Main PC Update
The E-MU 1212M mixer app's interface. Once you get used to it, it's great. The inserts are parametric eq's set to negate the low bass boost I can't turn off in my Logitech Z560 preamp. Just remember, it won't make a sound until you install an input strip...
September 16, 2011
I finally decided to upgrade the sound card in my main PC (located in my study, see here for details). Once I decided to do this, I went ahead and installed two 4 GB sticks of RAM for my soon-to-happen upgrade to Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit. After a little thought, I also decided to try a Solid State Hard Drive (SSD).
I went with an E-MU 1212M PCIe pro card. This is one of the cheapest high quality sound cards out there with both a high quality ADC and high quality analog outputs. Signal to noise ratio of the stereo analog outputs is 120 dB. It can also operate the 1616m dock I use for speaker testing if I ever need 6 analog outputs. As it is sold, it comes with a daughter card offering a 2 channel balanced/unbalanced analog output.
The main reason I tried it is its ASIO driver. I really wanted to see what MC 16 sounded like with a native ASIO driver, really leaving Windows XP out of the processing chain. I wasn't disappointed, it sounds great and is as quiet as its advertised specs promise.
I also like the way their driver software operates. You build input strips in the mixer like you would in a pro mixer. If you add a stereo input strip for ASIO channels 1 and 2, you get J. River's MC 16 output on that strip. Add another stereo strip for Wave channels 1 and 2, and you have the standard Windows sounds there, including (for me anyway) Beyond TV's audio output.
The 1212 card went into a single PCIe slot and the daughter card takes a slot space, but doesn't actually use a slot. The stereo analog in/outputs are on the daughter card and sound fine un-balanced (I'm using 1/4 tip-ring 2 conductor plugs, for balanced I/O use three conductor TRS plugs).
The Solid State hard Drive is great, great, great! I put a little Intel 320 series 40 GB SSD in the PC for the programs and page file, and left one of the little 80 GB WD Blue drives in it for temporary data storage (I use a file server for all of my serious data, remember?).
The combination is great. AutoCAD used to take 15 to 30 seconds to launch, now it's 3 seconds! Boot from an off state is about 20 seconds to the login. I love it.
The extra RAM is for my eventual upgrade to Win 7 Pro, 64 bit. I'm dreading it so much, I haven't tried yet...