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AxeBreaker
Jan 1, 2005
Who fucking cares?

Flipperwaldt posted:

I think you got recommended it to split op the stereo signal into to unbalanced monos for plugging into a mixer or interface though, I think? Which would be right.


I kinda gave up on new hardware and got a Korg Taktile 49 MIDI controller and the Arturia V collection while it was half off, so no interface for now. I just wanted to say you were correct with that bit about splitting the signal.

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Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



Twiin posted:

I bought a MOTU MicroBook II to replace my Akai EIEIO, but I get crazy pops and crackles on both my desktop and laptop with it. I just want a sound card that works. Does anyone have one of those. Augh.
Possibly another case of USB3 compatibility problems? Do the crackles go away at longer latency settings? Latest firmware? Tried a USB2 port?

AxeBreaker posted:

Korg Taktile 49 MIDI controller
If you can be arsed, use it for a couple of weeks and post your impressions in either the synth thread or the electronic music thread. I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Sep 9, 2014

Twiin
Nov 11, 2003

King of Suck!

Flipperwaldt posted:

Possibly another case of USB3 compatibility problems? Do the crackles go away at longer latency settings? Latest firmware? Tried a USB2 port?

My desktop only has USB2 ports and my laptop only has USB3 ports. Latest firmware, tried all latency settings. It was briefly stable at 512 on the laptop but only briefly.

I sold my FW Ultralite years ago because it did the same thing.

fallenturtle
Feb 28, 2003
paintedblue.net
I'm currently looking to move from my EMU 1212m PCI audio interface to an external USB model. While I like my 1212m, I figure its time to move on since I'm running Win7 and using audio drivers that are unsupported betas released long ago. While I could go PCI again I want to go USB because I want a physical volume knob for the sound going to my active monitors, I want a convenient way to connected headphones (since the EMUs audio outs go to the monitors I had to get creative (no pun intended) for my headphones which involved going from the digital out on my EMU to DAC to headphone amp and still it wasn't even that loud), and I need to replace my interface for running guitars and mics into my computer which is an old Behringer mixer that has developed a lot of noise and hum. Also I'm planning USB just so that I don't have to be concerned with having enough PCI slots the next time I upgrade my PC.

I don't actually need much as far as ins and outs are concerned. I just need 1 set of balanced outs to my active monitors, and 2 ins so I can connect both a mic (XLR) and guitar (1/4"). I require MIDI in/out too, but I figure I can also get a separate cheap adapter for that if need be. For the most part the device will just be playback, I only occasionally record vocals or other instruments, but I mostly work in Cakewalk Sonar with VSTs.

Like most folks I first was looking at the Scarlett 2i2 but after reading through this thread and elsewhere I'm concerned about the latency. It also seems like the NI Komplete Audio 6 is popular but it seems like its overkill for what I need.

Is there an audio interface that is low latency that falls somewhere in between the Scarlett and the Audio 6 or is the Audio 6 basically the best sub-$250 USB audio interface when it comes to performance and quality?

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

fallenturtle posted:

Like most folks I first was looking at the Scarlett 2i2 but after reading through this thread and elsewhere I'm concerned about the latency. It also seems like the NI Komplete Audio 6 is popular but it seems like its overkill for what I need.

Is there an audio interface that is low latency that falls somewhere in between the Scarlett and the Audio 6 or is the Audio 6 basically the best sub-$250 USB audio interface when it comes to performance and quality?
The 2i2's got terrible latency and weak gain, and no MIDI. I sold my Komplete Audio 6 because it had USB problems out the yang (both USB 2 and 3), and it can only direct monitor channels 1 & 2 for some reason, which is very silly. Now, Native Instruments have released a couple firmware and driver updates for the KA6 specifically to address USB 3 problems, but those came out after I sold mine, so maybe it's fine now. I don't know. (But NI has notes on their site about USB 3 not being officially supported.)

