Sound card advice

[Neil Rutman]

I've used an Echo Layla 24 for many years now with very good results. I have
a fast pc running Sonar mostly for music. Would I be stepping up my signal
chain significantly by replacing Layla with say an Apogee Rosetta? Is there
another ad/da I should consider for an upgrade? I could spend as much as
$2500 maybe if I thought it would make a big difference.

Thanks in advance.

Neil Rutman
Executive Producer
Marathon Road Entertainment
"Music For Media"
www.marathonroadent.com

[Mike Rivers]

On Dec 1, 2:58 am, "Neil Rutman" > wrote:
> I've used an Echo Layla 24 for many years now with very good results.
> Would I be stepping up my signal chain significantly by replacing Layla
> with say an Apogee Rosetta?

You'd probably get better A/D and D/A converters, but not by a whole
lot. Whether that matters depends on what you're recording.

Why don't you borrow, rent, or buy (on approval) a better grade A/D
converter (or A/D/A) and hook it up to the ADAT or S/PDIF inputs (and
outputs if you get a two-way converter) and give it a listen. With
that setup, you'll have analog inputs and outputs that go both through
the original Echo and new outboard digital paths.

You can conduct a series of trials recording the same thing through
both A/D paths (it's OK to use a Y cable to split a mic preamp output
to two inputs) and playing back the same track through two different D/
A paths. That will tell you what you really need and how much
difference it will make.

You have to consider that if one track sounds a little funky going
through one path compared to the other, a mix of 40 tracks going
through that same path will be somewhat more funky. But if you're
doing most of your mixing in the box and don't need 8 analog outputs,
maybe you'll find that a stereo D/A converter will let you hear things
i mixing and tracking that you can correct (or do better) than
listening to the analog output of the Echo.

Or maybe you'll discover that what you have is just fine (I suspect
that it probably is, unless your project requirements have changed
since you bought the Echo) and that you should put your $2500 toward a
better mic or preamp.

[Neil Rutman]

Good suggestion Mike. I think I'll try and get my hands on a high quality
a/d/a and put it through some tests.

Thanks,

Neil R

--
"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
...
> On Dec 1, 2:58 am, "Neil Rutman" > wrote:
>> I've used an Echo Layla 24 for many years now with very good results.
>> Would I be stepping up my signal chain significantly by replacing Layla
>> with say an Apogee Rosetta?
>
> You'd probably get better A/D and D/A converters, but not by a whole
> lot. Whether that matters depends on what you're recording.
>
> Why don't you borrow, rent, or buy (on approval) a better grade A/D
> converter (or A/D/A) and hook it up to the ADAT or S/PDIF inputs (and
> outputs if you get a two-way converter) and give it a listen. With
> that setup, you'll have analog inputs and outputs that go both through
> the original Echo and new outboard digital paths.
>
> You can conduct a series of trials recording the same thing through
> both A/D paths (it's OK to use a Y cable to split a mic preamp output
> to two inputs) and playing back the same track through two different D/
> A paths. That will tell you what you really need and how much
> difference it will make.
>
> You have to consider that if one track sounds a little funky going
> through one path compared to the other, a mix of 40 tracks going
> through that same path will be somewhat more funky. But if you're
> doing most of your mixing in the box and don't need 8 analog outputs,
> maybe you'll find that a stereo D/A converter will let you hear things
> i mixing and tracking that you can correct (or do better) than
> listening to the analog output of the Echo.
>
> Or maybe you'll discover that what you have is just fine (I suspect
> that it probably is, unless your project requirements have changed
> since you bought the Echo) and that you should put your $2500 toward a
> better mic or preamp.
>

[Arny Krueger]

"Neil Rutman" > wrote in message
t

> I've used an Echo Layla 24 for many years now with very
> good results. I have a fast pc running Sonar mostly for
> music. Would I be stepping up my signal chain
> significantly by replacing Layla with say an Apogee
> Rosetta? Is there another ad/da I should consider for an
> upgrade? I could spend as much as $2500 maybe if I
> thought it would make a big difference.

Here's a test you can do yourself that might give you a clue about that
Layla 24.

(1) Run an Audio Rightmark test on it and see if it comes close to meeting
its origional specs. The Audio Rightmark is freeware from
http://audio.rightmark.org/download.shtml

(2) Take the best, clearest recording you ever made and splice a -3 dB 1 KHz
tone onto the end of it. Loop this test file through the analog I/O of your
Layla 5,10, 20 times, re-recording it each time and then playing the latest
re-recording for the next-go-round. Take the 5th, 10th, and 20th generation
files files, and adjust them with your DAW software until the 1 KHz tone has
the right level. Then compare them to the original with the freeware file
listening test comparison software you can download from www.pcabx.com . See
how many generations of re-recording it takes for you to reliably hear a
difference.

Here's some examples of what happened when I did test (2) with several
different audio interfaces:

http://www.pcabx.com/product/soundcard/index.htm

Based on these evaluations, take the next logical step.