Best interface under $300 that works with Reaper?

[Antrim]

Hello everybody. I would like to be able to record a few songs that I have written and just ended up in this forum. After reading the awesome post Introduction to Multitrack Computer Interface Recording, I can understand everything a little bit better, but I still have a few questions that hopefully you guys can help me with.

What I'd like to do is the following: be able to record my voice and guitar at the same time or separated (that is, recording first the guitar track, and then later record voice while singing over it).

Since Reaper gets so much love in these forums and it's so cheap, I thought of starting there. Now the question is the interface. I would be willing to spend up to $300, but of course the least the better. Between a $50 piece of crap and a very nice $200 interface, I would rather the second one. But if the only difference between a $150 and a $300 interface is that the latter hast 16 inputs, I would rather save the money since I'll never have use that many.
So what I'm looking for is an interface that fulfills the following requirements:

• Allows at least 2 inputs (mic and guitar)
• Works well with Reaper
• Minimal delay/latency - I do not have an amp for my guitar, so I want to be able to use the interface + DAW not only to record, but to simply play, so low delay is critical.

Now, a couple of newbie questions:

- I didn't quite understand the multitracking part. In my case, all I'm ever going to need to do is two things: record both guitar and voice at the same time, or record separately (and record the voice later over the previously recorded guitar track). Does any of this needs multitracking? In that case, add multitracking to the requirements of the interface.

- Let's say that I record a song with vocal and guitar tracks. Is it possible at all, to send the file to a friend who plays the bass/drums and will add his own track to the song? Or am I just dreaming here?

- Does Reaper offer some kind of drums simulator, that makes it easy to keep the rhytm while you play, but also allows you to record the drums track in your song?


Thanks in advance!

 

[Steenamaroo]

Hi there, and welcome.

Are you a fellow NI user?

- I didn't quite understand the multitracking part. In my case, all I'm ever going to need to do is two things: record both guitar and voice at the same time, or record separately (and record the voice later over the previously recorded guitar track). Does any of this needs multitracking? In that case, add multitracking to the requirements of the interface.

Multitracking = recording more than one discreet channel, whether simultaneously, or as an overdub.
Any two channel interface (with two mic preamps) will let you record guitar and vocals at the same time, but to separate tracks within your software.

If you plan to record guitar, rewind, then record vocals, you only need a one channel interface, but at least two is always a good call for stereo options etc.

- Let's say that I record a song with vocal and guitar tracks. Is it possible at all, to send the file to a friend who plays the bass/drums and will add his own track to the song? Or am I just dreaming here?

That's not dreaming at all.
If he uses reaper you can even send him your session with your settings etc. He can add bass, or whatever he wants.

- Does Reaper offer some kind of drums simulator, that makes it easy to keep the rhytm while you play, but also allows you to record the drums track in your song?

I'm not sure if reaper has one built in, but they certainly exist as plugins (addictive drums is one off the top of my head).
Beware, the skill isn't in arranging a beat, but in making it sound real.
If real drums are an option, stick with that.

If it's purely for keeping time while you play, any recording software should have a built in click track/metronome that you can disable when you're done.



For a two channel interface, I always recommend the presonus firestudio mobile.
It's pricier than some others, but it'll take a fair knock, and it sounds really good.
It has enough clean gain for most dynamic mic work too, which is always a plus.

If you think you might branch into drum recording etc in the future, I'd very much recommend jumping the gun for an eight channel interface.
Tascam/presonus ones are fine and not that much more expensive than some two channel interfaces, considering what you're getting.

 

[Armistice]

Multi tracking is a process. An interface is a piece of equipment used to capture and convert (usually) signals. You multitrack in your software (Reaper), not with your interface. You can often need more channels than you think you will. 2 is the basic level. Means you can record 2 things at the same time. That might be multiple signals on your guitar, for instance. Recording guitar and voice at the same time seems like a good idea, but isn't as easy as you think, and you'll (usually) get better results if you don't.

If you track to a clocked sound source, you can make wav files for your friend's bass playing and he can add them later via whatever his DAW is... he doesn't need to be using Reaper, as wav is the standard music file format. Do not use MP3 for this purpose.

You can get your clocked sound source by downloading the Addictive Drums evaluation software, which gives you a kick, snare and hi hat, and is free, and then use Reaper's MIDI editor to program a basic drum track, which will probably work better that a simple tick tock metronome, which Reaper will have included anyway. You can export your drum track as a MIDI file and send that off to your buddy as well, so he had sync it all up.

