I got this as my first sound card for when I wanted to record at home. I used it to record my guitar and singing. I have a windows vista computer, it's a dell. It has a pretty fast double core processor and 2 gigabytes of ram. It has a CD drive as well. I use it with the ableton live recording program. It works very well and I am able to get pretty good recordings with it.

UTILIZATION

I had someone install it for me who works with computers. It only took them about 10 minutes to get it in the computer. It seemed to work perfectly, they didn't say there were any problems with it. There weren't any issues with compatibility with my recording program and this sound card. It is really easy to use - there isn't much to it. I never actually needed to use the manual because it's so easy to use. The manual was pretty thick though so I would say that the manual should be sufficient.

GETTING STARTED

The drivers for the sound card work very well and there are no problems so far. I don't know if they are often updated, but I have never had any problems so I never had to get different ones. I always use this with Ableton Live so you can tell it works really well with that program. I get really good latency, which means it doesn't lag behind a lot. I can record a couple tracks at the same time, but I only ever use one. It works great for that - just plug in your microphone and you can record.

OVERALL OPINION

I have been using this for a couple of years. I like how easy it is to use and that it sounds very clear. I used to use a different sound card and it was not even close to being as clear sounding as this one. I haven't tried that many other models, but this one sounds very good to me for just a small home studio kind of thing to record myself. It was not that expensive compared to the other options, so I think it's a very good value. I would get it again if I had to choose another sound card, I have had no problem with it and it's so easy to use. It's a good buy!