Introduction to Multitrack Computer Interface Recording

[bufaloeletric]

thanks for clearing some things up

[Tony Ali]

thx for the help

[Xntryk1]

Sorry I answered a very old post. Iggy this.

[Karl_]

hey guys im really sorry i havent looked through every reply post here to see if this question has been answered.

Is there any statistic or property that you can use to compare the quality of an interface? E.g. a sample rate of 800000 bits/sec or something.

Or are all interfaces the same in their ability to transfer analog to didgital, and then the only factors that influence their quality are number of ports, robustness, reliability etc?

Once again im very sorry for posting without doing the research, this is a very hurried post on my break at work.

I would also just like to thank you for doing this post. your a generous dude both time wise and knowledge wise. Keep up th e good work

Karl

[CFox]

//
Is there any statistic or property that you can use to compare the quality of an interface? E.g. a sample rate of 800000 bits/sec or something.

Or are all interfaces the same in their ability to transfer analog to didgital, and then the only factors that influence their quality are number of ports, robustness, reliability etc?

//

Karl

Hey Karl. The lowdown is you are looking for 3 ( THREE ) KEY components of an audio interface AFTER the pre amp ( signal booster/volume gain ) stage:

Pre Amps are worshipped in some parts of the world. Thats a whole other topic for you to research. Just be aware that the current marketing is that the onboard or built in preamps on the latest gen audio interfaces are equal to or better than higher end stand alone preamps from a few years ago.

Ok, so after the preamp, look for these 3 when reading gear specifications.

1. The quality of the DAC's ( digital audio converters ) . Cirrus Logic are the industry leaders i believe.

2. The bit depth/resolution. Higher the better is the popular thinking. 16 bit is CD quality 24 is DVD ( can people tell the difference in a blind A B comparison ? Probably not. Not casual listeners anyway.)

3. Sampling rate. Higher the better is the popular thinking. 44.1 khz for CD and i think 192 khz for DVD.

Its all explained very concisely and succinctly here.

[newnew01]

thanks
very helpful