Looking for some guidance on a range of sound cards.

[Mirfus]

Hey I've got maybe up to £180 to spend on a sound card, my PC runs a 1ghz AMD CPU with 1.3gb RAM. I've been making music a while with my on-board mickey mouse sound chip but I need a kick before I explode!

I recently bought myself a synth and I wanna do some digital recording. I also want to be able to utilise the full midi potential of my KS5.

The cards I've got in mind are as follows:

Echo Mia Midi

E-Mu 1212m

ESI 192M Wave Terminal

Novation Speed 10 (to look nice next to my synth)

Terratec DMX6FRE (I'm sure everone considers this at least once!)

I want a fair amount of flexibility and the Terratec has the most whistles and bells. However I'm a bit wary of it cos of the price compared to the others (they're all in the same range). How can the Terratec have so many features for the same price - surely I'm losing out on quality?

I'd like midi on board but this isn't a necessity. Phono ins and outs are very desirable and some sort of breakout would be nice.

If anyone can recommend what they would consider the best out of the bunch and let me know why, it would be most appreciated!

Thanks

[martin armsby]

The newer E-Mu 1212m seems the best pick of those due to the increadible converters - although I havn't regretted buying my 6fire its quite old now in comparrison and I'd go for the 1212 if I needed a card now.

cheers

M

[Roly]

Hi
Before you buy, start looking for information about how the card you decide on get's along with your particular motherboard.
And be carefull, gear lust is hard to control, it can get out of hand!!!!
Beats the **** outta spending your dough on booze and dope though.
cheers

[Matthew Skinner]

The www.esi-pro.com Juli@ card is probably the best 2 in 2 out card around at the moment in your price range.

If you want more features then look at the esi quattafire 610