Chaojon

Hi I am a death metal vocalist and I want to start recording vocal covers, although my recordings sound like ****ing **** because I plug my AKG D-5 straight to the PC and my growls lose a lot cause I don't have an external sound card, but I am really short on cash, I cant really afford a 150 dollar sound card, do you have a suggestion for a cheap soundcard? maybe even used? I didn't found any on ebay.

Plankton

You don't have to have a soundcard to do that. Just get an Interface. Firewire preferable over USB.

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P A N

this is the only thing i could find that might do what you want. honestly, i wouldn't spend any less than 300 bucks on a sound card, but if you're on a budget this'll probably do the trick.

Lexicon Alpha | Sweetwater.com

Freebase Dali

Here's one for 81 dollars that I've recommended to someone before and have worked with his vocal tracks recorded with it, and the results are great for such a cheap unit:

Alesis iO2 Express Audio Interface | Musician's Friend

It doesn't need to be Firewire unless you have a lot of channels. These 2-channel units run fine on USB.
Anyway, it's fairly simple to set up. Also has phantom power if you use a condenser.
You just have to find the right driver for your host program. If it uses ASIO, then you'll probably end up downloading the ASIO4ALL driver with this unit. No biggy though. It's free.

Since I know what the results are like on this unit, I can safely recommend it above others I haven't heard, from a mixing analysis standpoint. You just have to be mindful of your recording levels. For the price, you can't do much better.

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Chaojon

If these sound cards aren't that good, I want to remind you my budget is 150 that means that if I get a sound card for 81 dollars I can get another piece of equipment that will make my recordings even better, any suggestions?

Chaojon

I did a little research and now I am not sure what to get, which one is better, the SCARLETT 2i2 the Alesis i02 or the Lexicon Alpha?

XtremeEclectic

You are better off picking up some stand alone equipment or older gear to record on, or through and then putting it on your pc via cd or other media. You wind up overpaying on less quality equipment just for the convience of recording directly to the computer.

P A N

i disagree completely. standalone equipment (if used as a standalone product and not a link to your computer) can do many times less what a computer can do. the computer inside it will likely come nowhere close in terms of processing power. editing your audio on a computer is not only a thousand times easier it also has many times more options. you can customize your workflow on a computerized editing suite whereas a standalone is pretty rigid. expanding a computer's virtual effects and instruments arsenal is easy as pie. i could go on and on really. but it really comes down to the fact that not too many people use standalone devices... and there are a lot of reasons.

XtremeEclectic

by stand alone I mean recording it seperatly from the computer, and than putting it onto the computer for editing and processing, not leaving out the computer entirely. I recently peiced together a small system for recording for a friends band due to them having issues with there sound card and there source between them, and the computer, and the results are far better than the 500 dollar card they took back

Freebase Dali

It doesn't make any sense to me why a person would need to use two separate solutions in conjunction unless they were going for a particular effect, like recording to analog tape for a specific sound.
Modern DAWs are every bit as capable as a standalone recording system. Assuming a decent audio interface is used, there's no reason not to record in the box. I don't see the point of the extra steps and equipment that would be required to record separately then import into the computer for processing when you can just record into the computer with software that is specifically designed to do this (Pro-tools, Sonar, any recording software really) and eliminate the external solution.

The only requirements are that there is a decent audio interface with the amount of inputs and preamps that the person desires. These things are designed specifically for this purpose. We're not talking about a standard computer sound card. These are recording audio interfaces, and any studio in the world that records with a computer is using one.

Anyway, to the OP, if you want to scale up to your 150 limit, you can, however you should just be aware that there's only so much you're going to get out of the equipment and hardware itself in terms of end result. You can buy a 3,000 dollar Apollo 16 interface or a 100 dollar M-Audio interface, and either way you'll still be limited by your knowledge and experience in regard to recording and mixing, and also your other gear in the signal chain. The best preamps in the world won't matter if for instance you're recording with bad microphones, poor mic placement, and utilizing improper EQing and compression in the mixing stage.

So, my recommendation would be to first address the main issue, which is having a decent enough audio interface that will not stop you from obtaining good source material. You would not be able to work toward getting great recordings by using an onboard PC sound card. The Alesis interface will not hinder you, and it will allow you to utilize the rest of your budget for addressing other issues.
For instance, what will you be mixing on? If it's a bad pair of headphones instead of studio monitors, then you're likely not going to be making good recordings and mixes that actually translate well outside your own system, as you won't be hearing the recording as it truly is. If you're planning on other people listening to your recordings, then this is a pretty important consideration.
Another consideration is the quality and ability of your recording software. If you're using Audacity or Garageband, for instance, you might not be able to do some of the things other software allows you to do.
And so on...

Above all, you should remember that there is no magic bullet. Good recordings are a combination of gear, ability, technique and experience. It makes no sense to go out and buy the most complicated and expensive solutions and not address the other factors. So the best approach is to buy a reasonably priced solution that lets you effectively work on the other factors that go into making a good recording.
And if you ever get to the point where you become skilled and experienced enough that you can demonstrate that your gear is what's holding your efforts back, then that is when you upgrade. Not the other way around.

An apt analogy would be a person buying an expensive Les Paul to learn how to play guitar, thinking that the Les Paul is going to make him play better.
I know that you're just trying to rectify a bad recording due to a bad equipment situation, but I think it's important to look at it the right way so that you can be reasonable about your expectations.

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