In that category my choices in that price range are still Roland Duo-Capture EX, Avid Fast Track Duo, and Steinberg UR22. The first two offer additional iPad/tablet compatibility and the last one offers very high sample rates and the best performance of all five interfaces I've mentioned. NOTE: The UR22 has had a couple acknowledged manufacturing defects which Steinberg will fix/replace for free if you end up with one of the affected units, but if you buy one new from a store (vs. buying used) you're less likely to get one of the problem units to begin with.

If you do end up with an audio interface that has no MIDI, the cheapest USB-to-MIDI interface I can recommend is the MOTU USB FastLane. There are all sorts of sub-$50 "usb to midi cables" which I wouldn't touch with a hundred foot pole. They're notoriously unreliable in a number of ways.

EDIT: I have owned, used, and tested all of the above audio interfaces. I resold all but the Duo-Capture (which I kept for its feature set), although I use a different interface for my primary DAW PC. Kept the Roland mainly for tablet use and for traveling.

Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Sep 14, 2014

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



What with all the USB3 troubles and with Zoom getting such good results in your tests, Radiapathy, I'm quite curious about the USB 3 audio interfaces Zoom announced in april (and that now show as deliverable on Bax-shop in 24 weeks).



also in 4 and 8 channel versions. Those have two headphone outs with separate volume control, which seems neat.

Viability of this would also depend on prices, which are not known yet.

I guess I think this is exciting because I don't know of any other USB 3 interfaces. Is this (going to be) the first one?

fallenturtle
Feb 28, 2003
paintedblue.net

Radiapathy posted:

The 2i2's got terrible latency and weak gain, and no MIDI. I sold my Komplete Audio 6 because it had USB problems out the yang (both USB 2 and 3), and it can only direct monitor channels 1 & 2 for some reason, which is very silly. Now, Native Instruments have released a couple firmware and driver updates for the KA6 specifically to address USB 3 problems, but those came out after I sold mine, so maybe it's fine now. I don't know. (But NI has notes on their site about USB 3 not being officially supported.)

In that category my choices in that price range are still Roland Duo-Capture EX, Avid Fast Track Duo, and Steinberg UR22. The first two offer additional iPad/tablet compatibility and the last one offers very high sample rates and the best performance of all five interfaces I've mentioned. NOTE: The UR22 has had a couple acknowledged manufacturing defects which Steinberg will fix/replace for free if you end up with one of the affected units, but if you buy one new from a store (vs. buying used) you're less likely to get one of the problem units to begin with.

If you do end up with an audio interface that has no MIDI, the cheapest USB-to-MIDI interface I can recommend is the MOTU USB FastLane. There are all sorts of sub-$50 "usb to midi cables" which I wouldn't touch with a hundred foot pole. They're notoriously unreliable in a number of ways.

EDIT: I have owned, used, and tested all of the above audio interfaces. I resold all but the Duo-Capture (which I kept for its feature set), although I use a different interface for my primary DAW PC. Kept the Roland mainly for tablet use and for traveling.

Are there any other reasons besides the USB3 issue that you prefer the UR22 to the Komplete Audio? It seems like the Komplete according to your chart a few pages back has superior stats.

havelock
Jan 20, 2004

IGNORE ME
Soiled Meat
FWIW I have the KA6 and it works fine via usb2 for me. I mostly just play guitar rig through it, but there are no clicks or pops and the latency is fine.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

fallenturtle posted:

Are there any other reasons besides the USB3 issue that you prefer the UR22 to the Komplete Audio? It seems like the Komplete according to your chart a few pages back has superior stats.
I had problems with my KA6 on both USB 3 and USB 2. With USB 3 it simply couldn't play or record without pops and drops. On USB 2 the interface wouldn't wake up when my computer did, so I had to unplug/replug it all the time, which was a hassle considering every other USB interface I've ever used had no such troubles.

I also mentioned the direct monitoring thing. Not being able to direct monitor inputs 3/4 makes those inputs useless for my purposes.

If not for the USB weirdness I experienced (and which I am definitely not alone in experiencing if you check the NI forums), I'd actually say it's one of the best interfaces you can get in its price range, because it is low latency and comes with some good bundled software too. But just based on my own experience I can't recommend it.

