Cheap interface advices!

[vadoalfamedio]

I recently changed apartment and moved home because of work reasons. Unfortunately, I'll be able to spend time in my studio only during weekends for a bunch of time.

I wanted to ask you. Can you tell me some low-end, not shitty, affordable audio interfaces to work on? Maybe a <100 € pair of monitors, too. A kind of "best among the cheapest" advice, don't want to spend a lot (I've already got ADAM + MOTU interface at home) and don't want to buy crap neither.

The budget is 100/150€ for interface, 100€ for monitors (small monitors, I'll have to share the apartment).
Here's some audio interface models I considered:

Focusrite Saffire 6 USB or Scarlett 2i4 (I excluded 2i2 because I think I'm going to need MIDI);

Tascam US-2x2

Steinberg UR22 ( a friend told me they're good)

I was told that M-Audio M-Track is good too, but I tried an M-Audio interface once and it made me a bad impression. So, I'm doubtful.

About monitors... I can't think about anything so cheap, Yamaha, maybe. I don't know because I was always of the "save the money instead of buying supercheap crap", so I never had the problem. With that budgest, it's better if I work only with headphones? I'm going to be mad

[PixelKind]

I'd go for the Steinberg. Heard really good things about it.

I wouldnt bother with monitors for that price. I would just use headphones

[krypt]

Over the time I've became an expert on DAW performance, CPU usage, and interfaces (low-price, because I was using them many years) and mid-price (600EUR limit).
I can help you out.

There are some basic filtering questions:
1/ what will you use your interafce for?
2/ do you need midi?
3/ what operating system
4/ if you had to define a key feature, what would it be?

About cheap monitors/sharing apartment - those two premises make obvious conlcusion - go for headphones. No point in speakers, neither for listening music, nor for mixing it.

And about 100EUR interfaces:
*e-mu 0204 - was using it for a while and it was nice
*presonus audiobox
*roland duo capture
*focusrite scarlett
I would not go for tascam (they do good things but not in this price range,), I would not look at m-audio (friends were disapointed, never worked on this myself) and Steinberg? i've heard its rather for homerecording (guitar etc), rather than sound production but again - it's about what do you need it for.
Take care man!
If I could suggest you something: if you're buying cheap, spare equipment, find some kind of use for it. For example I own now SPL crimson and i would need some cheap mobile interface for live performances. If you got some bigger motu, buy something mobile and it will still be useful for you, although not as good as destkop alternative.

[PixelKind]

how do u like the crimson? some say the sound is amazing and other say its a bit dark. hows the latency?

[krypt]

I have to say, that for me buying Crimson was a big purchase, I had high expectations and till the end, I was not so sure. I was looking for very good sounding and stable unit. My fav was Universal Audio Apollo Twin, but I operate on windows. So there were Crimson, Audient ID22 and RME Babyface to choose from. I bought crimson and would do it again, but the satisfaction came over time. Although, I'm using rarely half of it's features, so it offers my more than I can think of for now (in terms of connectivity, monitoring and listening).
Sound quality is VERY good. Yes, I can understand that some may say it's darker. I can say it too, especially lower mids. But I like it. I think that it is a matter of taste and good speakers with clear mid-range. If you are aware of it's 'darkness' then everythings fine. I heard, that audient is clearer, but spl's darksound suits my expectations, I can enjoy listening as well as mixing. And last - the latency - I've got 19,7ms on 96khz to 25ms on 48khz (yest, the better quality on crimson the lower latency) but I don't remember the buffersize (I'm at work now). I know it's not super-low, but I accept it. It's enough. Summing it up: I think it is a solid piece of hardware, that will last long. It's fun to use it and there are lots of options/choices, so you cannot miss buying it. Although I am thinking about buying something compact, like RME babyface for live shows(because of crimson heaviness and size) I hope that crimson will serve me well for many years. It's really good gear. Cheers!

