Performance with 15 year old soundcard (M-Audio Delta 66)

[LieMfB]

I've been using the same M-Audio Delta 66 soundcard for more than 15 years and been very happy with it. It's a PCI card with breakout box (4 in, 4 out) and works great in Linux without a lot of configuration.

Now I'm about to upgrade my audio workstation (new mobo, cpu, memory) and I'm not sure how this soundcard is going to work with that. Most new motherboards I'm looking at only have PCI Express slots, no PCI. I've already ordered a PCIe-to-PCI adapter card, just to see how that works before deciding on computer parts.

Anyway, what would you have done? Buy a new, more modern sound card or try to stick with the Delta 66? Seems like USB soundcards are very popular these days, but I'm not convinced that they keep up very well with the latency, and besides, I need to find one that works well on Linux (drivers, etc.). Would be nice to continue using my tried and trusted Delta 66.

Any input appreciated!

[Glennbo]

I was faced with a similar dilemma. I plan to build a new DAW when Asus finally has some mobos with the AMD B550 chipset, and I'm counting on there not being any available with PCI slots.

Up until about six months ago I used two M-Audio Delta 2496 cards so I could have four analog inputs. Worked freeking great in Linux, but I made my decision to get a new sound device on two accounts.

I wanted both more inputs and USB out of the box form factor, so I bought a Behringer UMC1820 with 8 analog inputs that have their own very nice Midas mic preamps. I get just a smidgen of higher latency in that I needed to add another period to make it rock stable like the M-Audio Deltas were.

A real plus side effect of me switching is with my acoustic drums, mic'd guitar speaker cab in a closet, vocal mic in the main room, and bass preamp/cabinet modeler all plugged into it, I was able to setup track templates that are pre-configured for the inputs they need. Pop an electric guitar template into a project, and it has the routing already setup and is already in record, ready to go.

[s wave]

Might be worth looking at a cheap dual Xeon machine. Graphics lack but I picked up a decent circa 2002 ish PC for about $8. The boards have PCI X the last fastest PCI... worth having a look though for that price.

[kstn]

Originally Posted by LieMfB

Anyway, what would you have done? Buy a new, more modern sound card or try to stick with the Delta 66? Seems like USB soundcards are very popular these days, but I'm not convinced that they keep up very well with the latency, and besides, I need to find one that works well on Linux (drivers, etc.). Would be nice to continue using my tried and trusted Delta 66.

Not sure how good are adapters, but if you've already buy one, why not to try Delta with it (I've worked with 4x4 and 10x10 and they were great). And then, depending from the results, decide do you need an other card and what you need from it.

[tjingboem]

as a soundcard, i use the Delta 1010 (PCI card but with the breakout box).
As it was quite costly at the time, i dived into the issue of updating the motherboard that meets more or less the latest standards.

I needed the PCI slot, and found one in the Asus z170. This is now about 2 years ago, but perhaps somewhere you could find one?
There are several version of this type, so watch out for the right version