Soundcards with breakout boxes

wickedy · 13 Apr 2007 at 20:13

My Terratec DMX6FIRE 24/96 has just given up the ghost.

What's soundcards are good at the moment that come with decent breakout boxes?

Not too fussed about price at the moment - would rather pay for quality. Not particularly a Creative fan either, so any alternatives would be most welcome. I do do a fair bit of recording, mixing and mastering of audio, so a decent breakout box is a must. Just haven't been able to get hold of any music mags yet to read reviews...

To pair up with a E6300 on a DS4, 8800GTS 640mbOC2, 2x 75Gb raptors (Raid0), 300GB & 150GB HDs. Not that it matters much I suppose.....

DeeJay-Mo · 16 Apr 2007 at 00:28

There's quite a few to choose from. You could go for a Echo Gina 3G or a Layla 3G, or a M-Audio Delta 66 + Omni I/O, or the Delta 10/10 if you want more channels. The RME Multiface II rocks. Alternatively you could get a firewire solution like the Tascam fw-1804.
Personally I would reccomend getting a PCI adat card and using it with an analogue to adat converter. The Marian MarcX and Behringer ADA8000 are a good combination.
If you specify your requirements I could reccomend a card for you, ie how many input/output channels, what connections you require.

Greenlizard0 · 17 Apr 2007 at 14:59

*subscribes to this thread*

I'd like to know the answer to this. As far as I know there are only Creative cards that have breakout boxes but I stand to be corrected.

I bought a Fata1ty for this very reason though it was rather expensive.

I'm not really after that many connections and input/outputs. I only have 2.1 speakers through one sound output and my headphones at the front, so quality rather than anything else is what I'm after.

DeeJay-Mo · 17 Apr 2007 at 19:47

greenlizard0 said:
...I'm not really after that many connections and input/outputs. I only have 2.1 speakers through one sound output and my headphones at the front, so quality rather than anything else is what I'm after.

If all you want is to be able to connect your speakers and headphones to an external box, then have a look at the M-Audio Firewire Audiophile. There are plenty of usb and firewire boxes you can get nowadays. Check out some recording studio equipment retailers and have a look what's available. For the best quality and future-proofing, look for one that can handle upto 96k sample rate. Also check out soundonsound.com for reviews.

wickedy · 18 Apr 2007 at 10:46

Thanks Mo.

Just bought that eighteen quid Creative card for OCUK as a stop-gap solution until I decide what I want from a proper card.

Am quite interested in getting something that supports multi-channel recording as, in the past, I've been limited to only being able to record one stereo track at a time. Ideally, I'd like it to be a rack-mount break-out box that will facilitate the recording of ten mono tracks at once - would connect up nicely to my Spirit Folio SX for multitrack recording.

I think I've seen what I'm after, but I can't recall the name. I'll be sure to keep the thread posted.

DeeJay-Mo · 18 Apr 2007 at 21:35

wickedy said:
...I'd like...a rack-mount break-out box that will facilitate the recording of ten mono tracks at once - would connect up nicely to my Spirit Folio SX for multitrack recording...

I see. That's a nice desk you've got there. With the right recording interface you'll have a pretty sweet setup. It seems like what you want is a device with 10 input channels and 2 output channels. You'll be hard pushed to find one though, as they tend to come with 8 channels or 12 but nothing inbetween. The other thing is most of them have the same number of outputs as inputs in this area. So a soundcard with a rackmount breakout box and 12 channels of i/o is what you'll have to go for. If money were no object I'd say go for a MOTU HD192 CORE. On a slightly more reasonable budget there's the Echo Audiofire 12. If you want a pci card though and don't want to spend £1.2k on the MOTU, you could put yourself together something using different parts. A Marian Marc X with the Extender ANX plus a Behringer ADA8000 and a patch bay would give you the required I/O plus rackmount convenience and wouldn't cost the earth. I use a setup like that and can vouch for the fact that it works well.

Greenlizard0 · 19 Apr 2007 at 01:08

DeeJay-Mo said:
If all you want is to be able to connect your speakers and headphones to an external box, then have a look at the M-Audio Firewire Audiophile. There are plenty of usb and firewire boxes you can get nowadays. Check out some recording studio equipment retailers and have a look what's available. For the best quality and future-proofing, look for one that can handle upto 96k sample rate. Also check out soundonsound.com for reviews.

I had a look at this card/box, but can't find what connections it has at the back, and what connections does it have for speakers? I can't really figure it out - does it attach to your existing sound card or via a Firewire port?

DeeJay-Mo · 22 Apr 2007 at 15:44

greenlizard0 said:
I had a look at this card/box, but can't find what connections it has at the back, and what connections does it have for speakers? I can't really figure it out - does it attach to your existing sound card or via a Firewire port?

All audio I/O is via RCA connectors. It has two analogue inputs and four outputs as well as SPDIF in and out. It also has MIDI in and out. Connection to the computer is via firewire.