Hi folks,

I would like to get a sound/audio interface card, and was considering a high-end consumer card like Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum. I am hoping that it will give me the ability to generate high-quality sounds and record myself, with a single card.The reason I want a single card is that my PC is short on free slots, so I would like to not go to a dedicated sound card (eg soundblaster or the like) and a separate audio i/f card, like Maudio 2496.

Are there better choices for a multi-purpose sound card? Do you know if the recording part works well, or it's too noisy? I am not looking for a professional multichannel recording, but would like to be able to record myself to put up music samples on the web, etc. Would I be able to use the audio outs with a program like a Gigasampler?