Audio interfaces with headphones output

P

Poldo

New member
Sorry, not sure whether this hasn't been posted or is just awaiting moderation, so I will post it again:

Hi! Another newbie here, with a very simple question:

Would a digital audio interface with a headphones output allow me to hear what I am playing regardless of what happens in the laptop I plug it in?

(I am talking about things like :
- Focusrite iTrack Solo Lightning
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo
- Boehringer Ucg102 )

The reason why I am asking, i.e. what I need to do:

I need to record one single bass line track on my Windows laptop, and I am currentrly trying to do it through Audacity. Now, so far I haven;t been able to do that without hearing latency while playing and recording at the same time.

I worked out how to solve RECORDING latency issues on Audacity (which is irrelevant to me, as for the moment I don't need to do multitrack recording), but not HEARING latency issues while playing and recording. (I pluck a string of my bass and I hear the sound half a second later at the best)

So, I thought "If I can get a DI which makes me hear what I am playing exactly at the time I am playing , without going into the laptop and back, I am sorted"
At the moment I use an Apogee Jam 96k, which hasn;t got a headphones output, so I cannot do that

Many thanks in advacne for your help!
 
Why O why do newbs SPEND first then ASK here arterward! Poldo, for LESS than you paid for the jamjack you could have bought the Alesis i02 Express interface.
Now, I had one for a few weeks but did not check it out for latency. I am sure it would be fine for the first part of the recording, hearing the bass AS you record. Then peeps often want to play back a track and add to it and this is where latency can be a bother but there are a few guys here with an i02, no doubt they will check in.

In general however can I urge you NOT to go for the simplest, lowest track count AI you can find? The difference in price between a single mic input AI and a dual one is not X2! The usefulness and general economies of scale for 'stereo' AIs means you often get a better build all round and more facilities. May not want them now but...Look at interfaces by Steinberg, Focusrite, Tascam and others. They are all pretty good these days.

Audacity: Great free audio editor but, NOT the best software for music making and track building. Reaper is free until your guilt kicks in but all the major DAWs Cubase, Sonar etc allow a 30 day trial. One I especially recommend is MAGIX Samplitude Pro X 3 and there is an 8 track max freebie called SAM PRO x Silver.

Dave.
 
Yes, direct monitoring has been around since early USB interfaces. They they grab the signal right at the input and send it to fones. Still, doesn't mean there won't be some audio confusion, however : )
 
Poldo said:
Would a digital audio interface with a headphones output allow me to hear what I am playing regardless of what happens in the laptop I plug it in?
Click to expand...

Yes, they were designed to solve this exact problem (input monitoring latency), and several others.

A proper DAW will also solve the record latency problem.
 
As the guys have said, there are plenty of audio interfaces available with direct monitoring and headphone outputs.

That being said, half a second or anything close to it is a bit over the top. I'd expect better from any apogee product.
That thing is USB, right? So technically, it's an audio interface?

Have you gone into your recording software settings and ensured that hardware buffer size is turned down quite low?
Something like 128 or 256 should yield perfectly acceptable latency.

If audacity doesn't let you do that, try Reaper to test.
 
I can't help thinking that Apogee missed a huge trick in not providing a headphone circuit on that Jam device? Fork! Even the 25quid Berry UCA 202 does that! (in fact a 202 + a NOT true bypass pedal works a treat)

The Jam 96 relies on the OBS for replay and we all know how crappitiy do-da THAT can be. Then, £100 for a ONE way One channel USB converter? And for electric guitar? NEVER going to get noise below about -75dBfs and nobody cares about a 0.001% distortion figure for GUITAR!

Talk about making hay with a name!

Dave.
 
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