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The best inexpensive dual-monitor video card for DAW's is the Matrox G-550. I'm still using my 3-year-old G-400 with good results. The G-550 is faster and costs way less than I paid for my G-400 (that's the way it goes...). The dual-VGA cards from ATI and nVidia rely much more on software to do their thing, which makes the CPU work harder -- which is just what you DON'T want it to do (you want it to play soft-synths!). So the Matrox cards win. However, you won't see this on the 'PC enthusiast' sites because they are looking for maximum 3D video performance for games, etc. The Matrox cards lag in these benchmarks, because they're not designed specifically for gamers. But they are better for DAW's...

The reason you were seeing this is because the Sound Blaster's driver software SUCKS!! It uses up lots of RAM and CPU cycles. They're lousy for music production. I should warn you that the Sound Blaster drivers are very "sticky" -- by which I mean that even after you uninstall them, you will have lots of their little applets starting up when Windows boots, uselessly robbing resources. After you uninstall the drivers, run msconfig from the Run command, and check in the Startup tab for anything that looks like it was written by Creative Labs. If you find anything, deselect it and reboot. Unless you are comfortable doing some pretty extreme registry-hacking, I'd say that you will want to reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows from scratch (goes quickly with Win98SE on a 1GHz or faster PC). That will make your system perform way, way better.

All you need is the MIDI interface and you'll be good to go.

What version of Windows are you using with Logic? As far as I knew, Emagic had been bought by Apple and they had discontinued support for Logic on Windows. I know there are older versions of Logic that work on Windows 98SE, but none that I know of that work on Windows 2000 or XP (Logic never did work on Windows NT).

OK, so Logic Audio 5.1 it is. I didn't know it could run on XP, but I guess I learned something! Logic is best used with ASIO (Steinberg) drivers, not WDM drivers (Microsoft's Windows Driver Model) or the standard Windows MME drivers. So you want to get an audio interface that performs the following functions:

• Has excellent ASIO 2.0 drivers with low latency at very low load on the CPU
• Has good analog audio I/O (stereo will suffice, right?)
• Has a MIDI I/O port (Only one? -- Are you sure?)
• Mic input with phantom power
• Is on a PCI card

For the mic input, you can buy a standalone mic preamp for not too much money these days. It will also work as an input for an electric guitar or bass, should you need it. Here are a few of the cheaper ones that work well enough:

Mic Preamps:

• PreSonus BlueTube ($150)
• M-Audio Audio Buddy ($100)
• M-Audio DMP3 ($180)

I keep an M-Audio DMP-3 around for location stereo recordings, and it's really pretty darned good. Very quiet, doesn't sound nasty. I have heard the PreSonus BlueTube, and I have to say that it's fun to have the tube in there for overdrive effects, but I didn't find it to be as transparent sounding as the DMP3. I've never used an Audio Buddy, but I do know that it will only provide 42 volts of phantom power, so it can't be used with some of the more power hungry large diaphragm condenser mics. Other companies that make inexpensive mic pre's include Behringer, Bellari, etc. Of course I'd much rather have a couple of Millenia or Avalon pre's...

You might also want to look into the purchase of a small mixing board. There are a couple that cost less than $100!

• Behringer UB802 - Really basic, tiny (1-1/2" x 2" x 7-1/4"; 2 lbs.) mixer for cheap. Has two mic pre's plus two pairs of line level inputs. No inserts, but does have 48V phantom power, an AUX bus (for outboard effects), control room and headphone outputs. ($60) - The only disadvantage to a little mixer like this is that it may not be very robust for the long term. The pots and connectors are bound to be cheaply made and may get noisy over the years. But for so little money, it's worth it if you get only three good years of use out of it...
• The industry workhorse small mixer is the Mackie 1202VLZ-Pro. It costs about $375 these days...

Don't forget a good mic. If you only have a Shure SM58 or something like that, you might want to look into the Studio Projects B1. It's a great sounding, large diaphragm condenser mic for less than $80.

What do you need the audio card to be able to do? Do you need multiple analog audio inputs, or only stereo? Do you need ADAT or TDIF I/O? Multiple channels of MIDI I/O?

Do you mix exclusively in the computer? If so, then a stereo soundcard will do. You pretty much need a fast CPU and a lot of RAM, because the soft synths are rendered in the host CPU, not in the soundcard. What sampler(s) are you using?

All software and all emagic. I see...

What computer are you using? Athlon? Pentium III? P-4? What size hard drive, how much RAM? Or are you planning to buy (or build) a new one?

I would absolutely, without hesitation, recommend that you use the P4 1.6GHz on the ASUS P4B. The Intel i845 chipset is much more robust than the VIA KT133A, and the P4B is a good, solid motherboard. (The ASUS A7V133 is the best VIA KT133A-based motherboard there is, but is not as stable as the i845-based P4B.) If your Athlon was an XP model with DDR SDRAM, I'd say you might want to upgrade it to a good motherboard with nForce2 chipset, but that won't work with PC133 SDRAM. So the P4B wins. (The A7V133 will work, but you won't be able to get as many tracks or softsynths to play at the same time as with the P4B.)

Since you will be using a lot of soft-synths, I'd say the more RAM the better. 1GB would be nice. But 512MB will certainly do.

