Author Topic: Just got a new PC built up! (Read 51620 times)

_tom_ · « **Reply #45 on:** April 28, 2008, 12:31:29 PM »

MDV, do you know if the EMU 0404USB will work ok in Vista?

I got my LG multifunction today. Not sure what I think of it yet - text doesnt seem to be as clear on my mums dell monitor, but its a huge improvement over the LCD tv I was using. Is the unclear text a monitor problem or could possibly some settings just need changing? Cant decide whether to send it back or not yet..

edit - seems to be better now I've adjusted the brightness/contrast/rgb settings :)

Philly Q · « **Reply #46 on:** April 28, 2008, 12:31:56 PM »

Quote from: MDV

It really depends what youre willing to spend.

Up to about £300 the Emu gear rules, especially with their new drivers (adapted for widows, but they sound better too; seperation and low end resolution is superior and upsampling routines seem to run better: I have a 1616M, and its a superb piece of kit!).

When you get to 400 or 500 presonus and echo do great interfaces.

RME top that lot if you want to go up to about 800.

Definitely not big money - £200 tops I think. I have some very vague intentions of attempting a bit of recording, but realistically it's never gonna happen. I don't have any material to record, for a start... :roll:

Sounds like E-Mu is the way to go.

MDV · « **Reply #47 on:** April 30, 2008, 04:59:09 PM »

Quote from: _tom_

MDV, do you know if the EMU 0404USB will work ok in Vista?

I got my LG multifunction today. Not sure what I think of it yet - text doesnt seem to be as clear on my mums dell monitor, but its a huge improvement over the LCD tv I was using. Is the unclear text a monitor problem or could possibly some settings just need changing? Cant decide whether to send it back or not yet..

edit - seems to be better now I've adjusted the brightness/contrast/rgb settings :)

Not out of the box, no, but the vista drivers are up on the website for a bunch of them, and I think that the 0404 is in there.

Well worth getting anyway. I swapped out drivers and got a very noticable improvement in low end resolution and sound seperation. Not upgraded-system improvment, but without question worth the bandwidth!!!

Phil, yeah, for that money the best thing around is probably the 0404, and you'll get a fair whack of change from it too. Get up to 300 and the 1616M is a big contender, very good bang for buck, but it has some competitors. The 0404 is pretty well unbeaten at its price and a bit higher, as far as I know, at least.

Edit: just noticed I repeated myself about the drivers!!!! :oops:

WezV · « **Reply #48 on:** April 30, 2008, 05:14:07 PM »

I know its external but i have just spent less than a ton on an m-audio fast track pro with the idea of attempting some recordings of my guitars at some point (although if you are lucky it wont be me playing

)

havnt had owt like this before but it seems to do what i need - even running on a very stuttery Vista PC its ok once the programs have actually started... i didnt even bother with the discs and just downloaded vista versions straight away and it didnt take long to set up. In fairness the fast track USB (about £60) would have done me fine as i really dont need all the midi and mic connections.

now i just need some decent speakers!!!

oh, roo... i disabled the sleep mode in vista - same as you it always stopped my internet when it woke back up..... if you find a solution let me know!!!

MDV · « **Reply #49 on:** April 30, 2008, 05:24:24 PM »

M-audio stuff is a good buy, no doubt about it.

Theres no disadvantage to getting USB or firewire unless you have LOADS of inputs running at once. Firewire only starts to give up if you daisy chain a few interfaces. PCI has no huge benefits for a low number of inputs (lke, less than 20). The best outboard soundcard (integrated interface, I should say: the DACs and and preamps in one thing) is p-r-o-b-a-b-l-y the RME fireface 800, and that, as the name implies, is firewire.

I think that EMU gear beats M-Audio at the same price, though. The DACs are better and the Pres are a bit sharper. I seem to recall they have lower, latency, SNR and crosstalk too.

Oh:

DACs; Analogue/digital-digital/analogue converters. A big deal. Top end standalone rack ones can set you back £2000, easily. Same with pres.
SNR: Signal to noise ratio
TLA: Three letter acronyms, and I hate em too.
Crosstalk: how much leakage there is from one stereo channel into the other.
Latency: self explanatory; the delay in processing a souind to hearing it and inputting it to it being processed. Less than 10ms should be expected from anything 'decent' (my 1616M gets 2.4ms), but that depends on the rest of your PC, too.

WezV · « **Reply #50 on:** April 30, 2008, 05:30:32 PM »

yeah.. i'm lost in all the techy talk i am afraid... i did look at the e-mu 0404 but i must admit to being swayed by the price - was gonna get a fast track USB but went with the pro because i found a nearly new one on ebay for a good price... it wont see too much useand i didnt want to spend money i couldnt justify

Perandor · « **Reply #51 on:** May 01, 2008, 11:52:33 PM »

I'm too lazy to read the middle pages to see if you covered this yet, but I recommend Viewsonic for a good monitor. They manufacture some high quality equip for relatively low prices, probably cause they're not well know.

_tom_ · « **Reply #52 on:** May 03, 2008, 04:26:12 PM »

Was looking at Viewsonic, someone on HC who seems to know his stuff about computers didnt recommend em though, apparently he's replaced 10 in the past 3 years (dont know why you'd keep replacing with the same brand stuff though but whatever..

I think I may get rid of this LG monitor. Its good for games, video etc but its really not that great for reading text off. Then again I'm not sure if thats just my eyes or what. Either that or I'm just being really picky. When I get closer its easier to read, things are less blurred. Maybe I'm becoming short sighted :?