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Post subject: Best audio interface?
Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:02 pm
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Hi all, I have been using Mixcraft Pro 7 for a DAW. I've been using high speed USB interfacing mostly with Digitech RP360 and 500, also MIDI to a keyboard.This setup works, but I've encountered several problems. I have an upper mid level PC with an average sound card and to reduce latency I run the DAW software in exclusivity mode. This dedicates all the audio processing to the Mixcraft and as such, the Digitech is only available when actively monitoring, its a pain. I'm thinking that a audio interface may make things easier. Im looking at the PreSonus FireStudio(pictured below) Does anyone have experiance with this type of component? What are the alternatives?


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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:56 pm
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Best is a four letter word. Which is the best toaster? Which is the best guitar amp? And my favorite, which is the best guitar string? What is best for someone else might not be best for you. Let's look first at your computer.

Does your computer have a FireWire port? You must have one to use a FireStudio AI. Additionally you may have to download updated firmware to install for your computer and more special firmware if you have a 64 bit operating system. It was designed for Windows XP but Presonus FireStudio Project works with Windows 10. Also it works with any MacOS 10.4 and up. It has incredibly low latency that is almost impossible to measure and Presonus claims it is zero but I know a user who says it is 1 microsecond, which is so close to zero that it is zero for all practical purposes. It is a great device for home recording projects by almost all accounts. Not sure if you need all those input preamps or not.

If you do not have a FireWire input port on your computer there are two suggestions.

First if you have USB 3.0 there is the brand new PreSonus Studio 192 Mobile just being brought to market. Nobody has them yet but they are coming very soon and some vendors are taking preorders. It has fewer inputs than the FireStudio you are considering and it is more compact but it also has a better effects package. If you really need all those mic preamps they make a larger version called the Studio 192 but it costs about $900.

Second if you only have USB 2.0 the Tascam US-16x08 USB Audio Interface seems very similar to the FIreStudio in capability but works with USB 2.0. It gets good marks for how it sounds and ease of use.

So a very important part of it depends on what input ports your computer has.


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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 3:37 am
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Brotherdave is right about best and latency. There are some great interfaces out there that satisfy more than adequate latency conditions. While zero latency specs are admirable, it should be known that latency is often misunderstood as far as minimum and maximum allowance, and how to address it, as well as different causes of latency. Drivers and tweaking the related software will come into play for low latency. Not having 0 latency with my Focusrite 2i2 interface has not been an issue for me at this time. There is a lot of great explanation to be found with a search on various latency on Focusrite's website. Any great specification that belongs to a manufacturer will be bragging rights whether required or not. High end frequency of 100,000Hz for an amp would be great; but, since a lot is wasted, other considerations may come into play, for example. :wink: Then there is quality of preamps, phantom power, headphone output quality and control, other features, build quality, and cost relationship to consider.

Also, brotherdave is correct that you may or may not need that many inputs/preamps. Usually, the input will do double duty for instrument and line in (one at a time). I have an analog Soundcraft stereo mixer for my 6 mic drums, 3 vocal mics, and a Strat , all going to the two input interface. At other times I just use the interface directly for guitar and mic. My keyboard goes into the USB port on the PC for now because my PC sound card is pretty decent being that it was designed specifically for HD entertainment and 7.1, etc.; but, this was before I decided a midi input on the interface would be preferable. Still, it works the way I have it set up. I am soon to change mixers which can take the keyboard, and it takes guitars without needing DIs, and there is a USB in/out with multitrack recording and playback, along with features I have now. Could I use a larger interface? - sure. A smaller setup? - uh, huh. But, for me, the savings went towards my more flexible mixer. :)
PreSonus and Tascam are certainly good choices as brotherdave suggested. For an alternative interface, you might look at Focusrite's latest products, for example. This company has a long association with Neve, one of the most respected legendary console and preamp designers. There is quite a choice where something may be of interest. YMMV

The other thing to consider is what software comes with your choice. Some pretty good stuff there. You might want to check out the bundles available.

Best of luck in your quest, Eroot64.

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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 4:29 am
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My favorite is the MOTU Ultralite. 8 in, 8 out (10/14 by the marketing hype that adds up things like headphone outputs), works with FireWire and USB, handles MIDI, and the mixing software is intuitive and works well. And it's small enough to not need a rack.