[Resin]

The Presonus Audiobox doesn’t even support line-level signals, therefore it requires unnecessary workarounds to record gear. The Scarlet might be okay, but compared with the UR22 or the M-Audio C400 it has pretty rubbish preamps. The UR22 has weak headphone outs, which could be a problem when using high impedance headphones, but it’s still the best all-round interface for the money if you ask me. You see… all budget Interfaces have certain trade-offs.

It really depends on what you are looking for. I once worked on a super minimal setup consisting a pair of Genelec 8010 and a Apogee One for a while - I was pleased with it, but only because I was working in a tiny space and exclusively ITB. If that’s what you are looking for I’d say go with the Apogee. It sounds good, it’s tiny, has very stable drivers and can be found within your budget range, though it’s connectivity is very limited.

At home I use a Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 with a thunderbolt adapter… works great for me, thus you can only use it with the PSU (no problem for me). You can find them pretty cheap second hand, if firewire is an option for you.

[Lost to the Void]

Beyond a certain price point, pretty much all modern soundcards have a pretty amazing performance.
Ignore all this "tone" stuff, they all do a good job when taking into account pure DAW usage of output only, and once you get to the 150 price mark they all perform flat on output, it`s the input that defines the difference, and features such as monitoring foldback etc.
Converters again, once you discard the consumer stuff and look at prosumer, they are all of a good standard.
Preamps are what really make a lot of difference, if you of course require them.
Focusrite have always been pretty good with preamps, their prosumer devices are more than adequate for DAW production, the scarlett is a good series, I personally would go with that at that price point (though you can get better if you go in to the used market).

Here is a very good video to explain the science behind converters, and a good way of debunking more myths. Essentially, prosumer converters perform in very similar ways, so aim for other things to help your decision - build quality, customer support, driver stability etc

youtu.be/cIQ9IXSUzuM

Monitors, I really wouldn`t spend such a low amount, you`ll be wasting your money. Go with really good headphones or in ear monitors instead.

[vadoalfamedio]

I went for a FocusRite in the end. A Saffire 6 USB, because I found it second-hand for less than 100€...
My main concern was to not spend much money, so I'm fine with it. It's strange to read that FocusRite have "shitty" preamps because I followed lessons and helped for free just to learn some tricks in a professional studio (I mean, they have Aurora and other high-end stuff there) few months ago and they told me that FocusRite interfaces are very good in general.

[Lost to the Void]

I went for a FocusRite in the end. A Saffire 6 USB, because I found it second-hand for less than 100€...
My main concern was to not spend much money, so I'm fine with it. It's strange to read that FocusRite have "shitty" preamps because I followed lessons and helped for free just to learn some tricks in a professional studio (I mean, they have Aurora and other high-end stuff there) few months ago and they told me that FocusRite interfaces are very good in general.

The preamps are fine, maybe you might want something better of you are recording from a very subtle tube mic, or recording very nuanced flute performances, but for Synth in and out, it`s no problem at all.

[krypt]

I went for a FocusRite in the end. A Saffire 6 USB

good choice! hope it will be game changer for you!

[Resin]

It's strange to read that FocusRite have "shitty" preamps

I didn't say Focusrite in general have shitty preamps (I use a Saffire Pro myself), but the Scarlett 2i2, compared to the UR22 or M-Audio in the same price range does... as I said: compared - I didn’t meant to say that it’s a useless peace of shit. It isn’t… but there is a clearly noticeable difference between them. However, the Scarlett 8i6 and the Saffires use different preamps…

[msl]

All the cheap interfaces are about the same, sound quality wise, just pick the one with the features you want. As other have said forget monitors for less than €400-500, use headphones.


.

[rktic]

Pity i'm too late. There's a great market for second hand RME, MOTU and whatnot devices on Ebay...

For 150 bucks and a little luck you can get toprange audio devices from yesteryear that still have the best available driver support out there. Plus kickass sound quality.

[delve]

I recently grabbed a new audio card and went with the Scarlett 6i6. I been very happy with it since my purchase. Before, I had a M-audio Firewire Solo. Since I only own Pc's, Firewire ports have been fading away quickly ever since Usb 3.0. Unless you grab yourself some kind of pci expansion card.

