Looking for a relatively cheap Audio Interface

N

Noxey

New member
Hey guys. I'm a new musician who's looking for a way to start recording some music! I'm just getting into it, and I have nothing right now apart from my guitar and my voice :P. I have received a coupon good for one microphone/USB interface and am looking for some suggestions on what I should get. I plan to mainly record guitar/vocals so a 2 input interface would be good, however I wouldn't rule out a 4 input interface if the price was well.

My local music shop has the M-Audio Fast Track Pro listed at $250.00, but I'm assuming I can find better deals online. I also have a copy of Sound Forge Pro for editing/recording, so I'm assuming I won't need any other software? Not too sure.

Anyway, any help you guys can provide me is greatly appreciated! Thanks. :)
 
Seems W7 may have issue with the drivers for the 800. Jury is still out on this, but wanted to hear what he has before recommending. :)
 
jimmys69 said:
Seems W7 may have issue with the drivers for the 800. Jury is still out on this, but wanted to hear what he has before recommending. :)
Click to expand...

Jimmy, I was thinking the same thing when I replied above..

on a side note...I wonder if the OP, is going to be able to find his post now?..I`m not sure how this works, but when a post/thread is moved, if the OP comes back to where it originally was, will it be listed still, but then when he clicks on it, it sends him here?
I guess I could look where he originally posted it and find out, could`nt I..LOL
 
AL P said:
Jimmy, I was thinking the same thing when I replied above..

on a side note...I wonder if the OP, is going to be able to find his post now?..I`m not sure how this works, but when a post/thread is moved, if the OP comes back to where it originally was, will it be listed still, but then when he clicks on it, it sends him here?
I guess I could look where he originally posted it and find out, could`nt I..LOL
Click to expand...

The moved thread still keeps the notifications to posters, so yeah, he will be cool if he returns. :D
 
Aha, no wonder I wasn't getting any responses! Thanks for moving this for me. Really appreciate it.

Anyway, I have Win 7 64bit. I stopped in at my local guitar shop today (side not, the owner let me play a Martin OM 45 Ray Rogers Edition... I nearly died), and he has a very slightly used PeeSonus FireStudio Project for sale. It's a bit out of my price range (at $350) but for what it has it seems like a great deal. I definitely wouldn't need to replace it any time soon considering I'm starting with simply 2 inputs.

If anyone has any additional information on this, be it first hand or sources I'd love to get your input!

Thanks again and sorry for the misspost!
 
Noxey said:
He has a very slightly used PeeSonus FireStudio Project for sale. It's a bit out of my price range (at $350) but for what it has it seems like a great deal. I definitely wouldn't need to replace it any time soon considering I'm starting with simply 2 inputs.
Click to expand...

I can't tell you anything useful about that particular Presonus unit, but I'm definitely a fan of getting the best gear you can afford at the time. There's nothing worse than buying something that only just fits your current need, only to find that a few months down the track you wish you had bought one that had a bit more quality, more inputs, or whatever.

These are some of the factors I tend to look at whenever I'm considering lashing out again on any gear:

  • 1. Will it allow me room to improve or expand?
    2. Is it a reasonably up-to-date version? (Older can mean reliable and well proved, or it can mean ready to be phased out. Conversely newer can mean that it will last me longer, but it might also mean a few bugs or compatibility issue with initial drivers, etc. )
    3. Where does it sit on the quality graph? (Hard to get unbiased and genuine reviews on the net, but you have to do at least some research)
    4. Where does it sit in the price range, against the competition?
    5. What options - if any - will I have if it has a problem, or just disappoints?
    6. How long should it last before I'm likely to need (or want) to buy another?

All that might sound like stating the bleeding obvious, but it can get pretty confusing wading through the nth page of sales blurb, and the rush of blood to the head when you see a juicy bit of gear in a shop can turn your head too. So it can be good to have some boxes to tick. I also like to wait for a few days before laying out out the money - just to make sure that it was real love not just a 24 hour obsession! :D

Good luck with your choice. (If you decide on the Presonus, be prepared to haggle a bit too. Tell him at you'd really like to get something closer to $300, and he might just knock it down a bit more.... ;) )

Chris
 
Nathan1984 said:
I have a us800 running win7 64 bit, no problems what so ever. For 100 bucks, you can't go wrong, it has 6 xlr's!
Click to expand...

and the plot thicken`s..interesting!!!!

how long have you had it, but how much have you used it?
I`d really like to hear that infact it can be used with W7 successfully..
 
AL P said:
and the plot thicken`s..interesting!!!!

how long have you had it, but how much have you used it?
I`d really like to hear that infact it can be used with W7 successfully..
Click to expand...

I would too. I have always had the feeling the problems are user setup error. Don't hear much about Tascam drivers being bad......
 
