Sound card + music tech school course/ LONDON.

[unmd]

Hello ladies and gentlemen,
At the moment I use DELL XPS lap and microlab solo6c speakers, have no other soundcard, so my question is what is better choice, to get soundcard or monitors? Budget is 100GPB, so not too big.
Second question is about schools running music tech course in London. Do you know any good school with music tech course? Are there PCs or iMacs? Every Thursday I stay at school for music tech club and I study logic, but this is shit and black magic for meh. I'm going to look for other schools running music tech A-level or BTEC, cuz not satisfied of actual school.
Cheers

 

[fractal]

i do music tech a level but honestly mate you learn about 10% of the shit you know from the teacher. i wouldnt be so hasty to look for a course literally everything you want to know is online for free

 

[unmd]

I know right, but I prefer to do something I like at school instead of doing business... I am such a bad student when I have to do something I don't enjoy, you know what I feel ;p

 

[JReilly]

I wouldn't go so far as saying Music schools are a waste of money because I think they definitely have a place. But tbh, as the guy above said everything they will teach you is available free online. You just need to find it. If anything I'd suggest studying music theory and composition. At least they are skills you can keep for a lifetime. Music Technology changes so fast, so the chances are, you newly aquired knowledge will become outdated very quickly.

Imagine if you done a I.T course 10 years ago, what if anything would be relevant today?

 

[lostnthesound]

I'd go for a sound card first. Monitors will not do you much good if the device that's feeding the D/A signal is shit.

 

[unmd]

Hmmmm but we can think this way all the time and school could be abandoned even on business direction, because we can get anything on the net. Forget this, this is hard and important decision, now lets focus on soundcard. Any good usb 3.0 or firewire soundcards? Let's say for 100 pounds

 

[lostnthesound]

To the best of my knowledge, there are no USB 3.0 interfaces on the market as of yet. Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

TC Electronics Konnekt 6 is probably the least expensive Firewire solution you'll find, and it has preamps that are quite good.
As far as USB goes, the sky's the limit. I've heard good things about the Roland Quad Capture.

If you're looking to go even cheaper, look into the m-audio line of products.

Make sure whatever you purchase has balanced outputs. If you plan on recording any thing live such as a DJ set, make sure the unit has balanced inputs. If you an instrument that requires amplification such as a guitar or bass, make sure the unit has hi-z inputs.

Cheers.

 

[unmd]

Hmmm I'll aim for m-audio, man I am teenager how the hell I would get 170 quids for soundcard, huh?! Yeah I have numark mixtrack, so help me what to choose <100Ł No mic will be used