Even though 1394i/Firewire is dying and hard to find in PCs these days, I still recommend it over USB - even USB 3.0. This is because the USB protocol is always "best effort". While you can push much more data much faster through modern USB, there's no guarantee of how long any packet will take. If the computer or USB interface is busy servicing another request (or five), yours may have to wait.
Normally, you won't notice. Except when you do.
FireWire, being a ring interface, ensures that data can pass through the entire ring in a specific amount of time. I.e. you have worst case latency that's predictable and much much lower than the worst case for USB.

The extra througput of USB 3 doesn't matter all that much for audio - there's still plenty of bandwidth in the old interfaces for most use. A CD (2 channels, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz) is 1.4 Mbps. Increase to 24-bit 96 kHz, and you're at 4.6 Mbps. Even with 10 in, 10 out, all being used at the same time, you're then at 46 Mbps, which is just a tiny fraction of the 400 Mbps of a Firewire 400.


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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 7:49 am
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If you've downloaded the gazillion loops and VSTIs that come with Mixcraft, no other
interface will help and your computer might be the issue (more speed/ram/etc).

I like the Focusrite line and there seems to be many other great choices as well.

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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 8:57 am
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Miami Mike wrote:
If you've downloaded the gazillion loops and VSTIs that come with Mixcraft, no other
interface will help and your computer might be the issue (more speed/ram/etc).

If on Windows, make sure you don't go to Window 10 unless you have upgraded hardware. All the extra "telemetry"[*] going on in the background steals resources at times you can't control. And with Windows 7/8/8.1, search the web for how to turn telemetry off (with Windows 10, you can't).

[*]: Windows collecting huge amounts of information about what you and the Windows system does, and then paring it down to reports sent to Microsoft in the background, "to improve your experience". Including your ad experience, in the new Windows start menu, new Edge browser and other places - run a lot of games, and get ads for games, run a lot of office programs, and get ads for office programs. Run a lot of music programs, and, well, I'm sure you catch the drift.

Miami Mike wrote:
I like the Focusrite line and there seems to be many other great choices as well.

For the price, Focusrite is certainly attractive.


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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 1:55 pm
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Thanks guys, as usual every reply has pieces of valuable information.
My Pc does have USB3.0 and 1 Firewire port. I have 8G ram, Hyperthreading dual core with good speed, 1 SDD system drive with 3 individual 1 tb data drives. At full use recording of several tracks I use at most 40% sys resources and maybe 30% Mixcraft resources.

I still use Win 7 and will not be upgrading to 10, for the reasons arth1 states. Windows 10 has the same marketing strategy that a modern mobile phones uses, huge backside data collection and almost imposable running program control.

I'm a believer in workaround and proper set up. Any fairly new PC has more than enough resources to get the job done if it's properly allocated. I use a task dedicated boot setup for Audio and Graphic purposes.

My actual total latency is about 5ms (Measured with the DCP tool), still a bit high but workable.
I really don't need all the ports of the aforementioned PreSonus so i will consider the suggestion of the new model, I also didn't realize it was such old tech as to be designed for XP. I have also seen some two part devices that use a card and external interface, but those seem to be older tech as well.

I did download the Mixcraft library, but that just sits on my data drive, I cant imagine that is a factor.

I think my first step will be adding a sound card that supports ASIO, then I will look into the devices that you all recommended and try to find the best fit.

I wish i had inquired here about the Mixcraft software before I bought it, I would have probably gone for a hardware/software combo instead (I think I may have posted regarding the Pro 7 just after I joined here, but at the time I had yet to establish any credibility, probably don't have much now, lol ).

But hey maybe I can use the Mixcraft and a space suit (to hide my age) and be a club DJ in town, they are the new musicians (or magicians) ripping of the artists and the public with their "Sick Beats" ...


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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 8:15 am
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I was a beta tester a few years back and Mixcraft's loop library was quite extensive
back then. I can imagine what it must be like now but it probably depends on which
product of theirs that you're using.

http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/

Pro studio, home studio, etc..

Also optimize your computer for audio recording.

http://www.prismsound.com/music_recordi ... hp?tt=0023

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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 12:16 pm
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Miami Mike wrote:
I was a beta tester a few years back and Mixcraft's loop library was quite extensive
back then. I can imagine what it must be like now but it probably depends on which
product of theirs that you're using.

http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/

Pro studio, home studio, etc..

Also optimize your computer for audio recording.

http://www.prismsound.com/music_recordi ... hp?tt=0023

I have Pro Studio 7, I have done most of the optimizations suggested on that page but there are a few I didn't know about , thanks for the link


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Post subject: Re: Best audio interface?
Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 12:42 pm
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You will also want to determine which Firewire port you have and which one the device uses.
There are 2 Firewire specs and they are not interchangeable.
They have different speeds and different connectors.

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