Here my experience withe laptop recording by using external audio in with mic preamplifiers and P48 powering:
The Edirol UA 5, although having a USB 1 interface, works well with low noise and flat response. It is very cheap now. Requires external DC power you can provide with a battery. Drivers are solid, in demanding applications it is important to set the internal buffer (in Control Panel) to max size.
The UA25 is even better, USB 2 and self-powered, but a bit less flexible as it lacks line level inputs. Though be aware that some early units have strange interferences; for example, mine has a 12 kHz line that disappears when the unit warms up. In cold conditions I have to put it below the laptop to keep it warm!!! A friend of mine got back his money because Edirol service admitted it was a defect.
If you like FireWire, the M-audio FireWire 410 is excellent and very solid. Requires external power, but I don't remember if it requires AC or DC. (...Always check for external power requirements: some units require 9 or 12 V AC!!!)
Last solution I successfully tested is based on CoreSound Mic2496 optically coupled (this is great to reduce any possible interference) to CoreSound PDAudio CF card (just pure digital input without resampling).
Info on other options is welcome! Gianni
At 19.17 10/02/2005, you wrote:
Further to Jim Nollman's email about using a laptop / sound card to make field recordings: While this is my own preferred method, anyone hoping to sample at 96 kHz to record up to 48 kHz should be extremely careful about the sound card they buy. Several seem to have a low pass filter at around 22 or 24 kHz whatever sample rate you run them at, so you don't benefit at all from the higher sampling rate. Low frequency response may also be a serious issue since most cards are designed purely to capture audible sounds.
Low pass filtering at around 22 kHz is definitely the case with the Sound Blaster Extigy and the Edirol UA-20 (USB devices). The M-audio delta 44 (PCI interface so no good in laptops) is OK. I've not tested any others, but if anyone has found a USB sound card which will genuinely record to 48 kHz at 96 kHz sampling, I'd be interested to know.
Happy recording,
Douglas Gillespie [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ifaw.org/sotw
-------------------------------------------------------------- Gianni Pavan Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Centro Interdisciplinare di Bioacustica e Ricerche Ambientali Universita' degli Studi di Pavia Via Taramelli 24, 27100 PAVIA, ITALIA Tel +39-0382-987874 Fax +39-02-700-32921 Web http://www.unipv.it/cibra
