There are more audio interfaces than you can possibly compare when you are living outside of the walled garden that is Digidesign’s ProTools. Having defected from the Avid world several years ago, I have burned through many. From small USB two channel interfaces to large 26 channel FireWire interfaces, I have used many. This article is intended to provide the beginning user some tips on choosing an audio interface that fits your needs and budget.
Many of these types of stories will break thing down into budgets. In my experience there are so many products, at so many budgets, that it makes more sense to categorize them by feature groups, and then let the purchaser do the qualitive research to pick which device is best at his or her budget.
The Big Split
The first place to start when choosing your audio interface is simple. Do you want a built in control surface or not? If you are coming from an analog world, used to an analog mixer, and like the feel of physical transport controls (and have relatively limited input needs) a control surface with a built in audio interface may be a perfect fit for you. There are several makers that have these types of devices such as Tascam, M-Audio and Alesis.
Most of these devices also have a quite similar price point. the key to take away is, do you want hands on control, tied to your audio interface? This is a great scenario for the mobile recorder. Don’t be fooled though, you may be able to save a few bucks up front getting a nice audio interface, and add a control surface from the likes of Mackie or Euphonix. This might help you get much more audio interface now, and still give you the option of hands on control later. I personally chose this route for the ability to extend control surfaces to simulate a much bigger desk.
USB or FireWire?
In my experience, Fire wire. Not to say anything bad about USB, but in my experience, Firewire is faster, uses less of your system resources, and is just more reliable. Don’t be afraid to go USB if you feel comfortable with it, I just don’t recommend it unless you are dealing with a small amount of inputs. (2-4)
Get In to Get Down
The next question you have to ask will make the next biggest split in your options. This question has two parts: How many inputs do you need? How many of them need to be phantom powered XLR mic inputs? This seems to be the biggest distinction between audio interfaces and it can be confusing. Audio inputs are usually split between three types: XLR Mic Inputs, Balanced or Un-Balanced 1/4 Inputs, and Digital Inputs (either SPDIF stereo or ADAT)
Out of the box, your XLR inputs are the most adaptable, specifically if they are the new Combo type that accept both XLR and 1/4” in the same jack (Pictured). The key here is to make sure you have enough jacks of the right type, to plug in everything you intend to plug in, with a nice reserve or spare inputs for the unexpected.
It’s In, But How
Now that we have narrowed your choices further, the big thing to start looking at is quality. This is a two part formula: Preamp + Converter = Overall Quality. It’s pretty easy to get access to signal to ratio specs and demo samples, etc. I find it’s best to do some searching and find people using your proposed interface, and listen to it. You aren’t going for $2,000 Apogee converters here, you are a hobbyist or you wouldn’t be reading this, right? The good news is that within reasonable tolerances, any of the audio interfaces from M-Audio, Presonus, Digidesign, MOTU, etc. are going to have similar quality. The odds are, that for your purposes, the differences will not be apparent. This is where your ears count, with a good quality microphone, good monitoring system, how well it reproduces will be obvious. Again, there just isn’t a great deal of separation in the sub $1,000 audio interface market, most of them will sound clear and transparent.
Forty-Eight Jigga What?
So we should have narrowed your list pretty far by now. The last things to consider are recording format capabilities. My only advice here is, don’t get too caught up in sampling rate. Make sure your interface supports 24-bit sample depth, you want the headroom. After that, don’t get down on 48Khz, 96 and 192 are fantastic, but they come with their own overhead for your plug-ins and system load. If you are doing serious production work that will be moved to a bigger system, it’s worth considering. For the average hobbyist, if it’s rock solid at 48/96Khz tops, that’s what you should be most concerned about. I want to make this point clear, I have bought interfaces that were rock solid at 48Khz, but sync went to hell when you went above it, even if it supported it. If 192Khz is a key feature for you, you are probably doing yourself a disservice spending $1,000 or less on an audio interface.
A Few Extra Points
One major thing to point out is that M-Audio audio interfaces specifically work with Logic Studio (as well as any other DAW software you might want to throw at it) as well as ProTools’ special M-Powered version. That’s big if you think you might be sharing sessions around. Second, take a look at the monitoring options the interface provides. Does it have enough headphone outputs? Is it going to need a dedicated monitor controller to power multiple sets of studio monitors?
Don’t forget MIDI, if you plan to use it, does it support it? If you want to add additional inputs and outputs later, does it support ADAT? Does it have Word clock sync support? If you need these things you will know what they are.
Also, read reviews, voraciously. Go to Musicians Friend, American Musical and Harmony Central and read what people think about it. Don’t go off the deep end over one bad review, there is always someone with a bad experience, concentrate on the overall sentiment towards the device, it should be pretty close to the experience you will have.
The last thing I would recommend, make sure it works well with your operating system. Most will work equally well with Mac OS X and Windows, but some work better with one than the other. Some are better on Windows XP than Vista, some might not support Snow Leopard yet. These are all things to consider.
Hopefully this will guide you well to choosing the correct interface. Enjoy Recording!
When I saw the announcement that Logic Studio 9 was out, I was practically in my car to hit the Apple store. When I read that it had guitar modeling, I was literally in my car heading to the Apple store.
I am a guitar player, and have been playing with Modeling for several years. It started with the red bean Pod, then a Pod Pro, Guitar Port with Gearbox software, Pod XT Pro, then I purchased Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3. If you aren’t familiar, Guitar Rig 3 is a fantastic modeling program with a very impressive array of sounds, all quite authentic. Modeling has taken a leap forward, but the built in amp simulator in Logic Studio 8 was still quite pathetic.
I had exceptionally high hopes for Logic Studio 9’s guitar modeler and Pedal Board. I’d like to say that I was blown away, but I am sure the tone of this article has already given away that I wasn’t. The bright spot is that the Pedal Board is fantastic.
All Gain, is nothing but Pain
Before I start saying the negative, let me say that the low gain amps sound perfectly acceptable. The Fender twin models, VOX and Roland sound alikes are very good. I still think Guitar Rig is better, but for your average pop fair with buried guitars, no one is likely to notice the difference.
The problem comes in with the high gain models. It might be because they tried to make them too accurate. That is because real amps are noisy as hell. Logic Studio 9’s guitar amp models are also noisy as hell. I would say that they are also usable, and for extreme metal sounds that get compressed and buried, you would probably get by. If you were going for a beautiful legato solo with Steve Vai like gain, you are probably going to be frustrated by the intolerable amp buzz between your singing notes.
Stomp Your Way To Better Music
As a guitar player, I love stomp boxes. I notoriously scour craigslist and pawn shops for cheapo and vintage pedals just to see what kind of weird sounds I can make. With those guys, I have to print it when I hit record. With the stomp box models in Logic Studio, you can stick all kinds of vibe on your guitar tracks, or bass, vocals or anything else.
When you have this kind of sonic palette at your finger tips, you can go from your plane Jane guitar tracks, to the gushing lush sounds of U2’s the edge, all in perfect sync with your project’s tempo.
You’ll Love This
The bottom line is that this is a great tool. Even if you have to supplement it’s tonal qualities with other plugins, or just record real amps, it’s always nice to have options. Between these two plugins, you’ll have more options than you can imagine.