to buy a Mac Pro next time, I'm going to get an iMac. Also, it's unlikely that you'll get a noticeable performance improvement over USB2 or FireWire, in my opinion.

I'm making a PC which will run Windows, but your point still stands. Quad-core with 8GB of RAM is what I'm shooting for as well.

Anyway, your advice has been quite helpful. I think I'll hold off on the sound card for now. If I change my mind, that PCI slot will still be there. Thanks!

[HeuristicsInc]

On a related note, be careful about fan noise for a desktop... my old computer's fan was audible on recordings. When I upgraded I built a quiet desktop which really is. But the power supply's the loudest bit, so you can probably get away with just getting a quiet psu.
-bill

[AJOwens]

I have one of those M-Audio cards and I'll vouch for it -- if it's what you need. I have two mics, two mixers, my stereo keyboard analog outs, and my stereo drum kit analog outs and MIDI out plugged into it permanently, so I never have to mess with cables or input levels. I can record everything to separate tracks in Reaper simultaneously. I can just turn it on, load up a standard Reaper project, grab this or that instrument, and go (when I get around to writing and recording a song, that is.)To test the multitracking, I had some buddies over and we recorded a two-hour jam in real time to a USB hard drive. Went without a hiccup. It also provides the low-latency driver for my USB MIDI keyboard for Reason synths. And it's low-noise and high-fidelity.

On top of that, you can build on it by installing multiple cards (if you have the slots). I already had an M-Audio 2496, and the 1010LT fit right in. I use the 101LT SPDIF OUT to the feed the 2496 SPDIF in (the 2496 Audio outs go to [EDIT: my stereo amplifier AUX for monitoring. My original onboard sound card goes to the tape deck connections /EDIT]). Finally, a use for those SPDIF connectors! And the 2496 also takes the MIDI IN/OUT from an old Yamaha FB-01. If I installed another 1010LT (which is supported), I'd have four more stereo inputs, another MIDI IN/OUT, and another SPDIF to work with.

EDIT -- The software mixer to control all this stuff is an adventure in itself, but it's not that bad once you get the hang of it. Especially if you keep notes. /EDIT

So that's great -- if you need all those simultaneous inputs for a live band or a long-term physical setup.

The cabling is a bear. I only use half the octopus (each of the four stereo channels has seperate stereo outputs, which are unconnected in my setup). The two low-impedance pre-amped XLR connectors are easy to recognize, but the eight line-level RCA ins are hard to tell apart except by small raised numbers in the plastic (and the standard red/black coding for left and right channels). The first thing I did was to buy some bright enamel paints and daub the connectors with colour-coding so I could tell them apart without twisting them to see the numbers. The second thing I did was to bundle and suspend the cables so they're out of the way when I slide the PC in and out for maintenance. I leave them alone as much as possible. If one of the RCA cables died, you'd have to replace the entire octopus, which terminates, by the way, in a bizarre 3-tier, 44-pin D connector, so don't get any ideas about building your own cables (though M-Audio does publish the pinout).

Finally, of course, you do have the future to think about. The 1010LTs are coming down in price as more people move to digital-ready mixing boards with firewire interfaces -- so the guy at Steve's music told me anyway. And will PCI be around forever? Probably not. ISA sure is dead.