Can we clear the air about audio cards? I have 2 specific points to make about Music based audio products. 1) Audio interfaces come down to 2 critical facts - 1 quality of pre amps - 2 board circuit layout in relation to noise or lack of noise First, there are ONLY 3 kinds of audio pre amps in audio interfaces. There is the .80 cent to 2.40 el cheapo pre, the 4.75-8.80 pre and the expensive boutique $80.00 So the breakdown is more like this .80 turd in just about every product you can buy 8.00 version in products like Echo Audio $80.00 boutique high end in products like RME ish types (but probably not in the babyface stuff) Second, what makes an audio interface quiet and high quality is the ability to layout the trace lines in the design so that when all the parts are soldered down the noise levels are dampened or minimized. This ART (believe me it's an art) is how tiny companies like Echo Audio can make a high quality but affordable audio interface. I know because the owner of Echo Audio taught me how design and placement are VITAL and KEY to quality in relation to noise. That's it! Now you can make a small argument for using AKM codecs versus Cirrus codecs versus Wolfson codecs as a third pseudo argument but I've built, scoped and tested ALL of those and more and AKM IS superior but NOT more important than knowing where to place caps on circuit to reduce noise as well as placement of parts. That's the big points of the audio interface game and that's why all cards are all the same plus or minus a few kinks here or there. Period end of story all cards are the same except for MARKETING and PRICE!!!! The second point I want to make is over the years I have noticed a '*super trend'* in where there is a super disconnect between the truth/reality of the Musical Instrument business and the bias push to not only keep things the same and going FAR WORSE (we call this in the states "a race to the bottom'). I noticed this super trend especially with Peter Kirn at CreateDigitalMusic. For years I tried to offer real and truthful fair and balanced approach about the MI business and he and I kept banging heads because he would write 'his truth' not 'the truth' and I kept telling him that his lack of balanced journalism is not a good thing for his readers especially when so many come to his well for knowledge and truth. I literally did everything I can to massage in a more truthful argument that he simply could not and would not track on in relation to what he reports as a 'pet' announcement versus truthful reality. Something that I was experiencing from the trenches. In fact it came to a MAJOR HEAD and we parted ways because I got tired of calling him up and challenging him on his position and lack of facts and lack of telling an accurate story. Something I kept saying was his *journalistic responsibility*. I mean I would show him a similar reported story by synthtopia and others where at least they would hit on some of the correct points but Peter's call was to do it his way cuz its his blog. Great! but who suffers are all the idiots who read his word as the gospel and then they email me why their tracks suck, why they have latency, why they can't make great REAL high quality tracks in Abelton but then can in Renoise or how Fruity Loops almost killed their band but energy XT or Logic rock or why they can pitch a hip hop track to a dance groove or fill in the blank I have hundreds of emails from customer and NON customers concerning their plea to know and understand the art of recording pro audio from a musician or home/project studio or even better from a mobile kick ass platform like Linux and why ESPECIALLY REWIRE SUCKS versus JACK and Qjackctrl and WHY isn't more focus on RAD PRODUCTS like LinuxDSP's JP1 (which BTW never got the press it should have from Peter until I literally threatened the guy). And this happened over and over again to the point where we parted ways because I would hold his feet to the fire to expose the truth and not a SLANTED version that '*reads well*'. This haze is why his focus is on Apple of course (and that's ok but going to Apple to talk with them about their new whatever it is that was already in energy XT FOR YEARS EARLIER and NEVER DISCUSSED) and his focus on Abelton and all their crap. I mean I met the main guy from Abelton at of all things a Linux conference plus I went to these Dubstop classes that are such a rip off I could not stand there any longer and very very very bad for all the suckers who paid big money to learn how to beat slice when energy XT comes with an auto slicer for free. *They literally spent two hours on tab to transient* on an advanced day. I was a Pro Tools instructor for 7 years and these classes are ridiculous. I mean if you want to get involved with something really cool the best thing going in my mind is to roll with Renoise and the community there because hands down you will go further with Renoise than anything on the planet. Plus if there was any class to attend I would go bang on Dac's door and beg him in Montreal to teach a class. I learned more on how to use Renoise from Dac in 2 days than 2 years on my own with Renoise. Dac taught Tony the sampler and Tony refuses to use any other sampler and he is Pro Tools certified and Logic certified with a engineering degree from Full Sail. So what we live in is a reality where there are real good things going on in the Musical Instrument world but 'voices' like CDM fail its readers by spoon feeding them only a certain amount of information based on criteria that is not totally accurate. It kinda sucks because over and over again the ball is not being moved up the field and its not getting any better because its not getting exposed properly or fairly, except to throw a dog a bone by posting a software update for cool products like Renoise. What should be discussed in the press and the big companies HAZING of the customer that keeps this party lame. Funny thing is about LAME PEOPLE at parties is YOU THROW THEM OUT and get back to some rad tracks and bumpin grinds that wont reach its potential as long as the guys running the club and the biggest douchebags in your scene. Ask any DJ and this is a GLOBAL fact. If the host and owner of the party is LAME your party is LAME no matter how big the DJ name is on the flyer. The best thing you can do if you read this is to thank Paul Davis at Ardour for being a total stud and take a sec to make a donation to Ardour. Plus email Rui at Qjack for being super cool too! Other than that roll with Renoise you can't go wrong. Love Ronald Stewart Indamixx On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 5:42 PM, Ronald Stewart <ronaldjstewart(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote: