What Is A Good Interface For Recording In My Home Studio?

ryevick

New member
I am setting up a home studio and am not sure of a good interface to use between my instruments and my computer. I will be getting a new home desktop PC just for the studio at a later date and am not worried about that yet. I want a nice interface that can help me by remembering setting of all types for the tracks I work on, etc. To tell you the truth I don't know what I need that's why I'm here.

I have looked at the M-Audio ProjectMix I/O with it's motorized faders (love that) and the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R USB with it's built in effects and I really don't know what's out there, so I come here humbly for your help :) Suggestions?

The current music gear I have that has interfacing potential:
Yamaha KX8 Midi Controller
Fender Cyber Twin SE Guitar Amp
Boss GT-10B Bass Processor
Roland V-Drums TD-9

I will probably be using Cubase.
 
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As an afterthought... I don't own any separate or stand-alone preamps. My GT-10B has built in preamps as well as my Cyber Twin SE. Not sure on my ins and outs yet. I don't have a mixer yet but from what I understand if I get the M-Audio ProjectMix I/O I wont need one. I would like to be able to mix on the fly with the use of real faders (not completely necessary but would like that) but will probably do most mixing in post. These are the things I'm looking at and I'm sure most hardware will work but I'm looking for specifics and preferred recommendations, as well as things I haven't considered. I'm more of a musician than an engineer.
 
I'm guessing you want at least 4 inputs plus midi. I've heard that the Fast Track is a good unit. Does the ProjectMix have midi inputs? That might be something to consider. There are lots of interfaces to choose from, Presonus, Alesis, Motu, Focusrite just to name a few that seem popular around here. I have a Tascam which has been working pretty well for me. They make a cheap 16 channel interface which you might want to look at, the US-1641.
 
You won't need a mixer if you're using Cubase, that is where you would do your mixing. And probably any interface you get will have volume knobs for each channel, maybe not faders, but thats how you would adjust your mic levels.
 
The Lexicon and PreSonus interfaces are built well, have a good rep and have been
around for quite awhile now. The Mic pre-amps in the PreSonus units are quite nice!
 
I have an Alesis Mastercontrol and I really like it. Gives you the motorized faders/control surface stuff and it works great with Cubase. Lots of ins and outs. The only drawback is that it only has 2 preamps, all the other ins are for line level. You can add a seperate multi pre through Adat or lightpipe though.
 
Yes I want at least 6 ins and the ProjectMix has Midi ins and outs... so far it's looking the best... I really don't want to have to do the extra purchase of a soundcard that would hopefully work well with a rack unit... the MA-PM has all of that covered internally. Still looking but not seeing much that compares to it... it's really interesting how many control surfaces have been discontinued... all of Tascams have been and even the MA-PM can't be found in stores very often.
 
Alesus MasterControl

Yes I want at least 6 ins and the ProjectMix has Midi ins and outs... so far it's looking the best... I really don't want to have to do the extra purchase of a soundcard that would hopefully work well with a rack unit... the MA-PM has all of that covered internally. Still looking but not seeing much that compares to it... it's really interesting how many control surfaces have been discontinued... all of Tascams have been and even the MA-PM can't be found in stores very often.

Hey are you interested in selling your Alesis MasterControl if you still have it???
 
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