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Hello all,

I'm hoping someone could recommend a sound card for me. I'm building a system that has HD 7.1 sound on the motherboard, but I'm looking for a sound card that would better support producing and recording music at home. I'm certainly looking for better quality sound, and perhaps also hardware support to improve the system's performance during production or editing (and for thos wondering, I may play some games, like a flight simulator, but that is of minor importance, and I do not plan to hook this up as a home theatre system either). I'm looking to stay somewhere near the $100 mark in US dollars. Right now I'm considering either the HT Omega Striker 7.1 card, or the M-AUDIO Audiophile 2496. The home page for the Striker is http://www.htomega.com/striker.html and the home page for the Audiphile is http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile2496.html. I'll be installing Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit as the operating system, if that affects the recommendations. Any, by the way, I'm not wedded to the M-Audio or HT Omega brands; I'm open to whatever is best, near that price point. I ruled out the Sound Blaster and similar cards mainly because they appear to be more oriented to gaming, but I would reconsider them, if appropriate.

Thank you! Chuck

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M-Audio.
I had the delta 1010 and loved it.


John
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Get the 2496. Can't go wrong with that, at all. That *is* a card designed for music production, anything with 7.1 is surround or gaming.

Gary


I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
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Silvertones and Gary, I want to thank you both. I will take your advice and go with the M-Audio.

God bless you both!

Chuck

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I also use an M-Audio 2496. Good stuff.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Another happy 24/96 card user here, 8 years and counting!!


HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Wow! I'm glad to see you all agree. I appreciate everyone's input. I'll leave some feedback in a few weeks, after I build the machine. Right now I'm guessing I'll need to disable the on-board audio.

Thank you! God bless you all!

Chuck

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Yes, disable the on-board audio.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Chuck,
Actually, you don't have to disable the on-board sound at all. You can use the settings within whatever programs are you using to access the 2496, but for your computer sounds and such, send them to the the on-board sound chip. That way, you don't get bleeps and bloops in your recording when you click on something while you're trying to record audio.

Gary


I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
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Very cool, Gary! I wouldn't have considered that. I suppose then I can hook the PC up to some basic speakers for when I want to hear some of that stuff, and of course mute that when I'm recording. Thank you!

Chuck

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