Using an external audio interface with an existing sound card

[BrettyD]

Hi
I have an M-Audio 2496 soundcard which I think is great for needledrops etc.
For the purposes of (very) amateur band recording I'm thinking of getting an M-Audio Firewire Solo or Firewire 1814.

Am I understanding correctly that these are essentially outboard sound cards? (with mic preamps for recording)

Does a user "toggle" between the 2496 and the external device?
Any advice gratefully accepted!

[coopmv]

I believe you may have to go to the Device Manager on your PC to disable the internal soundcard before you can get the outboard soundcard to work with your PC.

[doodlebug]

Not necessarily. Its going to depend a lot more on whether the software being used to make the recordings can 'talk' to the audio interface directly rather than go through the Windows audio system.

For most popular external audio interfaces, this is the ASIO driver system. What you would do is to configure the recording software, such as Cubase LE (which comes with many of these interfaces as a reasonable starting point), to use the ASIO driver for that sound device.

I've had an M-Audio Firewire 410 and it was a nice little device. The bigger issue our poster needs to determine is whether 2 mic inputs is enough for a live-gig band recording. My experiences in the past couple of years recording bands that I played in was that about 8 mic preamps on the interface was necessary. This was for 3 horns, bass, piano and drums plus singer. I abandoned the 2-mic input interfaces for a Presonus Firepod (know known as the FP-10) with its 8 channels of mic preamps built in.

BTW, I do disable the internal sound device on the Dell laptop I use for Cubase to make these recordings.

Cheers,

David

[BrettyD]

Thank you for these responses. I would be using it with Adobe Audition and perhaps tending towards the Firewire 1814, although given the levels of talent in the band I think layer by layer seems the most likely approach.

So Device Manager would effectively turn off the 2496 when the band was in session?

[ROLO46]

Try Apogee Duet

Two excellent mic pres.

This should be enough

A guide stereo track of the band first

Then stereo layers of every band member indivdually

Good luck

Roger imho

[coopmv]

Thank you for these responses. I would be using it with Adobe Audition and perhaps tending towards the Firewire 1814, although given the levels of talent in the band I think layer by layer seems the most likely approach.

So Device Manager would effectively turn off the 2496 when the band was in session?

This is how you disable a device without removing it from you PC.