What is the use of an Amiga soundcard?

[McVenco]

Yes, that might seem a bit of a simple question, but since I never really got past the sound of Paula, I'm trying to find out more about their functionality and usability in my music-making hobby. I presume they can be used for playing CDs or MP3 files, but I already use my stereo set and PC for that use so I don’t need one for that.

However, for more creative purposes I might be interested in getting one. So here’s some questions:

-Which programs will profit from, or exclusively use such a soundcard in the creation of music?
-Can I use a soundcard for recording music to the Amiga (output from a mixer)? Up to what bitrate/quality? Is a standard A4000/040 any good for this purpose?
-Are there any soundcards which include a MIDI-interface?

And finally, just to be curious: what soundcard do YOU have, and what do you use it for/with?

Any info/help is welcome. :-)

[McVenco]

:bump:

Anyone with info? Or anyone who wants to sell me a soundcard :-)? (and telling me what I can use it with)

[golem]

I have no experience of using any Amiga soundcards but I have looked into the options available. Most of them are 16-bit AD convertors and codecs (in these I would class the Tocatta, Prelude and maybe Repulse). The ones that are more exciting to me are the Delfinas which have come in a number of flavours over the years. These cards have an onboard Motorola 56k DSP which can be used for FX or MP3 decoding without straining the Amiga CPU. I get the impression though that any Amiga soundcard is a bit flaky and this is what has stayed my hand from reaching for my wallet. The only soundcard currently available new I think is the Delfina Flipper (see Amigakit).  ;-)

[Flashlab]

16 bit sound, more channels but the software has to support AHI which is like P96/CGX only for sound. Some software supports some soundcards natively though.

There are quite a few programs that support AHI.

Some cards also have hardware MP3 decoding like the Delfina series which I own in the Lite flavour.

[arkpandora]

Hi,

I have a Toccata internal 16-bit sound card, that I have only used for a few hours until now.  I tested it on a 68040 at 25 MHz running AmigaOS 3.9, which is fast enough to digitize in 44 KHz 16-bit and read any uncompressed sound file, but too slow to read MP3 files with a decent sound quality.

[pVC]

Recent thread about Amiga sound cards

[stopthegop]

I use my AD516 to record files I get from napster, itunes, et al.  I get excellent results (44Khz) by cabling the output from my peecee to the stereo inputs of my AD516.  One problem is the AD516 is so good it will pick up quite a bit of distortion from the PCs el-cheapo audio circuitry.  Fortunately that can be cleaned up nicely in software.  After a bit of processing, I end up with unrestricted (headers stripped) CD quality MP3 files that sound as good as, if not better, than the originals.  The AD516 is an amazing card, though its hard to tell just how good unless you're playing back on commensurate quality speakers and amp.  

[McVenco]

pVC wrote:
Recent thread about Amiga sound cards/quote]

Hm, must have missed that one. Thanks!