I'd love to know if NI's recent firmware and driver updates improved things, but I sold mine a while back, so...

fallenturtle
Feb 28, 2003
paintedblue.net

Radiapathy posted:

I had problems with my KA6 on both USB 3 and USB 2. With USB 3 it simply couldn't play or record without pops and drops. On USB 2 the interface wouldn't wake up when my computer did, so I had to unplug/replug it all the time, which was a hassle considering every other USB interface I've ever used had no such troubles.

I also mentioned the direct monitoring thing. Not being able to direct monitor inputs 3/4 makes those inputs useless for my purposes.

If not for the USB weirdness I experienced (and which I am definitely not alone in experiencing if you check the NI forums), I'd actually say it's one of the best interfaces you can get in its price range, because it is low latency and comes with some good bundled software too. But just based on my own experience I can't recommend it.

I'd love to know if NI's recent firmware and driver updates improved things, but I sold mine a while back, so...

I'd love to know that too. :)

Edit: This thread seems to indicate the answer is "no": http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/komplete-audio-6-clicks-dropouts-cpu-spikes-every-15-seconds

I'm on the fence between these two. The cheaper Steinberg pretty much does have everything I need and all the additional features of the KA6 are icing. But if the sound quality and latency are better on the KA6, I'm willing to spend the extra $80 (Komplete Essentials is a nice extra too... I don't care about the software that comes with the Steinberg since I already have a DAW (Sonar X3).

My biggest "latency" concern is actually playing VST instruments with my midi keyboard. Am I correct in thinking that that's more an issue of computer power than audio interface latency? Of course I would like to be able to also play my guitar processed by Amplitude or Guitar Rig where I assume audio interface latency IS an issue.

Edit 2: I've decided the KA6 is just too iffy... and of course right as I'm ready to pull the trigger on the UR22 Sweetwater goes out of stock.

fallenturtle fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Sep 16, 2014

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



fallenturtle posted:

My biggest "latency" concern is actually playing VST instruments with my midi keyboard. Am I correct in thinking that that's more an issue of computer power than audio interface latency? Of course I would like to be able to also play my guitar processed by Amplitude or Guitar Rig where I assume audio interface latency IS an issue.
No, for playing vsts audio interface latency is important too. It's part of the same thing. Though you only deal with output latency rather than roundtrip latency (which is the total of all input and output latencies).

CPU power is important as well. When you lack cpu power, you'll have to increase buffer size (increasing latency) to have stable stutter and distortion free output. Though on any reasonably modern computer you can have completely unnoticeable latencies and this only becomes a problem when your processor is occupied with piles and piles of plugins.

I'm sure it's all a fair bit more complicated than how I'm explaining it, but this is more or less what you'll find in practice.

invision
Mar 2, 2009

I DIDN'T GET ENOUGH RAPE LAST TIME, MAY I HAVE SOME MORE?
I have an m-audio firewire 410 and PT 7.xx

The 410 is on it's last legs.

I want something that's sub like ~800 and works with PT. I've heard that avid finally did away with the hardware locking so now it will work with anything, but I also don't want to make a buying decision off of yelp reviews.

Needs balanced 1/4" out, and XLR + 1/4" in.

Firewire preferred only because I don't have USB3.0 and I had a really bad experience with a fasttrack a long time ago.

iostream.h
Mar 14, 2006
I want your happy place to slap you as it flies by.

I know for a fact (personal use) that Pro Tools 10 and 11 are NOT locked to hardware (other than requiring an iLok of course).

I've very much enjoyed the MOTU 8Pre and the 828mkII myself. Very clear, uncolored pre's and easy to work with.
What platform are you on?

invision
Mar 2, 2009

I DIDN'T GET ENOUGH RAPE LAST TIME, MAY I HAVE SOME MORE?

iostream.h posted:

I know for a fact (personal use) that Pro Tools 10 and 11 are NOT locked to hardware (other than requiring an iLok of course).

I've very much enjoyed the MOTU 8Pre and the 828mkII myself. Very clear, uncolored pre's and easy to work with.
What platform are you on?

