M-Audio Firewire 410

[regenerator]

Hey guys, sorry if this has been posted before, but I wanted to kind of send out some feelers on this hardware, see what people think, etc.

I personally haven't had any problems with it. I use it on my win PC DAW and I havent had any problems, but looking at other much higher priced interfaces, I'm wondering, what else is there???

At least for my purposes, I cant understand how a soundcard could improve much over this. Now let me explain real quick the way I record/produce, as well as what I'm looking for out of my home studio.

Like most of you probably, I want the most professionally sounding recordings possible, Thick, warm, sounds on a digital interface can be difficult, but this card seems to offer the best thats currently available as far as sound quality (sampling rates), etc. When I did my research a few years back before I bought the card, the only thing I could find where someone might want a different card is if they were recording with multiple inputs simultaneously, which is not something I'm interested in.

I record track by track so only really have need of two inputs, one for XLR, one for 1/4". The 410 offers 24 bit, 96 KHZ recording, inputs and outputs of virtually every kind (optical, digital, midi, etc)...i guess im confused. Why would someone who records one instrument at a time NEED to pay thousands of dollars when this unit seems to perform admirably in ever facet that I at least could imagine. But if there is a reason, PLEASE, enlighten me. Its something thats bugged me recently when I hear about "well maybe you should purchase a higher end model"...dont really know what they mean by that. As far as I know, 24/96 is industry standard. I'm sure somewhere out there is a $10000 card that rivals the 410, but short of that (and im willing to spend the big bucks if I deem that the reward is worthy of the expenditure) I can't see the point or possiblity of "upgrading". Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Ok so that post turned out really long after all. Well in any case, welcome me to the board and thanks for any who offer help!

[AndyH]

You are probably correct, that you do not need a different soundcard. Improvement in technique, in learning to use the microphones and the recording space to best advantage, and learning how to best mix the raw tracks after they are recorded, are likely to make significantly more difference. However, while I don't know your particular soundcard, and thus don't know where it falls on any line from best to worse, there are differences beyond sample rate and bit depth. Also, both of those are somewhat of an illusion as most modern soundcards don't actually work that way directly.

Noise and distortion are one way that soundcards differ. What might be insignificant on a single track can be less so when many tracks are mixed together, where every aspect is accumulated. How much this matters is also dependent upon the kind of music, some of which makes much more use of silences and very low level passages than does other music.

If you have a decent monitoring setup for your mixing, and the results are pleasing, you have strong evidence that you have what you need.

[regenerator]

The only thing I could imagine that might be of worthwhile to upgrade on would be the internal preamps that come with the soundcard. Those may be of "higher" quality on more expensive soundcards, but again, I've been happy with my results.

However, one axiom I've learned in recording is that, a lot of times, "you don't know what you're missing". You think you've got a great setup but its all relative, and then some breakthrough makes you realize that what you had before was really subpar compared to the possibilites out there. So I just want to make sure this isn't one of those situations, where I think I have the best card I need for my purposes but inactuality could vastly improvement my situation with an upgrade.

The preamp situation probably isnt a problem in the long term as I am planning on buying a high quality vocal preamp. Which one? Well thats a question for a different forum

[mightknow]

The main difference between sound cards is actually the quality of the analog to digital conversion. The firewire 410 has the same resolution as most professional devices, but the quality of the conversion of the signal to digital isn't going to be as good as some better boxes. Probably the best you can do is Apogee, at least as far as brands go. The 410 however, does have the s/pdif input, so you can use it with outboard D/A converters. Seeing as how you only need 1 or 2 channels, this will be fine. An Apogee Rosetta 200 will run you about $1800 or so, and should be able to run into the s/pdif input and give you better sound. They also make a sound card with built in mic pre's for about $1200. That's a lot of money, but there are also some other companies that make nice mic preamps with built in digital outputs, like Focusrite and Universal Audio. The converters built into the higher-end ones should also be quite superior to the M-Audio ones. That being said, how much difference does it make? I couldn't actually tell you, because I've never run them side by side and I don't own the gear myself. But, the pros seem to think spending extra money on the converters is worthwhile.

[wretchasketch]

Unless you are going to spend a bundle, it would be hard to beat the Firewire 410 for sounding good. If you are running it trouble free, count yourself lucky. That may be something to consider. If you buy something new in the name of upgrading, and then get nothing but technical problems, it ain't worth it!