Do I really need a dedicated audio interface?

picur85

Member
Hi!

Do I need a dedicated interface if I only work with sample packs and loops on headphones, or the on-board soundcard is good enough (Realtek HD)? Is there a difference in sound quality between the integrated cards and the entry-level 2in/2out USB interfaces in the $150-200 range?
 
Audio interface takes load off cpu.
If you only use mouse or piano then no you don't need one. They sound noticeably better.
They reduce input delay to a minimum.
 
I dunno it just sound better to me with the 2i2 than without can't explain it they sound more spread out by alittle bit the sounds are slightly more spread out and I like that lol.
 
Presonus Audiobox and the Scarlett 2i2 like KonKossKang said. Even those will make a difference and give you better results...speaking from my experience. While in some case you can get by without a audio interface depending how in depth and detailed you get with your music. Later on as you get a better ear or switch locations you may notice hums, computer fan, hdd, pops when other electronics are turned on or off. Also you may have a pair of monitors that you don't have the connections for or your cables are introducing bad signals to your recordings. Having a audio interface will leave you with a way to expand or at least have more options to standard pro audio connections and gear. I used to ask the same thing and believe that asio4all would do it, but as I grew I learned how much I was limiting myself and making it harder to achieve better quality using crappy RCA cables, 3.5mm jacks unshielded cables at that. While asio4all can give you better latency than the stock drivers it still wont fix everything in the sound.

The onboard jack usually does sound way different from the interface to me from USB or firewire interfaces. If I listen via my onboard 3.5 jack everything sounds overly enhanced, closed, smeared, compressed bottom end, and loud. Along with with the sounds of the hdd loading and ground loop humming. I tried on various computers and interfaces. Not saying a audio interface will fix all your noise interference...but usually you wont have any especially with decent cables and making sure you taken care of grounding issues if any. Keep this in mind Beats audio, Realtek, SRS, etc are not made for pro audio and are more for listening and doing average user tasks for multimedia.
 
i own a RME HDSP 9632 pci soundcard which costed me a lot of money, but my sound didnt improve at all. I even feel that my old Focurite Scarlett soundcard had better sounduality
 
i own a RME HDSP 9632 pci soundcard which costed me a lot of money, but my sound didnt improve at all. I even feel that my old Focurite Scarlett soundcard had better sounduality

I guess it comes down to what you expect. There's a lot of fuss and talk about converter quality on different forums - and there are differences in them, of course. It's just that most people have acoustically lacking home studios and relatively low-end monitors that aren't even capable of presenting those differences to you. In other words, the differences in converter quality are the last 5%, imo. Pretty much any other change is going to make a more drastic change in what you're hearing. Which is probably why you're thinking the Scarlett sounded better - it might've been a bit louder on similar settings; there might even be a hint of distortion, which might end up sounding more pleasant. Hell, you might be sitting in a slightly different spot. Your monitors might be tilted a few degrees the other way that they were before - and all or any of these changes are going to change the sound more drastically than the difference between the converters. Not to mention the fact that ears adapt quickly - unless you do some strict A/B testing with immediate switching capability between the two interfaces, it's not gonna be possible to objectively tell the difference between the two.
 
I think I figured it out I have the direct monitoring switch on 24/7.
Maybe it's just the direct monitoring that sounds better because when I flip that back off it sounds like realtek.
 
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