Preamps and Soundcards for PC -£200ish

[willo]

Hi guys,

I am looking to get into doing some really decent home recordings. I am looking for some ideas re: external soundcards and preamps etc for my laptop???

My engineering mate had some good stuff to say about M Audio. I've got a price range of around £200.


Any ideas???


Cheers!

[Ben_W]

The EMU range are good for soundcards. Don't have a lot of knowledge on preamps i'm afraid.

I have heard good stuff about M Audio too, a mate of mine has an M Audio soundcard (not sure which one, will find out) and he absolutely loves it.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Apogee Duet

Digidesign 003

[rohlfo]

M auido seem to be pretty solid. I had a Mackie Spike (discontinued, but many modles from all sorts of makes are) which was fine until going to uni I was moving around quite a bit and it decided to stop playing ball.....
It kinda depends what you want. If it's just guitar then there are some specifc gadgets just for guitar (Line 6 i think) but if you want vocals etc. and possibly more than 2 channels at once then it's a different ball game altogether!
Otherwise, Edirol have quite a selection. Firewire or USB 1 or 2 makes a price difference.

[ailean]

I have an EMU 0404 and am quite impressed with it, but mine is an uninformed opinion as I can't compare it with anything else.

One thing I will say about the EMU is don't buy the internal one, it's a lot cheaper, but the USB version is supposed to pack better hardware.

I chose this one based on a recomendation from MDV of these boards and some research of my own. I use it with a Shure SM57 mic. It will take a direct input from an instrument lead as well and as a side effect I can use it with headphones to practice :)

Our first foray's into recording can be heard in the players section, postings by Prozacbear (my wife), made using this gear (amaturishly).