PCI cards - still available

[lzap]

I am looking for a PCI sound card with decent ASIO driver and just stereo out, mono in (guitar, mic) for home studio. Which one? I see most sound cards these days are USB.

Quick google showed ASUS Sonar cards with ASIO, any experience?

[Ostermilk]

I am looking for a PCI sound card with decent ASIO driver and just stereo out, mono in (guitar, mic) for home studio. Which one? I see most sound cards these days are USB.

Quick google showed ASUS Sonar cards with ASIO, any experience?

PCI has been dead for several years, you'd be hard pushed to find a Motherboard that has PCI slots other than a specialist board to support legacy devices.

PCIe is another matter, but the cards available for that such as RME are probably over-specced for your requirements. Cards like the one you mention such as the Xonar are more for multi-media applications rather than music production where you'd more than likely want Hi-Z, Mic and Line inputs and balanced outputs even on a 2X2 setup.

What advantages do you think that a legacy PCI (or budget PCIe) card will bring you over a current USB interface that's been designed for the job you require of it?

[lzap]

I meant PCEe really. I was just thinking loud. Nothing really, will stick with USB.

[JiggeryPokery]

The E-mu 1616 pci-e setup was great; plenty of inputs and outputs, and made use of the standard PCI-e x1 slot, saving a precious USB port.

Unfortunately, lack of support in the Windows 10 (especially on AM4) era (the last drivers (and frigging beta drivers at that, they were never made "legit") were 2012), means it's impossible to recommend that, if it's still hanging around in the retail channels ; while it still worked, there were issues and I've given up on it. I've taken mine off and moved to a new USB.

That's also had issues.

It's a lottery

[Gorgon]

I picked my last motherboard with PCI ports, I want that compatibility. Also, it gave me the opportunity to stick in a FW card with TI chips so I can keep using my Focusrite Saffire PRO 14.

[stfual]

I'd suggest against it. The problem with onboard D/A conversion is electrical noise. Once you put your D/A convertor inside the big metal box next to all those high frequency clocks and chips and buses its very hard to stop the electrical noise.

[LABONERECORDINGS]

The E-mu 1616 pci-e setup was great; plenty of inputs and outputs, and made use of the standard PCI-e x1 slot, saving a precious USB port.

Unfortunately, lack of support in the Windows 10 (especially on AM4) era (the last drivers (and frigging beta drivers at that, they were never made "legit") were 2012), means it's impossible to recommend that, if it's still hanging around in the retail channels ; while it still worked, there were issues and I've given up on it. I've taken mine off and moved to a new USB.

That's also had issues.

It's a lottery

Got E-mu 1212's here (3 of them) and no longer using them since jumped to Windows 10 x64 (finally). So, if you're on Windows 7 and want one of them let us know and we'll work out a deal

[submonsterz]

The E-mu 1616 pci-e setup was great; plenty of inputs and outputs, and made use of the standard PCI-e x1 slot, saving a precious USB port.

Unfortunately, lack of support in the Windows 10 (especially on AM4) era (the last drivers (and frigging beta drivers at that, they were never made "legit") were 2012), means it's impossible to recommend that, if it's still hanging around in the retail channels ; while it still worked, there were issues and I've given up on it. I've taken mine off and moved to a new USB.

That's also had issues.

It's a lottery

Got E-mu 1212's here (3 of them) and no longer using them since jumped to Windows 10 x64 (finally). So, if you're on Windows 7 and want one of them let us know and we'll work out a deal

Why you not using them on win 10 ??
I got 0404's and 18/20 they all work perfectly in win 10 for me was easy to get up and running all modes all frequencies . I'd be interested to know what problems you and jig were having to not use em as they still blow most modern cards out of the water ...

[Jon Johnson]

Got E-mu 1212's here (3 of them) and no longer using them since jumped to Windows 10 x64 (finally). So, if you're on Windows 7 and want one of them let us know and we'll work out a deal

Why you not using them on win 10 ??
I got 0404's and 18/20 they all work perfectly in win 10 for me was easy to get up and running all modes all frequencies . I'd be interested to know what problems you and jig were having to not use em as they still blow most modern cards out of the water ...

Can confirm 1212's work fine with windows 10. Only just upgraded to RME to enable me to use two adats.

[LABONERECORDINGS]

Well the 1212's do work but.... you can't get Windows 10 to work with the soundcard correctly for 5.1 DVD audio playback - seems to replay is stereo mixdown only.

The ASIO side works fine but also you have to set up the PatchMix to be a part of the startup folder in Win10. Sample rates also fine, there's just some restrictions since no official support anymore (since Vista).

This is the similar issue we had (general use on PC, not just DAW production) - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... d392ad5112

and Fresha also posted here: http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=722341

Found a better solution to use MOTU 2408 to process 5.1 surround too, even though it uses stereo pair config in Windows default soundcard channel selection. Plus MOTU has 24 I/O optical connections which fit perfect with the Mackie d8b, only had 8 channel with E-MU - we were using both cards together in Win7 so the E-MU had optical from Focusrite ISA One into it, then lightpiped via the 8 channels setup for 5.1 lifting from the E-MU to d8b (just Patchmixed the ASIO channel channel pair accordingly when recording ISA One or 5.1 channels [3x stereo pairs], never both same time), and was only using 16 channels optical outs of MOTU 2408 since the E-mu had the other 8 in the d8b.

ISA One got sold when we picked up the Slate VMS, and since the VMS amp uses balanced instead of optical plus the software solution for the MOTU to be piggybacked for 5.1 processing, it made the E-MU redundant.

They are great cards and still valid in today's recording, it's just a shame that Creative don't know a good thing when it's blatantly staring them in the face. Their customer base obviously is for the more crappy compressed Mp3 generation (cheaper parts, cheaper quality, faster production)