[INTERFACE] PreSonus 192 vs. FocusRite Clarett 8Pre

J

jdenmo

New member
Hey guys, setting up a home-recording set up for my 3 piece rock band.

I've decided to buy one of several refurbished macs here in Canada as my CPU.

My last decision has come down to Interfaces. I've narrowed it down to these 2- both 8 mic preamps and extremely high quality for the price as well as general ease of use. I just want to be able to record guitar, vocals, bass, drums (all one instrument at a time with 1-8 mics) and then mix/master using software.

Both cost approximately $1300 to $1500. Any thoughts on which of the 2 I should choose?

They are both quite similar. I like the Studio One software that comes along with the PreSonus but am also leaning towards the "air" feature and thunderbolt latency of the 8Pre... very tough choice. If I got the 8pre I'd also have to buy some studio one, logic pro x, or some other software as I hear GarageBand isn't the best quality compared to other DAWs.

Anyways here's the specs:

PreSonus 192
https://www.presonus.com/products/Studio-192

Focusrite Clarett 8Pre
https://us.focusrite.com/thunderbolt-audio-interfaces/clarett-8pre

Anybody own one, know someone who uses one or have some advice? The videos for the 8pre recording really sold me on it to be honest, they make it look awesome with that band.
 
If I were shopping for an interface right now, I'd be giving the Clarett series a long and serious look. That Thunderbolt connectivity just looks too awesome to pass up. I've yet to hear any reports of people using the Clarett series around here. They're pretty new, and I'm curious how well they stack up against their spec sheet.

If you're up in the $1500 price range, might as well take a look at the RME FireFace series as well. It's USB, but capable of some seriously low latency. Not quite 1ms round trip like Thunderbolt, but still pretty damn good. I think that I'm currently getting about 1.5ms each way. Not sure how nicely they play with Macs (I'm a Windows guy) but I absolutely love my FireFace UCX.
 
Tadpui said:
If I were shopping for an interface right now, I'd be giving the Clarett series a long and serious look. That Thunderbolt connectivity just looks too awesome to pass up. I've yet to hear any reports of people using the Clarett series around here. They're pretty new, and I'm curious how well they stack up against their spec sheet.

If you're up in the $1500 price range, might as well take a look at the RME FireFace series as well. It's USB, but capable of some seriously low latency. Not quite 1ms round trip like Thunderbolt, but still pretty damn good. I think that I'm currently getting about 1.5ms each way. Not sure how nicely they play with Macs (I'm a Windows guy) but I absolutely love my FireFace UCX.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the breakdown man, makes me think twice about either of these. But to give further detail, I'll explain exactly how I intend to use said interface:

1) Hook up Shure SM57s, Sennheiser and other microphones to 1-8 pre-amp lines (so 1-2 unless im doing drums) to record Bass, Guitar and Vocals one instrument at a time. I am still primitively deciding whether or not I should outsource my drum recording or buy a mic kit for it- either way, 8 mic pre amps is plenty for drums.

But for now, my main concern is guitar, bass, vocals, .etc.

I am most hung up on software- the PreSonus comes with Studio One 3, which seems to be a top notch program and very beginner friendly. I could also run it on my 2013 windows Laptop so I could only be spending $1400 all in.

On the flip side, I could get the Focusrite 8pre for around $1400- but would have to then drop around $1300 on a Mac as well as $150 to $300 on some DAW like Logic Pro (or studio one on mac).

The demos on the Focusrite website sounded awesome and really sold me on the unit- plus the sound control programs it come with seem very simple and user friendly. However, I'd probably end up running this into Garageband initially, and I'm un sure how Garageband holds up on a professional scale quality wise. I don't plan on doing any fancy effects though, so basically some garage rock raw sound.

PreSonus $1400
Studio One FREE
No Mac required

Clarett 8pre $1400
DAW - $300?
Mac - $1300

Fortunately I have the money to spend, recently won a giftcard to a music store in a contest so it's a strange position to be in- I have 30 days to spend the money and have to kinda buy something I'll be able to use as I learn, so preparing ahead of time.

Anyways, after hearing this, any further insight to what would suit me better?
 
Yeah, the PC world isn't too keen on the Thunderbolt connector. USB3 seems to aim for that same super-fast connectivity in the PC world.

I've seen a few demos of Studio One and I have to admit that it looks great. The few people around here that use it seem to love it. I'm not sure if the version that's bundled with interfaces is the full-blown version, or some sort of 'lite' version. That might be worth checking into.

Also keep Reaper in mind while looking for DAWs. It's a bargain at $60, and works on PC and Mac. But every major DAW has a trial version, so it's pretty easy to shop around, try them all, and go with whatever works best for you. I'm not sure that I'd make a decision about an interface based on the software that's bundled with it. I think that reputation for build quality, converter quality, driver quality, connectivity and preamp quality are all way more important. Especially if it's just going to be bundled with some "starter" version of a DAW.
 
Tadpui said:
Yeah, the PC world isn't too keen on the Thunderbolt connector. USB3 seems to aim for that same super-fast connectivity in the PC world.

I've seen a few demos of Studio One and I have to admit that it looks great. The few people around here that use it seem to love it. I'm not sure if the version that's bundled with interfaces is the full-blown version, or some sort of 'lite' version. That might be worth checking into.

Also keep Reaper in mind while looking for DAWs. It's a bargain at $60, and works on PC and Mac. But every major DAW has a trial version, so it's pretty easy to shop around, try them all, and go with whatever works best for you. I'm not sure that I'd make a decision about an interface based on the software that's bundled with it. I think that reputation for build quality, converter quality, driver quality, connectivity and preamp quality are all way more important. Especially if it's just going to be bundled with some "starter" version of a DAW.
Click to expand...

Leaning towards the Focusrite despite it being much more expensive- here's the refurbished iMac ($1332 CAD tax included) I'm looking at: Refurbished 21.5-inch iMac 1.6GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 - Apple for Education - Apple (CA)

However, if I decide to go the PreSonus 192 route, would my current PC hold up to par?
Here's my current laptop specs- its a 2013 Asus R505C, supposively "SonicMaster" edition.
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Also your right, it comes with Studio One Artist- I think jumping to the 3.2 "pro" is another $200. But still, with the focusrite I'd have to start out in Garageband and then upgrade to Logic as I get more comfortable which is roughly $280.
 
Not to knock Logic because it's really an awesome DAW that's capable of some really cool things, but why not use Reaper for free long enough to see if you get along with it? It smokes Garageband, and it's only $60 to buy if you like it.

Anyways, a Core i5 should be capable of handling light to medium audio workstation duties. Faster is always better, and the 1.8 GHz clock speed is a little concerning (and 1.6 GHz on the refurbished Mac). That's kinda slow by today's standards. But unless you're recording at really high sample rates or loading down every project with lots of reverbs and VSTi, it should be capable of handling things fairly well. You can always freeze/render tracks or make creative use of groups/buses/partial renders to free up CPU load. But if you're going to buy a new laptop, I'd look for something with a little more horsepower. That'll help future-proof the setup a little, and also allow you to use a smaller ASIO buffer, which will result in lower latencies (always a good thing).

Both interfaces are solid mid-range devices. I think that they're really similar in form, function, and features. Really you're not going to go wrong with either. Maybe just flip a coin and run with it :)
 
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