Soundcards

Price barriers continue to tumble in the soundcard market, as ESI Pro introduce an interface offering four analogue inputs and eight outputs, plus digital I/O, two mic preamps and 192kHz playback, for under £200.

ST Audio's recording interface provides multi-channel, multi-client audio I/O, as well as MIDI In and Out and full 24-bit/96kHz capability, for a highly affordable £230.

An hour spent fine-tuning the performance of your soundcard can yield permanent improvements in background noise, distortion levels and frequency response.

Despite the obvious attractions of portable recording systems based around laptop computers, high-quality compatible audio hardware is scarce. That looks set to change, however, now that Echo Audio have adapted their popular Mona and Layla 24 interfaces for laptop use.

No expense has been spared in the design of Lynx Studio Technology's latest soundcard, which adds 192kHz capability to remarkable sound quality, bringing it into real competition with high-end, stand-alone converter boxes.

TC's DSP-powered effects board has been upgraded, and now includes a much more impressive plug-in bundle.

RME's DIGI range of soundcards offers comprehensive cross-platform support, high audio quality and lots of extras, such as digital format conversion.

The ultimate soundcard for high-end musicians? Creative Labs' Soundblaster products may have dominated the consumer soundcard market, but can they take the next step up with its successor?

A new wave of dedicated DSP cards is helping computer musicians boost their plug-in power. The latest to appear is Universal Audio's UAD1, which offers recreations of vintage compressors as well as a high-quality reverb.

Martin Walker offers some practical advice on choosing soundcards that will work in modern PCs without falling foul of chipset or driver compatibility problems.

As with any recording system, the first goal of recording on a PC is to preserve as faithful a copy of the source sound as possible. Achieving this, however can be a complicated business. Martin Walker goes back to basics.

Martin Walker tests an inexpensive, high-quality soundcard which uses virtual outputs to allow multiple PC applications to share its hardware outputs.

Many musicians with computer-based studios don't need lots of inputs and outputs, but that doesn't mean they're happy to put up with poor audio quality and design compromises of consumer soundcards. However a new type of affordable, high-quality soundcard is now emerging to meet this need. Martin Walker puts two or the leading candidates to the test.

A new selection of soundcards from Germany promises excellent audio quality at extremely competitive prices, with a selection of I/O options to suit most buyers. Martin Walker tries out the first model in the Marian range.