Need help to decide on an audio interface
Looking for a budget audio interface only using for production
Right now i’m stuck deciding between Presonus AudioBox and Focusrite Scarlet 2i2. I’ve heard Focusrite is the best choice for Ableton. My budget is around 150€. I can buy second hand Presonus for 85€. I’m not looking for extra in and outs (doubt they have more than 2 in this budget) since I’m not going to use anything more than a mic and my keyboard. 24-bit resolution and 44.1 kHz sampling rate at least is a must.
DAW: Ableton Live
OS: Win7 x64
Setup: Usb powered Akai LPK25 and NanoKontrol2. Using a studio headphone for production.
Any sound card with a few ins and outs can accomplish what you need. What you pay for is your DACs (digital to Analog converters), pre-amps and number of ins and outs.
Up your budget and get the NI Komplete Audio 6 or Motu Ultralite.
Motion seconded for Komplete Audio 6. Great card, sounds great, great features
I think Focusrite would be the better choice since this is a company having been well-know for high-quality preamps and gear for years.
Hmm Komplete Audio 6? A bit pricey I gotta look into it more if it’s deserve its price. But honestly I can’t seem to look at NI as a producer brand 
I would probably go with Focusrite, but don’t know I guess more google time for me
Any more feedbacks?
I like my 2i2 just fine. I wouldn’t expect a huge difference between them.
NI started in the production business and didn’t do DJ software for three years after that. That said I would probably go with the Focusrite.
Thanks for the info didn’t know that
I gotta say though NI definitely did something right on the KA6. I hear a lot of people prefer it to interfaces several times more expensive and the drivers are really good and rock solid.
I’m going to be disappointed when I eventually have to sell it for more inputs since I’m a little more weary of some of the other cards I would be looking at. Also the big volume knob on the top is perfect. I’m going to hold onto it as long as possible.
The next step up from the KA6 has a lot of really good cards in it.
230€ is exceeding my budget much though.
Which is fine. Especially if you’re working all in the box, you won’t notice a difference if you’re looking at this price point because none of the rest of your stuff (monitors; room; treatments; etc.) will be good enough to play what little difference there is.
I guess I’ll go with the KA6, but I read that it lacks routing like loopback, what does that mean? I’m just gonna plug in my Maschine and studio monitors
I have a Komplete Audio 6, I now use it as a secondary sound card, it’s fine for that. I’m not sure what they mean by loopback routing. There are a few issues I have with the KA 6:
-
If you use it (at least with a Mac), and set it up as your default audio-interface, to turn up or down system volume you must use the knob on top of the KA6. It’s a little inconvenient, not even mute works. I don’t know if this happens in Windows, but on the Mac it’s like this on all the NI sound cards. Rather dumb, IMO.
-
When you reboot, the soundcard makes a very loud POP in the monitors (if you leave them on). It’s really ridiculous. Same thing happens if you plug/unplug the USB. POP! Come on NI, didn’t you test? Other’s complained about this as well, so it’s not just me.
I now use an Apogee Duet 2 as my main sound card. It’s fantastic! They are expensive, and have limited IO options, but great gear. I still use the KA6 with my hardware (a Moog and iPad), and it’s perfect for that. Just not great as a main soundcard.
The reason the system volume doesn’t work is because the volume control is analog. At least, that’s why it’s that way on a lot of sound cards. Turning down your system volume is effectively bit-crushing the output……which isn’t great for monitoring at low volumes.
As for popping…I’ve never used a sound card that didn’t do that. That’s why you turn the speakers on last and off first.
Low end FocusRites are really good and very affordable. I have a Saffire Pro 14 that I use in my project studio as I don’t need many inputs for EDM production work. Rock-solid.
Yeah I wanted to buy that at first but my pc don’t have a firewire.
There are USB 2.0 FocusRite ones, too. I was skeptical about USB 2.0 and audio but it works just fine with any new PCs and Macs, computers are fast and you only need a fast audio interface for recording if you are looking at tracking 8+ tracks at the same time. And then you maybe need FW800 and a fast disk, too.
PS: My plan was and still is to get an 8+ input track audio interface if I need it for a recording project. So far there has been no need. No live recordings either that I need it for. But if you are into recording a whole band live that’s another story.
the presonus firebox and firewire series have some of the best preamps for a budget interface.. fantastic performers i used to have one… the audio box is ok the preamps are so-so… now the focusrite sapphire series are amazing, i currently own a saffire 6 i use for DJing and on the go production. preamps are excellent.
i can’t say much about the scarlett series but i would guess the scarlett series are like the lower end sapphires just like the audio box is a lower end firebox both are good choices and both are built like tanks… if you want inputs on a budget you can always hook up an external mixer or preamp to your interface