Ah, knew I forgot something. Windows7.

e: Looks like I can grab an 002 or 003 for ~$300. Those were the hot poo poo a long time ago, worth buying now?

invision fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Oct 3, 2014

Hollis Brownsound
Apr 2, 2009

by Lowtax

invision posted:

I have an m-audio firewire 410 and PT 7.xx

The 410 is on it's last legs.

I want something that's sub like ~800 and works with PT. I've heard that avid finally did away with the hardware locking so now it will work with anything, but I also don't want to make a buying decision off of yelp reviews.

Needs balanced 1/4" out, and XLR + 1/4" in.

Firewire preferred only because I don't have USB3.0 and I had a really bad experience with a fasttrack a long time ago.

You may be able to score an RME Fireface for around ~$800, I got mine a year ago and it absolutely owns bones.

Dr. Honked
Jan 9, 2011

eat it you slaaaaaaag
I've been using a Novation Ultranova as my primary audio interface for a while now and it is pretty decent and flexible for an amateur noodler. The inconvenience is, however, that the interface settings are mainly per patch on the Ultranova. Change your patch and your microphone goes away, unless you set it up again. When I acquired more gear recently (Volca Beats and Volca Bass) I realised that I had to get something better. I wanted to be able to play the Volcas and Ultranova together, at the same time, and that needs a mixer. So I got a Behringer Xenyx 1024USB. This fills the need for a mixer for live noodling, and also gives me a bigger audio interface.

It's a decent mixer for my amateur needs but I'm a bit disappointed with the options provided when connected as a USB audio device. It's just a single audio device, not as flexible as the Ultranova. You can either use it as an output or an input, no way to break out individual channels.

Having said that, it does everything I need and more, and it's a decent price. There's Mackie boxes around the same price point - are they better? I have no idea, it would be nice to find out.

Elector_Nerdlingen
Sep 27, 2004



I'm completely new to audio interfaces. I want to play my bass and guitar (mostly bass) through something like amplitube or guitar rig, record bits and pieces, and generally mess around making some drumbeats and stuff to play to. I've been loving around with Rocksmith (and their cable) but it's been an overall crap experience and I don't really want to play a game, I just want to play bass.

I was thinking about picking up a Scarlett interface, but there's a lot of talk about latency, and that's a big turnoff. So from reading this thread and various reviews and stuff, it looks like if I pick up a Komplete Audio 6, I'll not only get a good (hopefully non-laggy) interface, but also the software I need to play/record and maybe make some electronic drums or whatever. Is that a good choice given what I'm planning on using it for?

Also, I'll be plugging into computer speakers for now, and if I've understood this thing correctly, it will just act as a soundcard and all I need to do is pick up a 2 x 1/4" to 1x 3.5mm cable. Right?

Future plans are to pick up some mid-range monitors, but for now it's going to be computer speakers + Audiotechnica M50s. One more question - does plugging in headphones mute the main output? Or is there a way to change the output from main to just headphones?

Earwicker
Jan 6, 2003

anyone here using a Behringer FCA1616? it seems pretty good for the price and so far in terms of recording into the computer it has been great, very clean, no problems. but I was also using the main analog outs and they seem to have randomly died, like they are recognized on the computer just no sound comes from them.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

Earwicker posted:

anyone here using a Behringer FCA1616? it seems pretty good for the price and so far in terms of recording into the computer it has been great, very clean, no problems. but I was also using the main analog outs and they seem to have randomly died, like they are recognized on the computer just no sound comes from them.
Haven't used any Behringer interfaces, but I was seriously looking at the FCA1616 a few months ago when looking into getting an additional interface with digital I/O. (Ended up with a MOTU Track 16 due to form factor.)

Anyway, most interfaces with more than 4 ins/outs come with some kind of mixing/routing software- I presume this is the case with Behringer as well? All manufacturers have their own solutions, but in my experience it usually boils down to this: Each of the interface's hardware outputs (including headphone jacks) has its own submix that you can control within the mixing software.

If you're not hearing anything out the main outs, it could be that some of the software routings got messed up, and you just have to re-route, say, your "software outputs" or "DAW outputs" to your interface's hardware outputs.

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe
B & H has the Tascam US-122MKII for just $45 today.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/657978-REG/Tascam_US_122MKII_US_122MKII_USB_2_0.html/dealZone/true

I'm just getting into the audio world (and just discovered this thread tonight) and that thing popped up in my inbox so I figured it might be relevant.

I'm sure it's not on the level of some of the stuff in here for sure, but for beginners it seems like there's not a lot to lose.

Whale Cancer
Jun 25, 2004

Any suggestions for a usb interface to record guitars with active pickups? I hear a lot of AI's have clipping issues. Looking for something cheap too.

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe

BonoMan posted:

B & H has the Tascam US-122MKII for just $45 today.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/657978-REG/Tascam_US_122MKII_US_122MKII_USB_2_0.html/dealZone/true

I'm just getting into the audio world (and just discovered this thread tonight) and that thing popped up in my inbox so I figured it might be relevant.

I'm sure it's not on the level of some of the stuff in here for sure, but for beginners it seems like there's not a lot to lose.

Haha this came in and it's hilariously poorly built. It's got 4 big knobs on it and NONE of them rotate with the same tension. One has perfect resistance and the other three are varying degrees of "loose" to "there's no way this can actually work" loose. It also has three dip switches. Again one is perfect and one is medium and one is incredibly loose.
It's like the loving Goldilocks of terrible hardware design.

Hollis Brownsound
Apr 2, 2009

by Lowtax

BonoMan posted:

Haha this came in and it's hilariously poorly built. It's got 4 big knobs on it and NONE of them rotate with the same tension. One has perfect resistance and the other three are varying degrees of "loose" to "there's no way this can actually work" loose. It also has three dip switches. Again one is perfect and one is medium and one is incredibly loose.
It's like the loving Goldilocks of terrible hardware design.

Yeah, I mean, Tascam.....

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe

HollisBrown posted:

Yeah, I mean, Tascam.....

We have precisely one other piece of Tascam equipment in our gear lineup. A TR-60D that flies with our 5D package. I mean it's not the best thing in the world, but it's still built ten times better than this piece of poo poo.

Hollis Brownsound
Apr 2, 2009

by Lowtax

BonoMan posted:

We have precisely one other piece of Tascam equipment in our gear lineup. A TR-60D that flies with our 5D package. I mean it's not the best thing in the world, but it's still built ten times better than this piece of poo poo.

They're just all over the place, that's what I mean, some stuff is great, some is just terrible.

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe

HollisBrown posted:

They're just all over the place, that's what I mean, some stuff is great, some is just terrible.

Yeah it definitely puts me off from future purchases.

Also, what the hell is your avatar from? Jesus Christ.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

HollisBrown posted:

They're just all over the place, that's what I mean, some stuff is great, some is just terrible.
Yeah, I almost bought their UH-7000 over the summer; thing's really nice. I ended up going for a MOTU Track-16 because of the additional I/O.

Their new line of interfaces (US-2x2, US-4x4) also look very nice for the price, in terms of features and stated specs. Almost tempted to pick up the 2x2 just to see if it's a good option to recommend for entry-level use. All of the more common entry-level devices (even ones that I like) have at least one or two issues that may or may not be a showstopper for some folks.

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



I don't know man. I like the thrill of the gamble as much as any guy, but on the other hand Presonus has the AudioBox iTwo in totally the same price range. I know nothing about it, but somehow that already seems a safer bet.

Declan MacManus
Sep 1, 2011

damn i'm really in this bitch

My crappy bottom dollar ART USB interface finally kicked the bucket. What's another sub-$250 interface that has decent headroom, combination XLR/quarter inch inputs, and sounds decent on its own?

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.
All right, this new Roland interface is enticing.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/super_ua/

Muuuch better idea than the weird Mobile UA thing they did a few months ago, which was really just a DAC with 1/8" outputs.

