Hello all.
I have been using midiman's DUO usb audio interface to record into cakewalk HS.
It works OK.
I just got the midiman AUDIOPHILE 2496 PCI card (not yet installed).

I am thinking of recording the vocals directly into the audiophile. I think I will get better control using the audiophile's built in mixer.

I also seem to remember that PCI will give better fidelity than USB.

Questions:

1) Do you agree that PCI will be better for vocals then USB?

2) The DUO can be used as a standalone Mic-pre, and I could connect the line-out to the line in of the audiophile. Can someone tell me if the Audio to Digital conversion will still happen on the DUO in standalone mode? From what I understand of the DUO manual, the "standalone" mode should just output the mic signal to the DUO's line out without doing anything to it. Then I would run the output to the AUdiophile input and let the audiofile card convert into .WAV for cakewalk.

Am I correct?

(I also own a small phantom power uinit and a small mic-preamp, so I could do away with the duo. but I think the duo's pre-amps are very good).

All opinions welcome!

Thanks!

1) I don't think that there is a difference between using PCI or USB. They both transfer data not audio, so what really matters is the DA converter of the soundcard AFAIK.

2) I could only suggest you to use the DUO alone, since it has its own internal preamp. If you connect the line out of the DUO or any other preamp to the Audiophile you will get noise introduced in the signal from the audio cables (although you probably couldn't tell the difference if you have decent cables). The AD conversion in this case will happen in the Audiophile.

Regards
echo