[Hades]

I recently grabbed a new audio card and went with the Scarlett 6i6. I been very happy with it since my purchase. Before, I had a M-audio Firewire Solo. Since I only own Pc's, Firewire ports have been fading away quickly ever since Usb 3.0. Unless you grab yourself some kind of pci expansion card.

tell me about that FW crap...
Mac stopped putting them on their new MBP's just cause they want thunderbolt to kick off.
I had to buy a new MBP last year.
I have an ensemble and duet, both on FW.
Apogee assured me it would all work fine with the convertor piece from FW to thunderbolt.
And to be honest, it never gives trouble with recording audio. So it works flawless 95% of the times.
But if I want to jump in audio clips, I'll hear little clicks, or for example it doesn't work fine with Safari (I use Firefox instead).

It's no big thing, but I find it ridiculous that I paid more than 2000 euro's 3 years ago for 2 soundcards and now have that kind of little annoyances after they stopped doing FW.
Mac fucking invented FW, didn't they ?

I have my thoughts set on an Apollo quad next, but no idea when that will be.

[delve]

Damn Hades, that has got to really be seriously upsetting man, all of your hard earned coin just gone like that. Regards man

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394 Yes apple developed it in the late 80's.

[Hades]

well, no, it's not exactly gone...
I mean, I still use both soundcards on an almost daily basis, and they still work fine for 95%,
and at least I never have trouble with recording stuff, and if I don't skip forwards or backwards in an audio clip I never have problems with playback in Live either.

but it's the whole idea that pisses me off.
FW has it's own bus, for fuck's sake, it doesn't matter if technically USB3 is faster than FW,
I have so many shit connected via my USB hub : MIDI interface, ilock, mouse, 3 or 4 controllers, hell even my printer, not that I have that thing on all the time.
I want my audio to have privilege above all those things, and with FW it has exactly that.
There was no reason whatsoever to ditch FW.
But they ditched it anyway cause no one was buying stuff for thunderbolt yet.

[UN!T B]

I recently grabbed a new audio card and went with the Scarlett 6i6. I been very happy with it since my purchase. Before, I had a M-audio Firewire Solo. Since I only own Pc's, Firewire ports have been fading away quickly ever since Usb 3.0. Unless you grab yourself some kind of pci expansion card.

tell me about that FW crap...
Mac stopped putting them on their new MBP's just cause they want thunderbolt to kick off.
I had to buy a new MBP last year.
I have an ensemble and duet, both on FW.
Apogee assured me it would all work fine with the convertor piece from FW to thunderbolt.
And to be honest, it never gives trouble with recording audio. So it works flawless 95% of the times.
But if I want to jump in audio clips, I'll hear little clicks, or for example it doesn't work fine with Safari (I use Firefox instead).

It's no big thing, but I find it ridiculous that I paid more than 2000 euro's 3 years ago for 2 soundcards and now have that kind of little annoyances after they stopped doing FW.
Mac fucking invented FW, didn't they ?

I have my thoughts set on an Apollo quad next, but no idea when that will be.

Why buy an Apollo quad?

I am just going buy a second Ensemble and use the ADAT connection to create an aggregated device. Presto 16 in & 16 out! Like you, I paid 2K for 8 channels. If I wait it out a while longer, I can have 16 channels for 3K maybe even $2500 give or take. I already know the fw>tb technology works so why buy new convertors when there is nothing wrong with the ones I have already?

[Hades]

it doesn't work, not 100% like they promised.
(even you promised me that, you CUN!T !!)
I 'm just thankful the 5% that doesn't work is the not so important part.

[UN!T B]

it doesn't work, not 100% like they promised.
(even you promised me that, you CUN!T !!)
I 'm just thankful the 5% that doesn't work is the not so important part.

So its my fault you have found some internet applications or something that it doesn't work with? Sorry I didn't case test every possibility you might come up with. I should have taken that into account, silly me.

It does work with Ableton and your other audio applications tho? I told you it work with my DAW. Ableton & Logic too. It does work for me. I track in 8 channels of audio and Ableton doesn't even break 20% on cpu performance meter with a bunch of effects too. That's okay by my standards.