Also, a faster processor will help. You might be able to find a Pentium 4 2.4GHz 400MHz FSB for not too much money. If not, don't sweat it. Save your money for the big upgrade to a Hyperthreaded P4 3.06GHz and a motherboard with 800MHz FSB and dual-channel DDR SDRAM, which will become affordable by early next year.

The ASUS A7V133 motherboard can use Palomino-core Athlon XP CPU's, but not Thoroughbred-core Athlon XP's. I've found some Palomino Athlon XP 2000+ CPU's available for $55 or so. This might be a cheap way to upgrade your DAW...

I have four possible recommendations for a soundcard. I'm listing them here in my order of preference, but I'd say the first two may be overkill for you. On the other hand, the first two are the two truly 'professional' solutions, as opposed to the kind of 'pro-sumer' stuff you would see at your local Guitar Center or Sam Ash store. On the other hand, the Echo and M-Audio cards are very popular and enjoy a good rep, and cost no more than a Sound Blaster Audigy 2.

1. My first recommendation for an ASIO-compatible stereo card would be something from RME-Audio (they're German). The RME Digi96/8 PAD is a stereo PCI card with an ADAT I/O (I know, you don't need that), but no MIDI I/O. All RME cards can be installed in multiples and are fully capable of IRQ sharing. The Digi96/8 PAD costs about $399. I have an older Digi96/8 PAD card (20-bit converters instead of the current 24-bit ones) and it works very well and sounds quite good. I've never had any kind of trouble with it. Its drivers are stable and its control panel applet is easy to use. I paid $575 for it, and I've been quite happy, but I'd be even happier with the new Hammerfall DSP card! Oh well...
2. Maybe a better solution would be the Lynx Studio LynxONE -- This is an excellent, professional quality audio interface, with:
   • Stereo 24-bit analog input and outputs with +4dBu or -10dBV levels.
   • Digital I/O supporting AES/EBU and S/P DIF formats at sample rates up to 96kHz.
   • Two smart, deeply buffered MIDI ports.
   • Low-jitter, highly adjustable sample clock tunable to all rates 8kHz to 100kHz.
   • Clock inputs and outputs sync to word, word*256, video clocks and to other LynxONE's (up to four can be installed in a single PC).
   • Internal Clock input and output connectors for synchronizing multiple LynxONE's or connection to video capture/playback adapter.
   • Ships with Windows 95/98/ME drivers and Windows NT/2000/XP drivers for Intel/AMD platforms; Macintosh OS9 ASIO 2.0 drivers available for download.
3. I've been told that the Echo cards have excellent ASIO drivers. The Echo MiaMIDI is their entry level card, with stereo audio I/O and MIDI I/O. The MiaMIDI costs only about $225 and has pretty much everything you've specified, EXCEPT that I'm not sure if you can have more than one Mia card installed in a single computer. It does have pro-quality, balanced audio connections on 1/4" TRS jacks and is switchable between consumer (-10dBV) and pro (+4dBm) levels (which is nice). The MiaMIDI is based on the same Motorola DSP that Digidesign uses in their Pro Tools hardware, so it should present a very light load on the host CPU. This may be the card that makes the most sense for you.
4. Your least expensive option (about $175) would be the M-Audio Audiophile 2496. - It also has stereo analog audio I/O, but only at -10dBV on RCA jacks, just like on your home stereo. The Audiophile 2496 is basically a very well-engineered version of a typical soundcard, based on Crystal Semiconductor codecs and associated circuits. I'm not sure if more than one of these cards can be installed in a computer.

The MiaMIDI should work fine for your purposes. Certainly a whole lot better than any Sound Blaster.

XLR connectors are preferred for pro installations because they make a very secure connection. But many home studio and semi-pro setups make balanced connections using TRS (3-conductor or stereo) 1/4" phone plugs. Mackie popularized this with their affordable mixers. The MiaMIDI does have 1/4" TRS connectors, so it should be OK. The LynxONE is a bit better, but the MiaMIDI's not bad, really...

Right. Pro audio interfaces are designed to allow processing of multiple audio tracks without relying on the host CPU (thus allowing the processing of more audio tracks, or soft synths). The most professional audio interfaces, such as Pro Tools, RME Hammerfall DSP, Steinberg Nuendo, Merging Technologies Pyramix, Creamware Pulsar, Soundscape, etc., use their own onboard Digital Signal Processing (DSP) circuits to handle the audio mixing and adding of effects. The SBLive! and Audigy cards do have DSP circuits, but they also rely quite heavily on software to add effects or play back multiple tracks, which are functions they execute in the host CPU, using up cycles. But remember, well-designed hardware DSP circuits and programming cost money. Cheaper soundcards don't have them, but use the CPU as a sort of cut-rate DSP that they can tap into. Pro digital audio interfaces with hardware DSP range in price from the about $225 at the extreme low end to $5000 and more on the high end.

No, it means they can handle lots of MIDI data flowing through the ports without running out of bandwidth. MIDI data is a lot simpler and smaller than audio data, so it can be handled more efficiently by relatively simple circuits. That's a lot different than trying to play back 16 tracks of 24-bit audio, complete with plugins running in real time. Your question is a good one, and I'm sure the folks at Lynx Studio can give you a better answer than I ever could.