Is the firestudio project of higher quality than the Tascam? Considering I'd need to buy the Tascam online, I'd rather not risk any issues of compatibility as I haven't heard the greatest things, and I know the Firestudio will work.

Also, it runs with Firewire so I wouldn't have to worry about usb interference, correct?
 
Noxey said:
Also, it runs with Firewire so I wouldn't have to worry about usb interference, correct?
Click to expand...

I don't know about 'interference' - maybe somebody else here knows more about that, but it can definitely be an advantage to have something running through your firewire port, just because will leave a USB port free. Once you start hooking up gear you can run out of ports pretty quickly on many computers. Of course, you can buy a USB hub but some gear will ask that you plug it straight into a port rather than a hub, if you want it to work properly. I expect things have improved a bit, but I've had things that wouldn't work at all through a hub (even though it was a separately powered hub), so it's best to go direct if you can. You can soon have a lot of competition for those ports - keyboard, mouse, backup drive, ilok key (software dongle), keyboard (both my regular Yamaha keyboard and Axiom 49 midi keyboard can both want to use USB), interface, etc. I expect that some things have work-arounds, and you can always unplug and do one thing at a time, but I prefer to keep things as simple as possible. Less troubleshooting and fiddling around. These sorts of things aren't necessarily deal-breakers, but they're still points to consider.
 
im still using old m-audio stuff...delta works fine with Win 7, and the omnis pre amps are excellent..I have two along with a quattro (i think its last official drivers were for XP yet I still use it in win 7). Id rather use old m-audio gear than new m audio gear...


I wouldnt be too worried at this price range, depends on the amount of inputs you need, what about midi? also dont discount a usb mixer either...people can talk about signal to noise ratio etc etc but Id say its pretty much the same at this price range...one of the best vocalists in here has a behringer mixer in his chain...ive got two in mine

dont forget its pretty easy to shift things on when you want to upgrade

sorry this is a thread for advice...so mine is buy used, upgrade when you need to :)
 
I've just obtained a Roland Quad-Capture which I'm very happy with. I was worried about latency with a USB interface but it's fine. 2x XLR/TRS in, MIDI in/out, ' phones , auto-sensitivity, Phantom power, ASIO drivers, 2xbalanced TRS out and co-axial in/out. Works fine with Audacity/Reaper/Sonar XL - Windows XP and Windows 7 and produces a good sound through my Fostex 4s and my new Fostex 5s. Santa be praised !
 
Most of the Computer interfaces out there work pretty well. I recommend one with phantom power so you can power a condenser mic. I have a Tascam US 144 MKII and it works great. I can record in stereo with it. There are cheaper ones out there that will do the trick.
 
Guitar Hack said:
Most of the Computer interfaces out there work pretty well. I recommend one with phantom power so you can power a condenser mic. I have a Tascam US 144 MKII and it works great. I can record in stereo with it. There are cheaper ones out there that will do the trick.
Click to expand...

This appears to be a bit of a zombie thread, but I thought it would be worth adding a note to support the need to consider mic input. If anyone looking at this thread is looking to record electro-acoustic guitar and voice don't assume you'll get the best results by plugging the guitar in to the AI, you'll probably be better micing up to record the guitar. This is the advice I received and my limited exploits support this. The advice was also that a condenser mic would be best.

I got a Behringer C-1 (about £35 on Amazon) which seems to work very well.

For an AI I originally got an Alesis Multi-Mix 4 USB, but have had problems with input sensitivity so that's going back.

I now have a Presonus Audiobox 22VSL on order - chosen partly because it comes with Studio One Artist with a free upgrade to Producer. I'm resisting the urge to cancel that order in favour of the 44VSL purely for the added line-level input possibilities....

On that note you need to consider that if you *do* decide to go with the line in from your guitar (and I've also heard that interesting results can be obtained by doing *both* this and micing up) that you will probably need line level (from the active pickups) rather than instrument level line in (designed for passive pickups - electric guitar typically). On the Alesis one input was switchable between the two, whereas the 22VSL has instrument level only. Still thinking about that 44....!

I hope that helps any newbies looking into this, but note this is mostly from my newbie experience anyway so it would be helpful for the experts to confirm or otherwise my points.

Cheers
 
I am fairly new to this too and I have recorded a few songs with very little equipment. I use Audacity (free) and Hydrogen drum machine (freeware). I use my computers input jack or the usb input depending on what I'm recording. I have a Audio technica at2020usb mic which is awesome. I use it for all my guitars.
Check out my youtube page and you can hear the stuff I've done on the cheap. I suprised myself with the quality of the recordings. Let me know if you have questions!
Impossible (Original Song) TC Helicon VLT - YouTube
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top