Which card under 100$? (basic usage)

[oobs]

Hi everybody! I'm new to the forum - nice to see such an active community.

I have been using Linux for 10 years and I'm starting to make music again (electronics, IDM). I had some years of 'pause', that is I kept tinkering with software but I stopped making music.

For the next months, my music activity will be at an amateur level - just composing with headphones; no other hardware or recording of external instruments. I never used MIDI. My workflow usually involved creation of original samples, composition using trackers and final production.

I'm in the process of buying a new computer:
As for the CPU, I'm planning to get an Intel Core I5 660 3,3 Ghz;
I'll also get 4 GB RAM; and a Nvidia GTX graphic card, as I do 3D stuff.

What would you currently suggest as a decent audio card under $100?
For practical reasons, I'd prefer an internal card.

Thanks in advance!


p.s.
had a look to older threads in this forum, but I mostly found discussions about advanced cards with good recording support and other nice features that I don't need right now; also, I looked at http://www.linuxstudiopro.com but I couldn't find any internal card in the price range I'm considering.

[Chipfryer]

Hi oobs welcome.
I used a M-Audio 2496 which works right out of the box in Linux much to my amazement. This is an internal card.
If you look at some reviews they some complain about latency issues but that is mostly to do with not setting up the device properly. Also under Linux you have 'Envy Control' which mimics M-audios driver gui. Works, works, works. I've had mine for nearly 4 years now. They do not depreciate at all in value which speaks bounds for them.

Hope this helps?
Welcome again.

Chippy

[oobs]

I had a deep look to M-Audio 2496 features & reviews and it looks like a great card:
I see many positive comments about it, so I'll definitively consider it.

However M-Audio 2496 seems to be recording-oriented someway. I'm not going to do recording - so I guess a good part of M-Audio 2496 'goodness' would be wasted in my hands.
Is this correct?
I guess I'd be fine with a simpler recording support.

Is there anything even cheaper out there?

If not, I'm going with M-Audio 2496 anyway - thanks again for the prompt reply, Chippy :)

[Jan]

Hi oobs,

I don't use an internal card, but an USB card, the Behringer UCA222. It's plug & play with Linux, is inexpensive (I paid 30 €) and should be absolutely sufficient for what you want to do.

[spm_gl]

I'll second the M-Audio 2496. Absolutely hassle-free, no problems using the spdif output either. And midi works too.

[freqrush]

There's no info about the uca 222 on the alsa sound card matrix , there's no mentioning of Behringer at all actually

[horo]

Hi,

I use the predecessor uca202 (the silver one). It consists mainly of a simple burr brown chip pcm2902 (lsusb shows ID 08bb:2902). After some tuning it's quite nice, I wrote at LAU:

the pcm2902 codec is broken by design. The internal voltage reference shows a terrible distortion because the 1 kHz usb clock isn't decoupled properly. The data sheet (http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/pcm2902.pdf) recommends the use of an external voltage reference for "a high-performance application" (figure 37) - unfortunately Behringer uses the circuit for "a simple application" (like figure 39). I tested my UCA202 with Fons' jaaa and got a "nice" peak at 1 kHz - it went away after adding a REG103-A to my UCA (you can get free samples from TI).

if you compare figure 37 and 39 you'll see the difference. I've soldered the two resistors 27k and 13k and the diode D1 directly onto the IC1 (these 4 devices are SMD parts - I had to use a magnifying glass and a very fine pitch soldering iron) and made connections to pin 3, 10, 11 and 28 of pcm2902. This "piece of crap" is fixed with hot glue and I'm done. You can substitute the voltage regulator by any other low drop type - the enable input isn't imperative. The pcm2902 codec needs about 3.6..4.0 volts at pin 10 to override it's internal voltage source.

Ciao Martin