And in case you missed it, Arturia finally spilled the beans on their new interface, and it does look pretty good: http://www.arturia.com/audiointerface

So, I plan to get the Roland, Arturia, and the Zoom one Flipper mentioned a few months ago and do a round-up.

BonoMan
Feb 20, 2002

Jade Ear Joe

Radiapathy posted:

All right, this new Roland interface is enticing.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/super_ua/

Muuuch better idea than the weird Mobile UA thing they did a few months ago, which was really just a DAC with 1/8" outputs.

And in case you missed it, Arturia finally spilled the beans on their new interface, and it does look pretty good: http://www.arturia.com/audiointerface

So, I plan to get the Roland, Arturia, and the Zoom one Flipper mentioned a few months ago and do a round-up.

Proper link for the Arturia: http://www.arturia.com/audiofuse/overview

good jovi
Dec 11, 2000

'm pro-dickgirl, and I VOTE!

Here comes the usual newbie questioning:

At the moment I just have some Volcas and an old Kaossilator, but I'm getting kind of tired of wearing cans over a pair of earbuds. Plus I'd like to eventually preserve some of these terrible noises for posterity. I'm looking at mixers and audio interfaces and such, but I have some questions.

If I get a mixer and connect its output to a small usb audio interface, I'm only going to get a single track in my DAW, right? Isolating each instrument to record separate tracks sounds annoying.

Pickings seem to get a little slim for interfaces with more than 4 inputs, though. The idea of actually having to unplug things and plug other things in is disgusting to me, so I'd like to try and get something with more flexibility. I'm looking at the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8, and it seems to fit the bill nicely. I can just plug everything into that, hear everything through my headphones, and the DAW will see them as separate tracks? What's the catch?

Plus apparently ADAT is a thing? So in some horrible future when I'm divorced and own more than 8 synthesizers, I don't have to throw the Scarlett in the garbage?

iostream.h
Mar 14, 2006
I want your happy place to slap you as it flies by.

good jovi posted:

If I get a mixer and connect its output to a small usb audio interface, I'm only going to get a single track in my DAW, right? Isolating each instrument to record separate tracks sounds annoying.
Correct, unless you can run stereo outs from your mixer, in which case you'd have 2.

Depending on the aux sends and/or FX loops, you might could engage in a little fuckery to effectively gain more output channels going into your interface, but basically, no, there'll just be whatever you're running out from your mixer as the output.

quote:

Pickings seem to get a little slim for interfaces with more than 4 inputs, though. The idea of actually having to unplug things and plug other things in is disgusting to me, so I'd like to try and get something with more flexibility. I'm looking at the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8, and it seems to fit the bill nicely. I can just plug everything into that, hear everything through my headphones, and the DAW will see them as separate tracks? What's the catch?
There's no catch. Great pre's on the Focusrite stuff, pretty solid build quality, they're nice units.

Sometimes it IS annoying to gently caress around with cabling, but having additional inputs can get pretty expensive quick, so it's a tradeoff at times between how many inputs you want versus the quality of your pre's.

I've had several, for multiple input interfaces I definitely dig the Focusrite pieces, the MOTU's were some I used a lot (I love the 878 line and the 8Pre, plus, they daisy chain via Firewire) but even though it only has 2 inputs, you'd have to pry my Apollo Duo from my cold dead fingers. (Although I felt the same way about my Duet until I used the Apollo.)

Edit: I wasn't even really considering this from the standpoint of synths, I was really only considering the pre's.

iostream.h fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Jan 25, 2015

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



good jovi posted:

So in some horrible future when I'm divorced and own more than 8 synthesizers, I don't have to throw the Scarlett in the garbage?
Maybe sooner, because input count on audio interfaces very often concerns mono inputs.

While you're mixing together a couple of synths, you probably don't want the full stereo spread on all of them anyway to keep it mixable, but still, be aware that that is a thing. A thing that makes sense in the pro-audio world, but is surprising if you're more familiar with how thing are done in the hifi world for example.

So if there's a catch, it's this: a very high advertised number of inputs runs out quicker than you think if you start scratching away all the digital inputs and need the analog ones for stereo pairs.

