Advice on sound cards..

[musicmad]

Hi,

could anyone tell me which product would be best in terms of low latency and musical performance (M-audio's audiophile 192 pci card)
or (M-audio's fast-track pro audio interface) and which is better to have an "internal" pci card or an "external" audio interface. I'm a solo musician working with one midi device, VST plugins, and a sequencer, but am in need of a pro-audio card, "any tips"..

Thanks
Musicmad

[Little Red King]

I have prefered PCI cards as they seem to get the lowest latency. A firewire or USB interface can be dual purpose (fixed and portable) ; ie attached to your desktop computer and then fairly easily unhooked and taken out and about with your laptop. That can be a big advantage if you do remote recording since you would not have to buy two audio set-ups. I do not record mobile so that was not an issue for me and so I stick with a PCI card. I currently have an Emu 1616M and am very happy with it. I can get 2-3 ms latency. The M version has very nice AD converters and the input and output routing is very flexible for my set-up and work habits.

[musicmad]

I have prefered PCI cards as they seem to get the lowest latency. A firewire or USB interface can be dual purpose (fixed and portable) ; ie attached to your desktop computer and then fairly easily unhooked and taken out and about with your laptop. That can be a big advantage if you do remote recording since you would not have to buy two audio set-ups. I do not record mobile so that was not an issue for me and so I stick with a PCI card. I currently have an Emu 1616M and am very happy with it. I can get 2-3 ms latency. The M version has very nice AD converters and the input and output routing is very flexible for my set-up and work habits.

Thanks little red king,

Regards
Musicmad