Ins and outs of audio – sound card & VO question

[John Rofrano]

I would go with a firewire interface and yes it takes the place of your traditional sound card. The M-Audio Firewire Solo is not too expensive (it’s basically half of a Firewire-410). The PreSonus FireBox is also good as is the Echo AudioFire 4.

I see that PreSonus now makes the PreSonus Inspire 1394 FireWire Audio Interface which is only $150USD. That might not be a bad option. I would look for reviews and see if it’s any good. PreSonus usually makes great stuff.

I have an M-Audio Firewire-410 and a PreSonus FireStudio and they are both great audio interfaces. USB would be my second choice it has requires more CPU overhead but USB is also good in a pinch. Just make sure that whatever you buy has XLR inputs with 48v Phantom power for your Sony ECM mics.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Albert Weissen]

Thanks for the quick reply John.

Another stupid question: Will/can my system use one of the firewire interfaces for all the system sound or will I still need another card for other programs?

[Wade Harrington]

I have been using the Fast Track USB form m-audio($99.00). It works well for me. XLR and 1/4″ input. RCA output to monitor speakers.

[John Rofrano]

> Will/can my system use one of the firewire interfaces for all the system sound or will I still need another card for other programs?

You can use the firewire interface for all system sounds.

I don’t but it can be done. The reason I don’t is twofold: 1) I like to run my audio interface at 48K/24bit and all Windows system sounds are 44.1K/16bit. This means the interfaces is constantly shifting back and forth between the two modes and sometimes it doesn’t switch and you don’t get what you expect. 2) By running the system sounds from your motherboard chip it ensures that they never, ever leak into a recording because all of your recording is being done on a completely different interface.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

The Fast Track USB is an awesome little interface and I’m thinking of picking one up for my laptop, but I did not recommend it for Albert because he has condenser mics that require 48v phantom power and the Fast Track USB cannot provide this. The Fast Track is great for dynamic mics like the Shure SM57/58 but not for Albert’s Sony ECM mics.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Mike Kujbida]

Will/can my system use one of the firewire interfaces for all the system sound or will I still need another card for other programs?

Like John, I use the M-Audio Firewire-410.
Based on discussions in other Vegas forums, I installed a separate firewire card for it and it’s behaved itself very well.
As good as the 410 is though, I’ve found the mic preamps to be a bit weak (with dynamic mics) so that’s something you may want to keep in mind.

[Danny Hays]

Hello, I use a Presonus Firepod and a Firebox, both have 48v phantom pwr, both are firewire and on a fast computer using the ASIO drivers I can get the latency down to 1.5 msec. That neans I can use my audio effects in real time. Very usefull if you want to EQ, compress and or add some reverb and hear it through the headphones while your recording. Singers sometimes like hearing effects while they’re singing. I’m sure the Inspire 1394 by Presonus just mentioned for 150$ would also do this. Danny Hays

[Albert Weissen]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I think one of these you’ve mentioned should do the trick.