Suggest usb soundcard for recording stereo

[james]

A friend of mine wants to record his vinyl to cd and he is thinking of using a laptop. Can anyone recommend a really good sound card. He would like the option of 24/96 as well as 16/44.1. I assume he will have to use a usb box and I wonder if these are still inferior to internal PCI cards.

He just wants 2 channel stereo and has no interest in MIDI.

Any other suggestions would also be appreciated ..

Thanks

James

[Claus]

In the budget end have a look at M-audio. Very good driver support and quality is ok.
http://www.maudio.co.uk/index.php?do=pr ... interfaces

Most of the upper market interfaces use firewire even though usb is fine for even large projects with many audio channels.

If he has firewire I have a very simple interface he can have for a very reasonable price ;) It is an M-audio Audiophile 96/24 Firewire. Just let me know.

Edit: Sorry not sure if the Benchmark allows you to record on to your PC.
Edit 2: My interface is only 96/24, sorry :)

But there are so many options out there and most come with software (and hardware specs) WAY beyond his needs. The quality improvement of the more expensive units really is in the mic preamps more than anything.
Give me a shout if you need more help I will PM my number ;)

[james]

Thanks Claus,

[Sorry for delay -- I was not able to reply for the last week].

The USB options seem very limited [in particular -- as you mention -- most of the effort seems to be going into microphone pre-amps] so I may suggest to my friend that he just gets a desktop PC and PCI audio card but its early days yet ..

Some background ..

He currently uses a stand-alone CD recorder [which only works with special "audio-blank" type CD's].

He is about to upgrade his computer and I keep telling him a computer + soundcard is the way to go for recording.

He has not decided yet on a desktop-PC or a laptop-PC but it looks like the laptop-PC is not great option for recording.

I suspect he may just stick with his CD-recorder.

James

[Claus]

No worries James. :D
A laptop is absolutely fine. Huge number of options for external audio interfaces.
He will most likely have a firewire input on the new machine. I will gladly let him try out my interface for free. If he likes it he can keep it. It has rca input and will record 96/24. Drivers has always worked without any problems. He can use the free software audacity to record, edit and export audio tracks. Not that hard to work. Again give me a shout and I will be only happy to set it up for him.
Hope this helps,
Claus

[james]

Dear Claus,

Thanks for the kind offer and sorry for the long delay in replying -- I am just back from holidays.

I have been in contact again with my friend and he has decided to stick with his CD-recorder for the moment [it was giving some problems but seems to be OK now]. A regards using a PC he says he would now prefer a desktop machine ... If I can get him interested enough I can loan him an old XP machine with a Turtle Beach soundcard and see how he gets on with the software. If that works out I might be able to convince him to try with a better soundcard. The main problem is that he is not very interested in computers.

I am familiar with Audacity [which you suggest for recording] and it is quite good.

Thanks again for the offer

James