Now where do I stick this?

Hi knopfler. Several options at varying costs:

a) buy a new audio interface with a mic preamp(s) connecting to the computer - replaces Audigy - most expensive
b) buy a separate mic preamp unit and plug the output to the Audigy line in - moderate to high cost
c) buy a small mixer with mic preamps - lots of people use cheap Behringers with good results - plug it into the Audigy line in - low to moderate cost
d) attach a low-to-high impedance mic transformer between the mic cable and the Audigy mic inpu - cheapest - crappiest quality

Personally for the lowest cost and best results I would probably look for a small low cost mixer with mic inputs/preamps and some line ins. I am currently also considering the same issue as you.

David

David ... thanks as ever for your feedback ... I will mull over the options (and my credit card)!

Thank you!

Hi again David ... think maybe I'm going to have to invest in the Edirol FA66 ... wish I had bought this in the first place but I was "assured by a well-meaning but inexperienced friend" that Soundblaster was the "way to go" ... oh well we live and learn!!!

David I really am "green" when it comes to the tecchie stuff (but I'm modestly very talented when it comes to hands on).

My question: If I go for the Behringer's solution, will that be as good as the Edirol solution? Having said that, I've just looked at the Behringer website and the "cheap" mixers with mic preamp are plentiful and numerous ... am confused as to what to go for bearing in mind I'm talking mic connection and recording vocals ... any suggestions?

My experience is pretty limited here knopfler. I looked at the specs of the Edirol and it looks like it has the basic ins/outs. There are similar products so you might want to do comparisons and read reviews. I did notice it only has optical digital I/O and the Fantom only has coax digital so perhaps it would be nice to have coax digital as well if you were going to scrap the Audigy. In this option the audio interface performs the analog to digital conversion (A/D) and is used by your sequencer for audio.

A mixer can perform some additional functions like eq, and with the right mixer you can also send your monitor output to be volume controlled at the mixer if you have or get powered studio monitors for mixing. However with a mixer you still send your line output into your existing Audigy for conversion to digital. So it might depend how well the Audigy has been performing for you in terms of reliability and latency.

In my case I have only had my audio running with WDM driver and get very poor latency (around 100ms). The other option is ASIO which is faster if it is workable. Keep in mind the Audigy of any version is still a consumer card not designed for professional music standards though it comes close in ways for the price.

Hope this helps and let me know how it works out for you.

David

Thanks David. My head kinda goes round and round with all this technology ... and cost!!! I guess had I been better advised in the first place I wouldn't have gone for a "consumer card". But I can't help wondering if it really is a "label thing" - I mean my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro has a similar spec to the Edirol EXCEPT for the 2 XLR/TRS Combo Jacks with Premium Phantom Power Mic Preamps and Built-in Analog Limiter. Apart from that, they are both claiming to deliver the same kind of performance!

As far as my ears are telling me, I'm getting superb quality recording in Cubase SX (via SPDIF digital connection) and I don't notice any difference in quality whether monitoring directly from the Fantom output or the Audigy output. Plus I have no latency problems whatsoever with ASIO.

I guess the real test will be hooking up a mic. To me that seems to be the only real limitation of the Audigy and I think I'm going to go for something like the Behringer UB802 to get round this ... UNLESS any of our "more learned" community members can point out if this is a really bad thing to do?!

Thanks once again,
Knopfler

hey knopfler as I have said I am using the Audigy 1 so I am a step down from you . If it works for you don't worry about it. The only "bad thing" you can do is spend a lot of money you don't have on gear you don't really need! If you get the mixer with preamps your signal will record well enough. If you were going "pro" you probably wouldn't be concerned about spending money to improve the overall quality. You can always buy more gear later.

David

Hi Guys,

As a proud?? owner of both Audigy and FA 66, I can comment on this too. You can ignore me if you like.

The Audigy integrates very nicely into Windows environments and comes with some fairly nice add on software which makes using it easy. The audio quality of an Audigy however, is utter garbage and it should be thrown away as soon as you can afford to.


The Edirol box is magnificent. The sound quality, dynamic range and flexibility are all excellent and working with it is a dream.

However, that is all in the Mac environment. I have tried to use it in Windows and it is a real dog to get going unless you have one of their recommended applications. I'm still working on it, and I think that ASIO drivers are the big obstacle. It should work but it is a long hard road.

hope that helps

BTW: Those who think they are not good on tecchie matters should recognise that they are the people that matter, and when they ask for advice they should get it. If we weren't there, the techie people wouldn't have a life.

Admiral