I'm using a M-Audio Quatro at the moment. No real issues with it all. I was rather surprised by it actually. I expected some bandwidth limitations from the USB interface and there are at higher specs but 24/44.1 has worked with out issue. When $$ I want to get something with more inputs / better rates. 24/96 at least.

How's the Quattro been?

So M-Audio's Quattro has worked fairly well for you? I was hoping to get something with built-in mic preamps, but after doing some more reading, it seems that external ones can be much better. What kind of mic preamp do you use with your Quattro?

Also, I thought that 24/96 worked fine with the Quattro with the limitation of 2 in/ 1 out? Is this not true?
Others have reported considerable driver issues with M-Audio's Quattro and Windows. What was your experience?

I'm basically looking for a decent one track recording setup for $500 or less to start, using my laptop, with plenty of options to upgrade/expand later. I figure $200 for a condenser mic (SP C1 or Rode NT-1), $200 for computer interface, and $100 for headphones (Grado SR80).

Any comment or advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks.

I used the tascam us 122 about a year or two ago. It worked pretty good for the most part. I had some driver issues at first but I was able to go to the M-Audio website and download the updated version. My reason for upgrade was the non-availability of ports to run equipment into the tascam. It came with a version of Cubase Vst, but this is one of there lower version. There are no pre amps in this equipment, its just an interface...its totally powered by the computer itself........all in all it work pretty good. I just wanted to do bigger things

Re: How's the Quattro been?

theaussiepea wrote: So M-Audio's Quattro has worked fairly well for you? I was hoping to get something with built-in mic preamps, but after doing some more reading, it seems that external ones can be much better. What kind of mic preamp do you use with your Quattro?

Also, I thought that 24/96 worked fine with the Quattro with the limitation of 2 in/ 1 out? Is this not true?
Others have reported considerable driver issues with M-Audio's Quattro and Windows. What was your experience?

I'm basically looking for a decent one track recording setup for $500 or less to start, using my laptop, with plenty of options to upgrade/expand later. I figure $200 for a condenser mic (SP C1 or Rode NT-1), $200 for computer interface, and $100 for headphones (Grado SR80).

Any comment or advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks.

I am using the pre's from my Mackie 1402VLZ Pro at the moment. I have an early version of the quatro and it will do 24/96 on stereo in or stereo out but not both at the same time which makes it pretty usless for recording at those rates. They may have made improvements in the newer versions. I don't know.

As for drivers, I am using the latest available and recording to Cubase SX2.2. I haven't had any issues at all on the audio side save a few minor Cubase glitches that weren't the quatro's fault. I use midi very rarely so I can't really speak to that

One important thing is that you have to test it with you computer. Running audio on USB is sort of straining on the computer, and some combinations simple will not work in my experience. This seems to go for all USB sound cards out there. So be sure to get a money back guarantee from the seller, or be sure to test it out with your actual computer and OS version.

Apart from that, all current day USB sound cards seems to work pretty much as advertised. Look for what features you want and go from there. Even low-priced equipment today has amazing sound quality compared to old days. You might want to expand your search to include things such as the MBox, which can often be found used.

Gunnar.