Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
What I meant by making monitoring easier, when you're multitracking you need an ability to listen to tracks you've already recorded as well as the new track you're laying down. It's also important (as discussed earlier) to have the minimum of latency. You could in a pinch listen to the output of the built in sound card on your computer but that would reduce quality and it also only uses the generic Windows drivers which tend to be pretty high latency therefore affecting your timing.
The interfaces we've suggested all use what are known as ASIO drivers--they're specifically designed to bypass most of Windows and greatly reduce the latency. Be careful on the 2i2 though--unless they've come out with a Mark 2 lately it doesn't do MIDI. Also, the monitoring is a bit limited--a switch between input an the computer output. The Alesis i02 I mentioned has a knob that lets you create a mix between the input and computer output so you can hear everything at once.
AFAIK, the Babyface doesn't do effects--just good inputs on the mics or line. As for monitoring quality, once you get above the Realtek rubbish you won't hear a difference between a thousand dollar RME and a hundred dollar Alesis.
As for the POD or whatever, you'll likely find it easier to take the output of that into the basic interface at line level. Again, once you're at line level, (or even instrument directly in) you can worry a lot less about the interface. It's only on mics (which need a lot of gain in the preamp) that you get a major difference.
The interfaces we've suggested all use what are known as ASIO drivers--they're specifically designed to bypass most of Windows and greatly reduce the latency. Be careful on the 2i2 though--unless they've come out with a Mark 2 lately it doesn't do MIDI. Also, the monitoring is a bit limited--a switch between input an the computer output. The Alesis i02 I mentioned has a knob that lets you create a mix between the input and computer output so you can hear everything at once.
AFAIK, the Babyface doesn't do effects--just good inputs on the mics or line. As for monitoring quality, once you get above the Realtek rubbish you won't hear a difference between a thousand dollar RME and a hundred dollar Alesis.
As for the POD or whatever, you'll likely find it easier to take the output of that into the basic interface at line level. Again, once you're at line level, (or even instrument directly in) you can worry a lot less about the interface. It's only on mics (which need a lot of gain in the preamp) that you get a major difference.
