Professional Audio Cards

Before comparing different features and types of professional cards I want to encourage people to look at what they hope to achieve now and in the future even if its 5 years or more away from their current purchase. A professional card does not get outdated very quickly like soundcard's and choosing the right one depends on what sort of setup you want to end up with. On average a pro audiocard will last around 6 years before being superceded and a new model is released.

The gear you'll need for pro recordings...

• Mic's
• Preamps to raise any mic's to line level. Some audiocard's have preamps built in or this could be a mixer
• Audiocard + Computer
• Software
• Dynamic processing which includes compressors, gates and limiters ect.
• Reverb and other special effects
• Control surface if you don't have a mixer. Although not necessary www.evolution.co.uk have affordable ones so they are no longer a luxury piece of gear and make the whole recording process more enjoyable and faster.
• Amp and speakers (audio monitors)

People quite often overlook (or don't know) the fact that they will need a mic preamp in order to use microphones. Microphones opperate at very small voltage levels and if your not using a mic preamp the mic's signal will most likely record into the computer at around -60 - 70 dB which is very close to the noise level of most audiocard's You cant normalize the audio up after its recorded as you'll also raise the noise floor and its very hard to record without monitoring your playing/singing. For this reason a mixer, stand alone mic preamp or an audiocard with built in mic preamps is what you'll need if your wanting to record microphones. This brings us to the next thing you need to consider to plan your system..