ASIO & P-7805u?

Does the soundcard have ASIO? I'm running Vista 64 with Ableton Live and Superior Drummer.

 

As far as I know it doesn't have ASIO, man

You'll have to use external solution, but note that X-Fi notebook won't have the ASIO either.

Try smth USB.

 

The software you mentioned should work with standard Vista drivers, although the latency is going to be rather horrible. I recommend something USB, there are semi-pro solutions as low as $69-79 from M-Audio or Tascam. For portable audio I personally use an old Tascam US-122, it works like a charm and has great and stable 64 bit drivers. And it is USB powered, so no extra power supplies to worry about.

If you have more green to spend you could buy something using Express Card or Firewire, although the latter will need a separate power supply, since the FW on 7805 is 4 pin "mini" connector.

Unless you need to record live, though, I would just go with a cheaper interface using USB. There is really so many that it is hard to mention a specific model, you would have to state your uses to really say anything more specific. For example, Mackie had a nice interface with a docking station, that you could use both at home and on the road, although I am not sure if they still make it. M-Audio on the other hand lets you take advantage of Pro Tools LE, Tascam had Gigastudio advantage (although the software is discontinued), Zoom H2 is a handheld recorder and ASIO sound card, and so on...

Just browse and pick something according to your budget/needs. If you post more specific goals, I could point you to more specific devices.

DK

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm planning on getting an interface of some kind, probably firewire and possibly the Echo Audiofire4 since I will be doing some live recording. I've heard good things about its compatibility with Vista 64, and it's within my budget.
As far as latency is concerned, if I am running superior drummer and using an external MIDI device such as a keyboard or electronic drumset conected to the P-7805u with USB (for sending MIDI), would my latency be low (un-noticable) with the firewire audio interface?

 

You should be fine using either. Just remember about the extra power supply when choosing FireWire. The Echo cards look good and you should be fine as long as the drivers are solid.

As far as using multiple USB devices (such as keyboard and audio interface) that would work fine as well. I have never had any issues with that. The latency should be low, since the system is powerfull enough for the task.

 

Have you tried asio4all?

 

One thing to keep in mind....

The firewire port on these laptops uses a low-end chipset that has caused some problems with both high-quality audio and video recording. Search the archives for posts. The best solution for firewire uses Texas Instruments chips.

 

Well that's just great...I hate it when things don't work like they're supposed to. Maybe guess I should have looked into this before I bought the laptop but I just figured that firewire is firewire. I suppose I'll have to look into a TI express card. I wonder how much those run

Anyway, thanks for the info. I hope I can get this all working without spending too much on additions.

 

Honestly, I usually try to avoid FireWire on the laptop. In my opinion USB 2.0 devices run at the same speed and are for easier to troubleshoot. The downside is that the same USB bus might by running several peripherals as well as your audio equipment, but that should not be a problem unless you are planning on running 8 or more tracks in/out simultaneously.

 

Well from what I've read, firewire is recommended over USB for audio recording. Although, like you said this may only be necessary for 8+ input setups.

Can you recommend a good USB audio interface (similar to the Audiofire2 or Audiofire4) with confirmed Vista-64 compatibility?

 

Well, I am still not particularly shure what you are expecting. Do you need digital connections, how many in/outs (I assume 2x2 or 4x4), do you need MIDI, does it have to be portable, do you want Pro Tools...

Some people swear by the M-Audio line of the Pro Tools enabled interfaces. My personal experience is with Tascam, which I had never had any issue with (Tascam US-122L or 144 is in your range) and with Native Instruments Kore, which I have used with 32bit drivers for Audio, but not with 64bit ones. It was not stellar, so hard for me to recommend it, unless you want Kore, which is quite cool. M-Audio Fast Track looks nice as well as the new Lexicon I-Onix line.

There are so many options that really you have to look for the equipment that will satisfy the most checkpoints on your list for the price. One thing I will recommend is to buy from academic store. If you are no longer a studentm ask a friend who is, you can save a lot of dough by doing that. I know I did ! Check out THIS SITE, I've used it and they have good service.