Audacity Forum

Hey guys. I need help finding a suitable sound card for my girlfriend's needs. She's minoring in "Recording Technology" and I'm not having a ton of luck finding a good sound card that works well with Windows Vista Home Premium. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, since we're on the subject, if anyone could point me in the direction of some good 5.1 speakers to go with the sound card then that would be fantastic.
Thanks a lot for your help.

Sincerely,

Mike

At the present time, Vista is not a good choice of operating system for audio work. For Windows, XP is much better for several reasons, including that it is much easier to find good sound cards that will work flawlessly.

For working in "Recording Technology", a good pair (the best you can afford) of monitor speakers are likely to be a lot more useful than 5.1 surround.

"Sound-on-Sound" magazine is a good resource for reviews on current music and audio equipment.

If I was using windows xp, then what type of sound card would you prefer? The best I could find is this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6829102015

This looks like a good choice for music - it has the (big) advantage of being able to record multiple tracks simultaneously:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/D ... -main.html

Alatham posted a brief review of this card here: http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic ... 878#p19193

Alright. I looked over that card and I didn't find it on newegg because it was mislabeled. It is a good card though. It should be able to do what my girlfriend needs it to do. Also, the XLR mic inputs are really nice and it's PCI so I can put it lower on the motherboard instead of trying to weave it in between the two video cards I have. (My other card was PCI express x1 and there was only one slot and it was in between the two cards...not a good location.) Thanks a lot for the help.