external sound card help/recommendations

i'd rather not spend more than $250 unless i think it's really worth it. also, i am workin' with vista, and i seem to be a touch limited as to what i can buy because of that. FUCK

i used to have the Tascam US 122 and the Eiderol Emagics 2|6, which i was happy with until i bought my new laptop with vista. i'm looking for something with xlr inputs/phantom power/midi/rca inputs (rca inputs not incredibly necessary i suppose)

i have been looking at the following models for consideration:

M-Audio Fast Track Ultra

Alesis iO 14

M-Audio Firewire 410

THANK YOU COMPUTERS

HELP

I just bought an external interface, but at a way higher price point (cos I need to record bands with it = more simultaneous ins needed).

Anyway, in my travels, I found a couple of bad anecdotes about the Alesis (who are reputed to have shit build quality anyway).

I'd go for M-Audio as the ubiquitous brand that seems to "just work"

EDIT: Had my MOTU for like a day and I already know I'm going to miss the fuck out of my SoundBlaster's front panel RCAs and Mike/Guitar jack. They were the shit for spontaneous idea jammys

Edirol FA-66 seems to fit your budget

install xp. vista sucks.

Once again I suggest the mighty fine Audiofire4, it has midi/xlr and regular jack plug inputs, as well as digital inputs. Plus its lovely.

There are Vista drivers for the US-122, unless you're annoyed at the fact the headphones socket bleeds through in to the inputs and the USB 1.1 connection makes it sloooooooow and want to get a better interface:

http://www.tascam.com/products/us-122;9,15,68,19.html

  loganfive said:

install xp. vista sucks.

  goffer said:

Edirol FA-66 seems to fit your budget

but it's pink

(lol)

  loganfive said:

install xp. vista sucks.

this isn't the kind of advice i'm looking for

  rex sole said:

There are Vista drivers for the US-122, unless you're annoyed at the fact the headphones socket bleeds through in to the inputs and the USB 1.1 connection makes it sloooooooow and want to get a better interface:

 

http://www.tascam.com/products/us-122;9,15,68,19.html

yes, i tried that and still have compatability issues.

the lame responses you guys are giving really aren't necessary as i do actually know what i'm doing.

anyway, i will probably go for an m-audio device as analogue wings suggests. thank you

  Luke Fucking Hazard said:

the lame responses you guys are giving really aren't necessary as i do actually know what i'm doing.

Thankyou for the insult, I was only trying to help. I've got the US-122 up and running under Vista64 without any trouble and thought you might not have been aware of the recent driver update.

  rex sole said:

  Luke Fucking Hazard said:

the lame responses you guys are giving really aren't necessary as i do actually know what i'm doing.

 

Thankyou for the insult, I was only trying to help. I've got the US-122 up and running under Vista64 without any trouble and thought you might not have been aware of the recent driver update.

no insult intended, man. relax. isn't the internet fun?

anyway, i went with the US 144. i love tascam, and the 122 was everything i needed so i thought i'd pick up a similar product.

thanks for the help, helpers.

Not as fun as overreacting, aaaah!

In some sort of cosmical jape my US-122 is now not working under Vista. Take that, me!

sell it for beer money and get the 144!

Seriously make sure whatever you get REALLY works with vista. I had to go back returning 2 different soundcards until i bought one that I was sure would work... and it still worked like shit. I ended up just installing xp and everything working fine. You may as well do it sooner or later.

my advice was solid, and i stand by it.

follow up question... luke, why are you using vista with any kind of audio set up?

  loganfive said:

my advice was solid, and i stand by it.

me too :shade:

  loganfive said:

my advice was solid, and i stand by it.

 

follow up question... luke, why are you using vista with any kind of audio set up?

that's cool man, i know that you know what you're talking about, and i'm sure that is good advice. but, i'm stubborn and like to find things out by doing them myself, not through what other people say. this way, i understand everything that i've done and why i'm doing it. i may even end up installing xp in the long run, but for now, i'm going to try and work with vista because it's what i have and it's working for me so far.

love love love :heart: :heart: :heart:

edit: added more hearts n shit to appear friendly

alright... but i'm gonna hate to say i told you so

:shade:

I'd stay clear of the Alesis if I were you, I had some really bad experiences with mine! Seemed to never get recognised when plugged in, even on other computers that I tried. When it stopped working all together I tried to contact them to get it fixed and they were really unhelpful, practically told me to cram it somewhere uncomfortable and buy a new one so I gave up in the end.