Looking for a small new audio inteface

  • Thread starter Thread starter guitaristic
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guitaristic

guitaristic

prophet of Dave
Hey all,

So I'm looking for a audio interface with probably 4 inputs at the most that I can use for an "on-the-go" recording setup. All I've got now is a Tascam 1641 which is great but not very portable for me. I've been out of the audio interface game for 4 years now so I'm not really up to date on what's good. Got any good recommendations? I'd like to get one that also has a line-in input (w/ no preamp) that I could use my Golden Age preamp with.

Speak of the devil, say I were to plug my GA into a typical line-in input that has a preamp. If I didn't turn that knob at all, the GA would still come through right? If so, would sound quality be affected by the AI's preamp even though it wasn't technically doing anything?
 
The smaller Focusrite interfaces get a lot of recommendations around here, although I haven't used one myself. A friend just bought a Scarlett for christmas as his first interface and has been loving it so far. His first recording sounded great to my ears, so the preamps seem to be decent at least. They make 2in/2out, 2in/4out, 6in/6out, and 18in/8 out models, and the inputs are switchable between line or instrument level. If I were shopping for an entry-level to midrange interface today, I'd give those a long look while shopping around.

But as far as plugging a preamp into another preamp, that has always resulted in quite a bit of noise (hiss) for me. You'll get a signal, but it'll more than likely be noticeably noisier than feeding it from your preamp to a line input.
 
Tadpui said:
The smaller Focusrite interfaces get a lot of recommendations around here, although I haven't used one myself. A friend just bought a Scarlett for christmas as his first interface and has been loving it so far. His first recording sounded great to my ears, so the preamps seem to be decent at least. They make 2in/2out, 2in/4out, 6in/6out, and 18in/8 out models, and the inputs are switchable between line or instrument level. If I were shopping for an entry-level to midrange interface today, I'd give those a long look while shopping around.
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Thanks I'll definitely check those out. I've heard good things about them before regarding their preamps plus I'm a sucker for red gear :D

Tadpui said:
But as far as plugging a preamp into another preamp, that has always resulted in quite a bit of noise (hiss) for me. You'll get a signal, but it'll more than likely be noticeably noisier than feeding it from your preamp to a line input.
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I had a brain fart and completely forgot the preamp isn't engaged on the input when it's set to line in (it's one of those guitar/line in option ones). :facepalm: Thanks!
 
Do you need 4 XLR mic ins or just 4 ins? I think most of those Focusrite small AIs are 2 mic ins only, with the additional ins being line, SPDIF etc.. although I'm sure one of them has 4 mics... 18i8?

I ended up with a Fireface that has about 3,123,211.78 inputs, theoretically, but only 2 mic ins, which is fine... :D
 
Armistice said:
Do you need 4 XLR mic ins or just 4 ins? I think most of those Focusrite small AIs are 2 mic ins only, with the additional ins being line, SPDIF etc.. although I'm sure one of them has 4 mics... 18i8?

I ended up with a Fireface that has about 3,123,211.78 inputs, theoretically, but only 2 mic ins, which is fine... :D
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Hmmm I don't really have a specific number, but 2 XLR inputs by themselves (a lot of entry models) just seems too small. 2-4 XLR plus 1 or 2 line inputs would be perfect, but it's proving surprisingly hard to find one in a price range that I like. The 18i8 is cool but I'm not looking to spend $300 on it! For Tascam, they've got the us600 which would fit my needs, but I'm feeling adventurous and would like to steer away from Tascam for now. Found this Akai one that I got really excited about (plus I thought it looked cool :D) but then saw it was only 16 bit. So idk :)
 
Oh and I know what you mean about the inputs. That drives me nuts, and it was a big reason I bought a Tascam us1641 in the first place--8 XLR inputs. I was just checking out a big Focusrite one (18 inputs) that had four XLR inputs....ridiculous. I honestly kind of wonder why the ratio is so skewed in favor of line in inputs rather than XLRs. At the very least, I would think it'd be a 1:1 ratio. But nooooo!
 
guitaristic said:
Oh and I know what you mean about the inputs. That drives me nuts, and it was a big reason I bought a Tascam us1641 in the first place--8 XLR inputs. I was just checking out a big Focusrite one (18 inputs) that had four XLR inputs....ridiculous. I honestly kind of wonder why the ratio is so skewed in favor of line in inputs rather than XLRs. At the very least, I would think it'd be a 1:1 ratio. But nooooo!
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My impression is that the idea is to combine it with a nice outboard preamp and use the integrated ones in a pinch. And that it keeps the cost down. 8 preamps of any quality would be pretty damn expensive and would drive their prices into a whole other tier.
 
I've got a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 that I've for about 2 years (? i think)
It's surprisingly awesome. I bought it when I still had my us1800 for on the go recording, but ended up selling my us1800 after I realized I don't/wont need more than 4 inputs for quite some time. The built in preamps are amazing. and idk why, but the output on here seems to sound better to me.

I also had a Steinberg UR22 for a little while on loan. It was cool too!
But, I'm going to give the edge to the KA6 since it's smaller (albeit just a tad bit heavier)
 
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