Internal Imac Card Or External, Is it worth spending my money??? Options

[joe_banana]

Hey,

is it worth spending my money on an M-Audio FireWire 410 for recording on an iMac G5??
Or is the internal soundcard just at good?


/Joe the Dane

[edge100]

Hey,

is it worth spending my money on an M-Audio FireWire 410 for recording on an iMac G5??
Or is the internal soundcard just at good?


/Joe the Dane

Yes, it is worth it if you are serious about making music with your iMac.

There are a number of advantages.

1) MUCH better A/D conversion
2) Increased number of ins and outs
3) Professional-quality connectors (XLR and 1/4" TRS not 1/8" TS)

Go with something like the Presonus Firebox, and you're set!

[joe_banana]

Allright. Right now I have a soundcraft compact4, a mini disktop mixer (see http://www.soundcraft.com/product_sheet.as...product_id=121). So I actually have XLR input for my microphone, and a lot more. Is it still worth spending my money? -

Sorry, you know when you are a student, you have to spend your money wisely. And I have to know if I really get an advantage with making music, if I buy the soundcard.
And I should not ask in a musicstore - they just want to earn money

And yes, I'm serious about making music


/Joe The Dane

[edge100]

Allright. Right now I have a soundcraft compact4, a mini disktop mixer (see http://www.soundcraft.com/product_sheet.as...product_id=121). So I actually have XLR input for my microphone, and a lot more. Is it still worth spending my money? -

Sorry, you know when you are a student, you have to spend your money wisely. And I have to know if I really get an advantage with making music, if I buy the soundcard.
And I should not ask in a musicstore - they just want to earn money

And yes, I'm serious about making music


/Joe The Dane

Use the iMac ins and outs until you can afford to get something signficantly better than the Soundcraft mixer. Just make sure you are recording at 24bit, not 16bit.

[rickenbacker]

I may be missing something here, but there's no point setting your software to record at 24-bit if the iMac only captures at 16-bit. I can't see anything on the Apple tech spec sheet that suggests the iMac natively supports 24-bit audio recording, but I could be wrong.

If you set your sequencer to record at 24-bit but you're only capturing the audio at 16-bit at source, you don't get 8 extra bits of information free - you just get much bigger files to fiil up your hard drive.

Listen to what the man said: PreSonus Firebox. Great little box and about £250, which is cheap for the quality it offers. They also have another box just out called the Inspire 1394. Similar quality, but no knobs to control things with - it's all done in software.

That said, you can certainly use the preamps on your mixer and record via the line-in on your iMac for 16-bit "CD-quality". You'd be happier with a dedicated interface, for sure, but this method involves no money changing hands at all.

[cornutt]

To add to what rickenbacker said, if you go through the recent threads in this forum, you will see lots of users reporting problems with the 410. I think I'd avoid that one.