Do i need an audio interface?

J

Jack Wald

New member
Hey, I was wondering if an audio interface is really necessary to my setup. Right now ive been kinda getting by with built in soundcards. My monitors are Alesis M1Active 520 Usb M1Active 520 USB Nearfield Studio Monitors with USB Audio I/O I plug my keyboard in with a midi to usb cable, which i think is fine because i only use it to control software instruments. I have a controller (Lpd8) which plugs in directly to usb. And my dj controller is a Numark Mixtrack Pro, which has built in ins and outs http://www.numark.com/product/mixtrackpro I do some basic recording with a friend with a Usb mic for vocals and guitar. Do you see any reason for me to get an interface? If so, could you point me towards one that sounds right for my situation?
Any help is appreciated!
 
If you're happy with what you have... why buying a USB interface...?!
An USB interface would give a more accurate sound, while monitoring your recordings and productions, while even recording through it, but for that you would need another mic... For you I would go with one of new Scarlett interfaces!
Cheers!
 
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Are you happy with your current setup?

If so... keep doing what you're doing. Remember man... guys in the 80's, 90s, even early 2000's were making hits off of things that spec-wise we would consider inferior. And the music still sounds good.

If you're running into recording issues, or not happy with certain aspects of your sound.. then yeah, you may want to look to upgrade to a good interface. Are you having issues with DAW stability? (Is your CPU meter fluctuating all over the place?) Is there noticeable latency in your MIDI roundtrip... or is a delay in your voice monitoring annoying when recording? These are common symptoms of not having an interface.

If you're having those types of issues and need to upgrade, i'd look at Roland Quad Capture. Most threads I encounter, it's the solution to someone's recording problems (ie.. their old interface was acting weird, they switched to Quad Capture, problems were solved). The top of the line in terms of system performance is RME interfaces. They come with a pricetag though, however.. if you have the money, I can say it's worth it, I've got an RME UCX. Echo Audio also has great solutions. I probably wouldn't go the Focusrite route to be honest. I hear they sound good... but it seems like it's a hit & miss with their audio drivers. Some users say it works great... others are pulling out their hair.

If you need something that "sounds" better... it's debateable, but the preamps on an interface + a good mic would probably sound better than the preamps built-in to the USB mic. Highly debateable though.. and may not be a super huge difference. Same can be said for DA converters to your monitors. You'd have to hook up your Alesis monitors to the interface however to test. Not certain if you would actually "hear" the difference (i think you would, but i can't say for certain since I haven't done it).... but i would imagine the interface's outputs to be higher spec'd than the DA conversion built in to the Alesis monitors
 
Thanks for the very useful replys! Heres what Ive come up with. I may buy a mic soon, because ive been recording with my friends usb mic at his house. So i think ill buy one to use for mic-ing my guitar amp (or acoustic guitar), other vocal things i want to record, etc. Then i could also plug my monitors into it, hopefully for a little boomier or crispier sound. And my midi keyboard, just to minimize any latency it has. You mentioned DAW stability? With that setup i just mentioned, would it help to free up some CPU all? I took a look at the focusrite interfaces, and loved the layout. I see what you mean about the mixed reviews about the drivers, but does that just mean it would be tough to set up? I was looking at their scarlett 6i6, and i love the layout of everything on the interface itself, and the 2 headphone outputs, etc. Although the quad capture looks great, looking forward, I think i may want a little more. Better to buy one now that will last me a very long time than buy one and need to upgrade next time i get a new piece of hardware! and i would love an RME, but unfortunately their all out of my budget. Seeing what i can get for $250, i wouldnt want to spend any more than that.
Thoughts?
 
Jack Wald said:
Thanks for the very useful replys! Heres what Ive come up with. I may buy a mic soon, because ive been recording with my friends usb mic at his house. So i think ill buy one to use for mic-ing my guitar amp (or acoustic guitar), other vocal things i want to record, etc. Then i could also plug my monitors into it, hopefully for a little boomier or crispier sound. And my midi keyboard, just to minimize any latency it has. You mentioned DAW stability? With that setup i just mentioned, would it help to free up some CPU all? I took a look at the focusrite interfaces, and loved the layout. I see what you mean about the mixed reviews about the drivers, but does that just mean it would be tough to set up? I was looking at their scarlett 6i6, and i love the layout of everything on the interface itself, and the 2 headphone outputs, etc. Although the quad capture looks great, looking forward, I think i may want a little more. Better to buy one now that will last me a very long time than buy one and need to upgrade next time i get a new piece of hardware! and i would love an RME, but unfortunately their all out of my budget. Seeing what i can get for $250, i wouldnt want to spend any more than that.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Focusrite is notable for having nice-sounding mic preamps in their interfaces.

Native Instruments is notable for having nice multi-client ASIO drivers, and earning a pretty decent ranking on the low-latency performance benchmarks (relative to price).

Low-latency performance benchmarks of common audio interfaces (higher is better):

dawbench-llp-09-12-1.jpg


-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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Lol my boy Salem knows his stuff. Respect

Wheres tht Traktor Audio 2 rank on latency?
 
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Happy Beats said:
Lol my boy Salem knows his stuff. Respect

Wheres tht Traktor Audio 2 rank on latency?
Click to expand...

I've been led to believe that the current-generation NI audio interface products are all built on top of the same core drivers and architecture, so I'd expect it to be about the same.

NI doesn't claim any "performance increase" in any of their higher-end cards (just more inputs/outputs and added features), which would seem to support this assumption.

Focusrite cards, in spite of their nice-sounding preamps, consistently score poorly in this test with regards to low-latency performance.

-Ki
Salem Beats
 
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