2 sound cards in 1 PC?

[chrisclick]

Ok, so im planning to set up a little "un professional" recording studio...

i was wondering is it possible to have 2 sound cards in 1 pc? so i could have 2 mics without the bad quality spliter...?

it would be much easier than using the splitter or even the line in port with doesnt do much justice as you cant get a boost on that...

Thanks!
Chris

[duncanhall]

Get a decent soundcard with a breakout box that has multiple ins and outs. That way you can have several mics/instruments plugged into the same soundcard at once.

I use one of these and it handles everything I need: ( 4 ins / 4 outs )

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta44-main.html

If you're using mics, you might always want to go into a mixer first, then out to your soundcard.

[chrisclick]

I like the Delta 44, seems a bit pricey ... Ill check out some mixers

[duncanhall]

Yeah, that suggested retail price is a joke. I picked up a second hand delta 44 on ebay, in good condition, for about £45.

In terms of mixers, you wont need anything too fancy, just something good quality that will send a nice signal to your soundcard, rather than just line-level sounds.

I use something like this:

http://www.behringer.com/MX602A/index.cfm?lang=eng

Again, take a look on ebay. You should be able to pick up a 4/6 channel behringer mixer for about £50 new.

[chrisclick]

I dont think ill be using 6 mics or anything to input, so should i go with this one: http://www.behringer.com/MX400/index.cfm?lang=eng

?

[duncanhall]

That would sort of do the job, but the only connectors on that are 1/4 inch guitar jacks, which means you couldn't plug in an XLR mic lead.

I agree 6 channels may seem excessive, but it's really only 4 channels, and most manufacturers dont go lower than 4 for these kind of products. If you had a 4 channel mixer going into a 4 channel soundcard, you could record 2 guitars and 2 mics at the same time ( or any other combination of mics/instruments ).

You could do without the mixer and go straight into the soundcard, but then everything will be entering your PC at line-level, meaning you'll have to boost the signals with some piece of software. It's much better to go into the mixer and tweak the signals ( including gain, pan, etc ) before the signal gets to the sound card. Also, the mixer includes inputs for XLR, meaning you can get a decent mic signal.

Had a quick look on ebay and found these, which are both exactly what I use:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/M-Audio-Delta-44-PCI-soundcard-BOXED-PC-MAC_W0QQitemZ170194095350QQihZ007QQcategoryZ123445 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Behringer-Xenyx-802-mixing-desk-mixer-ID-192_W0QQitemZ180213778942QQihZ008QQcategoryZ23785Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Ben H]

Whilst it's possible to use a consumer soundcard, you'd be much better off getting a digital recording interface.

I recommend the Motu 8pre, or if you can stretch, the 896.

-Ben

[chrisclick]

at the moment, the only mics I have are the 1/4" TRS connector... the only XLR connector I have is the one which plugs into the mic itself (the cable is removable because its also wireless ;) )

The Motu 8pre looks interesting... XLR and TSR combo... could come in handy, Ill have a look around on ebay for it :D

[ajcates]

You can set up the output ports to be input, in Windows.

[chrisclick]

any sites on how to do that?

[ajcates]

...I will look, I also know that you can configure your sound card to have front left and right left coming form one output and back left and right left on the other.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11333
That is a program to do it on a mac.

Here is another one.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11334

Might want to search around in your sound drivers little gui app for a setting.

[chrisclick]

hehe, (thankfully).. i dont have a mac

[ajcates]

Well now that I have looked into it, you might not be able to do that. And also I would image the software side of things would get tricky, because most recording programs are only made to record one source. Recording studio people, record all there stuff at once to different tapes, then pull in the tapes on the computer to edit. not just record 2 things on 2 different parts of the tape.

In theory I guess you could have dual SLI sound cards, but that would not really be needed.

Ok I have a plan that probably won't work but sounds good in theory. You install a virtual machine on your computer, you tell the virtual machine what ports to use, and now you have 2 recording programs going on at once, so it would be like having 2 computers.

[Pasquale]

Dude get a mixer.

//edit

Ok I have a plan that probably won't work but sounds good in theory. You install a virtual machine on your computer, you tell the virtual machine what ports to use, and now you have 2 recording programs going on at once, so it would be like having 2 computers.
bad idea. - stick with a hardware solution that is external to it. Why hack something up when there is stuff out there designed to do the job well?

[chrisclick]

Im still saving up :D lol

[Pasquale]

you can get cheapies from ebay for a couple of hundred bucks with like 20 channels.

[Ben H]

Get a digital audio interface!
There's no point using an analogue mixer if you're recording digitally. Why alter the signal permanently if you can change it as much as you want on a computer?

A Motu 8pre is a really good idea. Takes XLR and jack inputs, has one of the best preamps I've seen in something for that price.

@ajcates - one source onto 1 track. A DAW that can't handle multitrack recording on multiple inputs isn't worth using.

Seriously, an audio interface is what you need for recording onto your computer. The people who are telling otherwise are being ridiculous.