Most audio interfaces are a rip off. Or bad quality IMHO.
More from this guy, lol. He's generally right about everything he mentions here, but I think that subjectively, some of the behringer stuff is also luck of the draw. I have an ADA 6000 and it works pretty well, but being restricted to 44.1khz x 16bit for the ADAT uplink is kind of a drag when the master device can do 192khz x 24bit+.
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If you record music or podcasts or voiceover work from a home studio, unless you’re going completely retro analog and doing stuff on tape, you need an audio interface to connect your real-world gear to your recording software; and this is how you get audio playback out of the software to your monitor speakers or headphones.
Here's a quick introduction to the topic, and some of my frustrations trying to find one that met my needs.
Generally, a consumer / prosumer audio interface will have some combination of the following:
Microphone preamps - these pre-amplify the low-level signals that come from microphones to make them audible, with adjustments to boost or cut gain as needed.
Often, mic preamps will also have the ability to send phantom power down the mic cable, which is a 48v current that can power certain kinds of mics like large-diaphragm condensers for vocals, or power other equipment like DI (Direct Inject) boxes for guitars and basses, to take the signal into a console or interface without using a guitar or bass amp. (Most Motown basses and guitars were recorded this way.)
Most consumer interfaces will have instrument level inputs so you can plug a guitar or bass directly, aka a DI.
Interfaces may have line-level inputs to accept signals from other devices like samplers, outboard effects units, CD players and the like. These are typically at a much higher signal level than mic or instrument level, but below headphone / speaker level. They’ll also typically have two or more line-level outputs, with one pair for the main outputs (stereo left and right) and then others which may be assignable via software (for specific tracks, submixes, etc).
They may be in standard rackmount format or a smaller desktop / portable form factor.
Smaller interfaces can work entirely off USB bus power; larger ones typically need an AC adapter or require mains power (typically a 3-prong IEC power cable).
So that all said, I’ve been trying to find a decent audio interface with four mic preamps, so I can plug in two mics and two DIs for guitar and bass, and have one left over for something else should the need arise.
This has to sit on my desk, so preferably I’d like something with ports on the back so that I can keep cable clutter to a minimum.
Weirdly, a lot of makers put their inputs on the front, which is convenient if you're plugging and unplugging guitars all day, but leads to a lot of cable clutter if you're not.
The clutter, it burns
Rackmount would be nice because then I could stash it under my computer display, but not all devices are rack-sized. Rackmount standards go way back, and are used for pro audio, broadcast, computing, and other equipment. Gear mounts onto a set of "rack rails" with metal ears, spaced 19" apart, and measured in 1.75" height increments, so a "1U" unit is 1.75" tall, a 4U unit is 7" tall, and so on.
19" rack equipment mounted in special shelves and under-desk rack bays
I need 48v phantom power for two ports, but not for the other two, so they need to be switchable individually.
One of the most popular brands of interface is Focusrite, who started out as a high-end recording console company by the legendary designer Rupert Neve, but except for their expensive ISA range of preamps -- which aren't even interfaces!! -- on all of their products, you can't switch 48v on individually, only in banks of 4 inputs at a time. WHY?
And ideally, under $1,000 USD.
Where this gets frustrating for me is that there’s basically just a handful of devices that tick all the boxes:
MOTU M6 - $399 - Desktop, 4-input
Arturia 8pre - 8 inputs, rackmount, and the most expensive at around $800
PreSonus Quantum ES 4 - $329 - Desktop, 4-input
Solid State Logic SSL 12 - $499 - Desktop, 4-input
Audient ID44 - $699 - Desktop, 4-input
Now I've owned MOTU, Audient and SSL interfaces before, and I use Arturia's V Collection software (softsynth reproductions of vintage synthesizers, mostly) and their hardware has always been pretty good, too.
All of these seemed capable enough; the more expensive ones also feature ADAT optical input/output, which carries 8 channels of digital audio over a TOSLink style fiber optic cable.
That's why the SSL 12 advertises itself as having "12 inputs" when 8 of them are really ADAT inputs - lots of companies do that. This is nice if you want to expand your input capacity, as there are many "preamp expanders" that don't have USB but send audio over ADAT.
So after shopping around, I got a really good deal on a demo PreSonus ES4, and tried it out, and man, it was the most finicky thing ever. (PreSonus is a US company now owned by Fender.)
First of all, even though it's a small, sleek, attractive desktop unit, it required an external USB power adapter, in addition to bus power over the data port, before it would power on successfully. I guess you can use a USB power bank on the go? Whatever.
Regular USB-C can deliver 15W of power, tops, so if it needs an additional 5W, that's means they expect your computer or laptop to support the USB-C Power Delivery standard (20W and up) to use a single cable - and since most don't as of yet, they really ought to include a USB power brick in the box.
Once I got it to power on, came the next weird thing: It wouldn't connect properly. Its little USB activity light would stay red. Apparently it didn't like connecting through a Thunderbolt hub, and it wouldn't even stay connected when directly connected to my laptop, it only stayed connected sometimes when connected via the USB hub on my monitor... when it didn't just completely lock up with all flashing red lights randomly.
So: Avoid PreSonus. (I seem to recall owning one of their Audiobox interfaces back in the day and having similar headaches. Never had issues like these with any other company.)
I returned it, and after shopping around, ended up with the MOTU M6, which I got a demo deal on again. So far, so good. To be continued!
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Anya is LIVE right now
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Yamaha audio interface for home studio, podcasts, interviews, or live streaming audio with amazing sound quality, compact, tough and versati
Explore Yamaha's audio interfaces – perfect for home studios, podcasts, interviews, or live streaming. Experience amazing sound quality in a compact, tough, and versatile package at a great price
Yamaha audio interface for home studio, podcasts, interviews, or live streaming audio with amazing sound quality, compact, tough and versati
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Once you start putting multiple monitors, a riser, an audio interface, and a couple of desktop synths on what was an expansive work surface, you run out of space real fast. (Say goodbye to that dish!)
You also run out of spots on power bars, too - especially if they're oriented in a way that's unfriendly to "wall wart" AC adapters.
like srsly people can we just have everything be USB-C PD from now on?? think of the space savings if we could just have a power bar with 24 isolated USB-C ports that can deliver up to 100w...
And then there's cable routing, and discovering that because Korg put that cool looking wood panel on the back of the Minilogue, your 90-degree cable plugs won't fit flush, and you need to get straight ones instead, which means you might need to rejig the desktop keyboard stand for more vertical space to accommodate that, and you wonder why there aren't 45-degree plugs for this sort of thing.
And the ergonomics of audio interfaces are just...weird. Most are bulky because they have to accommodate microphone preamps and big XLR plugs, plus the power circuitry to send 48v phantom power for condenser mics... but for synths/keyboards, why isn't there a sleek little input box with four to six 1/4" inputs, and a good quality analog-to-digital converter, a USB-C port and that's about it, with the rest of the controls / UI in software?