The Echo Audio card is the Indigo IO model and it is a pcmcia cardbus card with stereo in/out (on 1/8 inch mini plugs) + volume control and will go up to 24/96. Costs about $180 USD from most online retailers + shipping.

I got one from Music 123 several weeks ago but it self destructed on power up and while I was waiting for the no hassle return to get back to them I changed my mind and ordered a TASCAM US-122 instead because for about $12 USD more than I had in the Indigo IO I felt I could get a LOT more functionality with the US-122. So far it has worked out well and, since my personal weapon of choice in the softsyth wars is GigaStudio, I think I did the right thing. I'm having both success and fun with GigaStudio 24, which came free with the US-122 (ie, since I'm having success I'm also having fun, LOL).

A friend of mine who has GigaStudio 160 came over and to the best of our ability to find out it seems that the only difference between the two is that Giga 24 1)only has 24 note polyphony (instead of 160), 2) it only has one port so it only has 16 midi tracks/channels, and 3) it doesn't have the 4 effects plugins that come with Giga 160. Other than those things, it seems to have all the other tools and capabilities, so for a FREE EXTRA with the sound card, it's pretty good, but it's obviously designed to get you to upgrade; meanwhile, I can find out what I think of GigaStudio and whether or not I want to get one of the new GigaStudio 3 versions.

Tom



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Bigger is not always better