Need help choosing cheap (<£80) sound card for recording

[hm1992]

Me and friends need to do some basic band recording.
I am currently using Ubuntu Studio 9.10 64 bit (upgraded to 10.04).
Between us we need to record vocals, acoustic and electric instruments.
I have a MIDI keyboard (USB) which works brilliantly with Jack and ZYNSubFX.
Ardour works well (just found https://launchpad.net/~philip5/+archive/extra), its a PPA for newer Ardour etc. for Ubuntu. Haven't tested it yet.
What I need (I think...) is a sound card geared more towards music creation (I'm looking at M-Audio 44s on ebay)
Is this a sensible choice, how well does it work on Ubuntu Studio etc.?
I have a reasonable PC, 2GB ram and dual core Athlon 64
Do you have any other recommendations for cheap recording sound cards (prefer PCI, but USB is fine if its a better option)?
Thanks, sorry about the essay

[Pablo]

A very cheap USB card is the Behringer UCA202, but sure, a PCI m-audio or RME is much better. I have a PCI m-audio audiophile 2496 and it works like a charm. Well, if you need more than 2 ins/outs, the Delta 44 is a good choice, imho.

Take a look at:
http://ardour.org/realfaq#audioio

PS: Philip's PPA is wonderful.

[Capoeira]

forget about that UCA-Behringer thing (it's not better than a onboard soundcard).....and nor the Delta 44 nor the 2496 have all this features you need because

Between us we need to record vocals, acoustic and electric instruments.

You need a card/device with XLR-inputs, pre-amp and phantom power......instrument-input

I found this one as the cheapest option: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/M-Audio-Firewire- ... 971wt_1139

it's firewire but it's suportet in linux: http://westcoastsuccess.wordpress.com/2 ... lo-ubuntu/

I don't know about the quality of the pre-amp though

[hm1992]

- My PC does not have a firewire port, is it possible to add them?
- Also I'm using a mixture at the moment of onboard sound and a cheap Aureon card but I can't seem to get more than one input working at once with JACK, I take it these cards will any of these allow me to do this?
- Still keen on a M-Audio 44, but I do see what you are saying about XLR, the guitarist does have an XLR condenser mic but I figure I could just find an external preamp for it with phantom power, that way I don't have to pay so much money up front but could spend it down the line when I need it.
- I can also borrow a Yamaha Audiogram 3 for XLR purposes (it doesn't seem to work that well with JACK but its fine for adding XLR vocals when needs be), anyone had any experience of setting on up on Linux?

[Capoeira]

ok, than get the 44.....it's a good card and it has 4chanels......only way to get 4 chanels at this pricerange..

and yes, you can get firewire-entries as PCI-card for e few bucks

[hm1992]

Ok. Thanks a lot for your help, this forum is brilliant, friendly and with posters quick to respond.
I have ordered an M-Audio Delta 44 from ebay (£46 sounds pretty good to me).
Now I have just realised my need for cables.
I need some help again. Inteconnect time!

Delta 44:
- 4 balanced mono 1/4inch jack inputs
- 4 balanced mono 1/4inch jack outputs

1. I take it my bass guitar will need pre-amping? (I have a Zoom B2 bass effects box - I take it this will work as a preamp - with the effects turned off obviously)
2. Is it possible to use a Yamaha Audiogram 3 as a low-latency phantom power provider and just plug the output from that straight into an input jack on this card? I don't think it supports balanced outputs so that doesn't matter.

EDITED 13:56 to get rid of some stupid questions

[Capoeira]

read about balenced e unbalenced conections:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_audio

a balenced plug is the TRS-plug (two signals, in unbalenced situations this is a stereo plug)....
if you use a TS-plug your signal from the unbalenced output will be canceld out...
it might work with a TRS-plug, if you isolate the ring from the plug and it gets no signal (not sure), but generaly you need a DI-box......
you can plug the bass without amplicfication, but you will need the DI-box, too......there are special DI-boxes for guitars, too...
other users here might help out, too

(with the mentioned firewire-device you would have had all those things together (unbalenced/balenced inputs, etc.)

[hm1992]

Checked manual online. All inputs and outputs on the 44 are TRS balanced connectors but also support standard unbalanced mono TS connectors also. All my questions are answered so I'll stop bugging you until I get it now. Only thing is the audiogram which is strange because it seems to be so rare even though its quite a popular model I gather.

[Capoeira]

Oo, thats verry good.....What I read i the specs I thought it would only be possible to conect balanced signals to de 44.

about the audiogram, you have to check if it works as a standalone-device/stand-alone-mode (so the signal is passed directly from the ins to the outs), since it is meant to be a soundcard......There will be no latency if yo only use it like this, out of the box. Use it to conect your bass-guitar, too