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JFord
Posts: 4
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 Posted - Sat Mar 31, 2001 11:01 am |
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My primary computer is a Dell Latitude laptop. I am sure that the native sound card (an ESS Maestro 3i) is horrendous. Are there any good sound cards that can be used with a laptop either through PCMCIA, SCSI or other interfaces?
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carparker
Posts: 2
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| Posted - Sat Mar 31, 2001 2:50 pm |
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I have an inspiron laptop with maestro card, i bought a wami pcmcia sound card cos everybody said it was great. Well, it's ok, but no way is it great - it's 16 bit and 44k only, although it claims to be 48k too, if you try to record wavs through wami box along side pre existing audio recorded at 48k it will drift out of time after a few seconds. So you either convert all your existing audio to 44k, or give up! If you use wamibox with logic it doesnt work either, despite claims in the literature that it does, the mic input is noisey, the bundled software is dodgy and tech support are about as helpful as a cardboard air raid shelter, other than that, if you are not too worried about quality, it's quite a nice little unit. I have posted below a query about the digigram vx pocket, but so far no one has replied. I did find a review of the 'pocket' today and it claimed it was very good quality, very low noise and works with logic. However it has no midi capability, nor a headphone socket, unlike the wami. I plan to get a vx pocket as i feel it is the only reliable quality sound card for a laptop (unless others know different). From what i have read USB souncards can be unreliable and unstable, but i really couldnt say for sure as i have never used one. The other alternative is to use the PCI soundcard of your choice connected via a device that carries the soundcard and connects to the pcmcia port - i am sorry my memory fails me here, i cant remember the name of the device, but it does exist!! I believe this device requires a power socket, unlike the wami box and vx pocket which are powered by the laptop. I hope some of this makes sence - at least you got a reply to your query! best of luck.
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Syntrillium M.D.
Location: USA
Posts: 5124
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| Posted - Mon Apr 02, 2001 3:13 pm |
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Hello JF. A popular alternative that many people are turning to is the USB soundcard route. There are a host of them out there now that yield very good results. Some of the more popular ones you may have heard of...Roland UA-30, UA-100 and the Tascam US-428. I believe Midiman is coming out with one (i think)
Check around, and you'll probably find some others. But those seem to be the 'choice' picks among our users.
---Syntrillium Support
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Jay Marble
Posts: 145
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| Posted - Tue Apr 03, 2001 7:33 am |
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Another usb mixer/soundcard to check out is made by Sound Devices. sounddevices.com
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MikeShivley
Posts: 16
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| Posted - Tue Apr 03, 2001 3:37 pm |
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HI, One of the game operations guys out here bout a vx pocket for his laptop. It's just the card into tails to connect to a board. Sounds pretty doggone good. However it is pretty expensive and When he bout it there werent the drivers for it yet that we needed for it to work with a piece of software we use out here. Digigram said less than a month for the new drivers and it was closer to 6 months before we were able to dl them of the web.
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Laptop Sound Card