greetings all
i'd appreciate some advice if it's not a bother
i've been using a 6-channel c-media 8738 for the past year, and i've had no problems until recently. i tried to record my ethnic drums (darbouqa's and a def), and realized that the card is utterly useless for recording. when a mic is plugged directly into the card, it barely records anything. the volume is unbearably low.

when used with an amp, the volume is good, but the sound... my god.
i'll try and illustrate. when the center of the darbouqa (or djembe for that matter) is hit, the so-called dum, it makes this deep, resonating sound. i belive all of you have heard the sound. however, what is recorded is this short, dull thump that sounds as if i'm banging on a plastic bucket. any ideas on what might be causing this.

i did some googling, and found that a lot of people have some recording issue with the cmi8738. so i guess it all comes down to a new card (if i'm wrong on this one please give some advice).
now, i'm not sure if i should get an "sb audigy2" or a "terratec aureon 5.1 sky." i read the reviews, and they both sound good, but i'd love to hear somebody's experience with either of the two.
also, if my memory serves, i read somewhere that the audigy has certain compatibility issues with via chipset motherboards (i might be wrong, i'm not sure)

thanks in advance

These are decent:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/delta.php


But from what you describe, the problem might not be (in fact, probably isn't) just the sound card.

What about the choice of microphone, the placement of the microphone, the choice of microphone pre-amp, the output level of the pre-amp, the possibility of clipping the sound card, and your choice of monitoring equipment (speakers or headphones).

Plus, there's quite an art to recording, so I've heard. You need to get everything right to get good results.

I hope I'm not teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but look at some of the sound recording sites on the web for good advice. (ask for links if you need them)

Cheers,
David.