Measurement Soundcard

B

Brent Venter

Freshman
Mar 31, 2011
22
0
1
Hi,

Any thoughts on a semi professional dual channel soundcard (USB) for Smaart. I understand sound devices is good but something at a better price pointand probably lesser quality?

Cheers
 
Re: Measurement Soundcard

Probably not considered budget, but I use a MOTU traveler which gives me two mic preamps with phantom and 8 line inputs and 8 line outputs.
 
Re: Measurement Soundcard

Brent,

You don't need a fancy sound card for Smaart. In fact, if you're using one channel as reference, and all channels are identical, then any errors will be nulled out by the software. It is unlikely, in fact, that any sound card you can buy today would be unsuitable.

What you do need is a reasonably durable sound card. Which are expensive. I have seen more broken Tascam and M-Audio interfaces than I care to remember. The USB Pre is common, but not my favorite... too many features and knobs, and different clocks on the in and the out (on the original). I used a MOTU Ultralight for years and it was great, but still not quite road worthy... held up very well, but bang it around and you'll take off a knob or two.

Currently the leaders seem to be the new Smaart I/O, which I have and like a lot, or the Roland OctaPre in a rack, which will get you a lot of inputs and has been rock solid for quite a few folks.
 
Re: Measurement Soundcard

I have a USB Pre and agree that it is not the most user friendly interface. It is a tank. Or in the case of mine, a brick as I don't think it has left it's spot in my workbox for several months. Right now I'm using a MOTU Traveler installed in one of my FOH racks.

Swerve: If any of you road guys (who are carrying FOH gear) have ever considered doing this and haven't pulled the trigger: DO IT! I took the extra time in the shop to install it with a panel mounted firewire connector and a 6pr mult connector. I can run a single cable from FOH to the center of the room and break out individual mics from there. I get an hour to measure and tune so if I save ten minutes of setup time that's huge.
 
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