Good luck...

 

[Antrim]

Thank you both for your answers.

Hi there, and welcome.

Are you a fellow NI user?

NI? I don't think so.

For a two channel interface, I always recommend the presonus firestudio mobile.
It's pricier than some others, but it'll take a fair knock, and it sounds really good.
It has enough clean gain for most dynamic mic work too, which is always a plus.

If you think you might branch into drum recording etc in the future, I'd very much recommend jumping the gun for an eight channel interface.
Tascam/presonus ones are fine and not that much more expensive than some two channel interfaces, considering what you're getting.

I took a look at the PreSonus Firestudio Mobile. I didn't like two things: the price ($250), and that it's not connected through USB. I don't think my PC has a Firewire bus, so I'd need a USB interface. Also, it seems like that one has 10x6 ports, which would be overkill since I'm never going to use those many. I can't play drums and don't plan on learning, so if I ever need a real drummer, I'd use a friend, since from what y'all say it is possible and common. I saw a PreSonus AudioBox USB 2x2 for pretty much half the price, any opinion on this one?

 

[Steenamaroo]

Ah, fair enough.
Antrim is a county in Northern Ireland; That's where I'm from.


Yeah, the audiobox would be more suitable then.
If you buy it new it comes with EZ drummer lite which would sort out your metronome/beat thing.

 

[ancientnoise]

Hi

I've just entered the world of home recording (though have been playing and recording in studios for years). Being a bit of a cheapskate, all I wanted was something that would capture the output from the guitar(s), let me use a mic with it, and preferably have some software for mixing etc afterwards.

I bought an Alpha Lexicon. I wouldn't say it's the best piece of kit out there by any means, but I found it simple enough to set up and I'm very mipressed with the sound quality. It also comes with Cubase LE, which satisfies all my recording needs. I got mine on Amazon.

I've tried it with Reaper and AcidXpress also. This little interface seems to work easily with everything I've tried.

 

[mjbphotos]

M Audio Fast Track Pro, Focusrite Scarlett 212, Presonus Audiobox USB are all in teh $150 to $200 price range.

I'd wait for a sale on EZ Drummer (as a download) - you an get it for around $50 if you're patient. Of course if you are new computer recording and MIDI, there is a learning curve.

 

[Richard Monroe]

For your purposes, I prefer this:

Line 6 POD Studio UX2 | 8thstreet.com | Call 1-800-878-8882 | Most Orders Ship Free!

It's pretty well optimized for what you want to do. It comes with Ableton and Reason, but should be Reaper compatible.

 

[Justsomeguy]

M Audio Fast Track Pro, Focusrite Scarlett 212, Presonus Audiobox USB are all in teh $150 to $200 price range.

seconded; especially the Scareltt 2i2 - great sounding pre's, super mega simple to use, and if you buy it new it comes with a couple of free plugins that are, in general, better than most stock plugins.

however, the presonus does have it's VSL stuff which means you can add reverb, EQ and compression into your headphones when recording . some people really aren't too fussy about it but i really like adding reverb to my voice just in my headphone when recording as it makes me feel more comfortable

 

[Antrim]

Thanks everybody for their input. I decided to go with the PreSonus AudioBox USB for $150. I had a crazy shopping night yesterday: $470 for Epi LP Std + case, and around $200 for audio interface + 2 mics + 2 mic cables + 1 mic stand. The mics were M4000S and I got them because they had good reviews and were buy 1 get 1 free, any opinions on them? I also bought the mic cables because I was afraid they wouldn't come with the mics, and they were damn cheap anyway ($3 each).
Also something that I'm a little concerned is the USB cable for the interface, should I expect it to come in the package? Or do I need to buy it separatedly. Because it wasn't mentioned in the product features, but I can't imagine how could it come without it.

My last thing to buy will be Reaper as soon as I get everything else in the mail. So in total, I'll have spent a little over $700 including instruments, which will be very much worth it if I can get everything to work. My biggest concern is that the interface will give me trouble for having Windows 7 64 bits, as I've seen many people encounter problems with drivers in different interfaces. This worries me especially because it seems like interfaces are non returnable (because of the damn software which I am not going to use anyways), so hopefully everything goes well, I wouldn't bet for it though.

Ah, fair enough.
Antrim is a county in Northern Ireland; That's where I'm from.

OT: That's funny. It was one of the aliases of Billy the Kid when he was young (Kid Antrim), came from his stepfather. He was Irish, so I can see where that's coming from!