Searching for Audio Interface (USB)

Performance & Techniques Music Production
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Searching for Audio Interface (USB)

Hi everyone, im in the market for an audio interface for my productions FL Studio 10. Basically, all ill be using it for is to hook up my Mackies and my MIDI Keyboard, thats all. I don’t plan on recording music instruments (guitars, etc…) or record vocals. As of rite now im only doing remixes, and basically my computer speakers suck, so i want to start using monitors. So, im looking for something reliable and it has to be USB and supports ASIO. Im running Windows Vista. I did alot of research and read many reviews on different products, but i still can’t pin point which one suits my needs. So, any inputs are appreciated :slight_smile: thanks in advance.

PS: i even though about using my Audio 8 DJ for such a task, is it do-able?

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The Audio 8 will work for that as long as your cable runs are short enough for the unbalanced cables to not cause noise.

Best you’re going to get is probably the Avid MBox 3 Mini.

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Duet 2, best sounding interface you’ll get get for under a grand, period.

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i have a presonus audiobox and i think its great. cheap, with enough outputs and inputs. usb, mic in (x2) headphone out, midi in/out, rca out.

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If he buys a Mac, you’re entirely right.

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I have a tascam 1800 and LOVE IT not sure if you want something that big though

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Scarlett 2i2 is a pretty decent interface at an attractive price point. Just got mine in. Been using it for a day and it’s a solid little device.

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Heh…I spent a couple hours the other day making a Tascam work with PT 10. After that, I’d never buy one of their interfaces. Not worth the headaches.

The focusrite seems okay for the price, but I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen of their stuff.

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Motu is another awesome choice. Some of the most stable drivers out there and they have a wide range to select from to help meet any price point

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I haven’t been impressed with much of what I’ve seen from MOTU, but I’m weird. Also, do they make a USB interface? I thought they were more foucsed on Mac compatibility, which despite the shitty new Macbooks would still imply firewire.

Also…one thing I’d point out. I’m convinced that half the reason the 2i2 is so cheap is because they don’t have inputs on the back. Man, that’d get annoying fast.

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There’s two inputs on the front. You find inputs on the front annoying?

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Extremely.

It’s not a bad thing if you don’t have a lot of gear or have a big desk/table. But it’s annoying for leaving something (like a dj mixer or synth) plugged in all the time. Plus, I hate having instrument cables running on top of the rest of my stuff.

If you’re just using it for output, sweet. If you’re going to leave it on the floor or on top of a CPU tower, cool. If it’s going on a desk, the io should all be on the back.

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I tried using my audio 8 for production and it was a pain. No volume control on the soundcard unless you run out of the headphone jack. I disliked it and it sounded noisy using RCAs.

I got a Komplete Audio 6 and I like it a lot.

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So, I did some research and motu cards actually benchmark really well. And they make some USB/FW hybrids. So, if you ever upgrade to a Mac, you ca. Use a real bus without changing your card. No idea whether their drivers are stable on windows, though.

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Also, the 2i2 is definitely “not suck”. I need to record a demo today or tomorrow (posting while organizing my crate) and went and bought one when my last card seemed to bite the dust.

For $100 and change, it seems fine. CoreAudio compliant on OS X is a plus…the drivers were maybe a couple hundred kilobytes and appear to do nothing but disable OS X’s volume control, which implies that the volume controls on it are analog.

One thing weird about the combo jacks. The 1/4" part of the combo jack is line/instrument (TS or TRS) but the XLR is mic only. I mean…I have 1/4" to XLR cables lying around, but that’s another $15 to $50 worth of cables to record off a DJ mixer if you don’t already have the cables lying around.

Whatever…it works just fine. The preamps even seem basically okay and have a crap ton of headroom, which is more than you could say about budget interface pres 5 years ago.

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The Ultralite is a great card, very stable in my experience. I had one for years on PC and Mac systems, worked fine for me. Decent sound and good IO for the price.