TalismanRich
Well-known member
Sweetwater has recently posted an interface test for a selection of different units under $500. They did a couple of voice tests, an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and a grand piano. Interfaces ranged from Focusrite and Zoom to Apollo and SSL.
Sweetwater Interface test
Has anyone else pulled down the hi res 96k/24bit files and compared them? I found a couple of things interesting.
The vocals and acoustic guitars are individual performances for each test. This is clear because the timing of the performances varies from take to take. I hear so much variation in the playing, singing or talking that it made comparing the interfaces impossible.
The electric guitar and piano, though were done differently. For the guitar, they used a reamped recording, so the performance and setup were consistent. Only the interface changed. With the grand piano, they used a midi Diskclavier system on a Yamaha C7 miked with two AKG 414s, so again, the tempo, and subtle changes in touch were eliminated.
Using those two sets of samples into Reaper, I bounced back and forth, soloing each track. Listening on headphones (both Sony 7506s and AKG 240s) i struggle to hear a difference. They did do the Scarlett with and without the Air setting, and that showed a difference. If anything, the Apollo sounded a bit duller than the rest. For the most part, soundstage (some are stereo files) and timbre were extremely consistent.
I know with mics, its really easy to put 2 or 3 different mics in very close proximity and record them for a pretty valid comparison. I often hear some appreciable differences. With interfaces, not so much unless there is some difference in EQ or compression.
Opinions, thoughts, comments? Am I deaf. Are the "massive" differences that people speak about really there?
Sweetwater Interface test
Has anyone else pulled down the hi res 96k/24bit files and compared them? I found a couple of things interesting.
The vocals and acoustic guitars are individual performances for each test. This is clear because the timing of the performances varies from take to take. I hear so much variation in the playing, singing or talking that it made comparing the interfaces impossible.
The electric guitar and piano, though were done differently. For the guitar, they used a reamped recording, so the performance and setup were consistent. Only the interface changed. With the grand piano, they used a midi Diskclavier system on a Yamaha C7 miked with two AKG 414s, so again, the tempo, and subtle changes in touch were eliminated.
Using those two sets of samples into Reaper, I bounced back and forth, soloing each track. Listening on headphones (both Sony 7506s and AKG 240s) i struggle to hear a difference. They did do the Scarlett with and without the Air setting, and that showed a difference. If anything, the Apollo sounded a bit duller than the rest. For the most part, soundstage (some are stereo files) and timbre were extremely consistent.
I know with mics, its really easy to put 2 or 3 different mics in very close proximity and record them for a pretty valid comparison. I often hear some appreciable differences. With interfaces, not so much unless there is some difference in EQ or compression.
Opinions, thoughts, comments? Am I deaf. Are the "massive" differences that people speak about really there?