PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hi there,

A friend wants to buy a soundcard to be able to record outside of his home. I don't think he is looking for the "best pro" quality, but for decent preamps+audio card for 200/300 euros.

He asked me advice between the TC Desktop Konnekt 6 , the NI Audio Kontrol 1, and the EMU 0404 usb. I personnaly have no idea if one if better than the other and wether they are good at all.
Anyone has experience with those ? Are NI's preamp good or better than the others ? (reveiwer say "yes" but generally, what they had before is really bad, soundblasters and so on)..

He also asked about "prodipe solo" audio to midi live converter as it is really cheap now, but apparently, people experience problems. I have no idea if it works. (I might be interested myself by the prodipe solo). I think there are a few people who use this thing on Z (i remember reading about it here)...

Any advice/experience is welcome...
Thanks

If he's willing to use Firewire I'd recommend the Focusrite Saffire (if he wants the dsp for having effects on the monitoring return) or the Focusrite Saffire LE if on a budget (it has no hardware dsp for adding effects to the monitor return). Both have converters that are close to equivalent to the TC units from what I've read, and have stable drivers and interface.

The TC stuff supposedly has quite good preamps for the price, but TC had teething issues with their drivers. I can't confirm it but one would presume that it's been addressed by now.

Emu 0404 is skippable imo, it's only when you move up to EMu's 'm' series that you find "decent" converters (1212m, 1812m etc) and the Emu interface could potentially confuse casual users more than even Scope would.

I've got an M-audio Delta 410 here too and judging by it I'd say skip the M-audio stuff for preamps as well.

No idea about the NI stuff...

the zoom H2 pocket recorder thing is very good for the price and you do not even need to bring a computer.
it records on to SD flash memory.
and it can do cool things like look ahead recording (good if you are trying to record a sound which occurs randomly)
and surround.

Hi neutron,
I forgot to say it is to overdub on his songs with a microphone... computer needed. the zoom h2 won't allow multitrack recording neither, not using whatever microphones you want ... so it has to have a preamp and firewire or usb and asio to record on a small laptop/daw.
The sapphire looks nice...

notice that that "prodipe solo" audio to midi is reccomended only for use with slow attack sources, because its slow
would be great for playing in to when you have a melody idea in your head though.

yes that sapphire does look nice.

From what I understand and my experience both USB and firewire can work great or fail miserably. I would make sure he has firewire with a TI (Texas Instruments) chipset. It's probably better to have a card in the slot rather than use the onboard firewire and I would be looking at this:

http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/FireW ... /index.php

Hi Braincell,
The echo looks nice too, but is only "line" levels (no preamp included )
The aim is to avoid to bring preamp+audio card and all the cables and electrical plugs that would be necessary.

I think I will tell him to wait a bit and get a saffire not LE... the 2 preamps and the 2 headphones outputs are great features... it is also 339 € at thomann, but may be cheaper second hand or at other vendors.... But those cards, whatever is the brand, seem to have problems anyway (i read that saffire preamps are weak level, so are the headphones, and some people lost the 48v feature that dies on them quickly etc etc...)....

It is really hard to find something reliable at this price of 200/300 euros... (or to read review and find for some people they work great, for other they don't... weird)...

spacef wrote:I think I will tell him to wait a bit and get a saffire not LE... the 2 preamps and the 2 headphones outputs are great features... it is also 339 € at thomann, but may be cheaper second hand or at other vendors.... But those cards, whatever is the brand, seem to have problems anyway (i read that saffire preamps are weak level, so are the headphones, and some people lost the 48v feature that dies on them quickly etc etc...)....

It is really hard to find something reliable at this price of 200/300 euros... (or to read review and find for some people they work great, for other they don't... weird)...

Preamps are certainly not going to replace rack units on most of the cards in the lower price brackets. Also the headphone outputs on the Saffire aren't independant that I recall (separate level controls but I think they get the same mix, can't recall for sure). I have set 2-3 people up with them and they're stable & useful enough for the price.

The TC unit is definitely supposed to have better preamps, though as stated their drivers caused problems for people I know who are certainly not lacking in tech-savvy. The TC unit is also at the top end of the 'cheap' spectrum, being more expensive than most models that offer the same number of i/o's.

RME's fireface400 offers excellent preamps and ad/da conversion, but at nearly double the cost of the TC it very well should!

Echo Audiofire 4.Its on par with the ff400,drivers are GREAT, sound is very good, has midi i/o, 2 preamps s/pdif, line ins, phantom power, completly bus powered.My mate bought one a few weeks ago for his macbook and we both agree that it is stellar.Cant go wrong for 279€.Oh and onboard dsp for the mixer aswell.
http://www.echoaudio.com/products/FireW ... /index.php

Looks like a worthy consideration

For the follow up,
he was able to find a 2nd hand Saffire for 220 euros and he's happy....
the choice was finally made ont his one especially because of the monitoring effects like reverb and the price for the quality (220 for 2 preamps/headphone, dsp monitoring effects, lots of i/os.....).
At this price, and if the unit is in good condition especially the 2 preamp inputs and headphone, it is a no brainer....
Thanks to all for the help !
For that price, it is tempting even for myself ..... (if low latency etc)... until xite1

See you

Mehdi

edit: oh, he's got something then. I should read more closely before posting. I was going to suggest the edirol ua25 ex, having the older ua25 myself and being absolutely happy with it. solid build, good sound, fair price, no issues whatsoever...
well, I hope he will be just as happy with his choice.

nice, the ua25ex is really cheap too (215 new at thomann) !
there are lots of choices in fact, more than i thought...
Actually it makes me more impatient to own an xite .... I know the preamps are meant to be very good, and the fact that you can bring your whole live and studio setup in a bag.... (will i dare to move with an xite in a bag... not sure