USB audio interface

[MemoGtr]

hey i've heard a lot about audio interfaces and i have a couple of questions.

1) will it produce a better quality input to my computer? right now i use the line in of the soundcard my computer came in.

2) is the usb interface compatible with cool edit and/or other recording software (pro tools, sonar...)??

[Innovations]

1. That depends a lot on the quality of the current sound card. Most of the USB sound interface devices can most accurately be described as very good external sound cards.

2. Unless the software is designed to just work with one brand of sound card (i.e. digidesign) then it should work fine. From the standpoint of the operating system it is just a sound card.

For example I use an Edirol UA-5 along with my laptop computer as a portable two input recording solution. It works fine, and obviously the Edirol is way better than the sound card built in the laptop motherboard.