It's not a problem though if you know beforehand.

Radiapathy
Dec 3, 2011

Snooping as usual, I see.

Flipperwaldt posted:

So if there's a catch, it's this: a very high advertised number of inputs runs out quicker than you think if you start scratching away all the digital inputs and need the analog ones for stereo pairs.
Yeah, it is so annoying shopping for interfaces sometimes; you have to go over everything with a fine-toothed comb even when you're just in the browsing phase. The Scarlett 18i8 is a "18-in/6-out" interfaces with only 8 analog ins and 2 line outs.

good jovi posted:

Pickings seem to get a little slim for interfaces with more than 4 inputs, though. The idea of actually having to unplug things and plug other things in is disgusting to me, so I'd like to try and get something with more flexibility. I'm looking at the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8, and it seems to fit the bill nicely. I can just plug everything into that, hear everything through my headphones, and the DAW will see them as separate tracks? What's the catch?

Plus apparently ADAT is a thing? So in some horrible future when I'm divorced and own more than 8 synthesizers, I don't have to throw the Scarlett in the garbage?
The ADAT ports are a legitimate way to add more I/O to your rig without throwing out your existing interface, yes. The focusrite's specific kind of SPDIF ports are of limited utility and are only 2in/2out anyway. (The NI Komplete Audio 6 has the same kinds and dudes are always trying to connect turntables and tape decks to 'em, lol.)

Here's my thing, though: I'm of the camp that doesn't think you need an interface input for every synth output in your studio. If I counted up all the synth outs in my rig it would probably be in the 40s, and there will never, ever be a time when I need to record 40 channels of synth. Hell I almost never need more than 2.

So all of my synth outs run to a patch bay. My most commonly used synths are normalled to my interface ins, and the rest of 'em I can patch in as needed.

Some guys prefer to use analog mixers for this and then just use the mixer's master our aux outs to track one synth part at a time. Same general idea though; maximum routing flexibility, minimum number of actual interface inputs. It makes things on the DAW side simpler too. Only need to worry about a couple of buses versus dozens.

good jovi
Dec 11, 2000

'm pro-dickgirl, and I VOTE!

Excellent. Thanks a lot.

Gorgar
Dec 2, 2012

I tried to solve this with an Allen & Heath zed-r16 FireWire mixer, but it doesn't work with thunderbolt on my system. Anyone used one of their MixWizard 4 series with the usb card? Supposedly you get a nice analog mixer with 16 tracks to the DAW via usb, but that seems too good to be true.

I too hate the idea of reconnecting things all the time.

toadee
Aug 16, 2003

North American Turtle Boy Love Association

So, why is it that I can't seem to find any audio interfaces that aren't in a mixer format that provide more than 8 analog ins? I don't really need a mixer, I just need a ton of analog ins for all my synths. I can do all my level adjusting and per channel fx in my PC and in fact I'd prefer to do that. So why is it to get something with somewhere between 12-16 analog ins I seem to HAVE to buy a mixer with a USB interface. Is there any option Im missing here?

Hollis Brownsound
Apr 2, 2009

by Lowtax

toadee posted:

So, why is it that I can't seem to find any audio interfaces that aren't in a mixer format that provide more than 8 analog ins? I don't really need a mixer, I just need a ton of analog ins for all my synths. I can do all my level adjusting and per channel fx in my PC and in fact I'd prefer to do that. So why is it to get something with somewhere between 12-16 analog ins I seem to HAVE to buy a mixer with a USB interface. Is there any option Im missing here?

You're best bet then would be to get a good 8 channel interface than ADAT in a Motu 8pre or something similar.

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toadee
Aug 16, 2003

North American Turtle Boy Love Association

HollisBrown posted:

You're best bet then would be to get a good 8 channel interface than ADAT in a Motu 8pre or something similar.

It's just crazy that I can get a Phonic or Yamaha or Behringer mixer with 12-16 ins for like $200-400 but to do so without a bunch of channel strips and stuff involves getting an interface + D/A converter for a total closer to $1000.

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