Presonus or focusrite

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p_bruno87

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I am looking to get an interface but im not sure which one to get. I keep hearing that presonus and focusrite are 2 of the top brands to choose from. Can i get some advice on which is better. Thank u all
 
I like Focusrite, their interfaces come with some great pres. But it really comes down to which specific interfaces you are looking at.
 
You need to get more specific.... tell us your budget - Focusrite in particular go from quite cheap (but still worthy!) devices to very expensive.

How many microphones do you need to record at once?
 
I have the presonus 1818 Vsl and a focusrite isa one and I think the focusrite pres have more life than the xmax pres but still very usable.
 
I think that's a good point about focusrite and their range.
Everything I see from presonus is XMAX, whereas focusrite seem to have a wider range of quality.

I had a firepod and currently have a firestudio mobile.
As far as I know they have the same preamps, and I prefer them to the ones in my old focusrite octopre platinum LE.

I think that octopre is close to the bottom of their range though, so keep that in mind.
 
I have the firestudio mobile love it. in terms of just audio interfaces, i quite like the presonus stuff just because it's simple to use and the universal control software is mega easy. However, the focusrite saffires have better sounding pre's, free plugins (which are better than most stock plugins imo) and are pretty rugged. I only went for the firestudio mobile over anything else as i needed a small AI with as many line in's as possible and I couldn't find an edirol FA101 under £300 at the time
 
I got a small 2 channel Presonus Audiobox, i have to say its very easy to use.
 
I've had and others around me have had Presonus and Focusrite. I have a focusrite that has outlived all the Presonus stuff. I just like the quality better and I've always found Presonus stuff to have a sound style I don't care for. Saffire 40 ftw.
 
I bought the Focusrite Scarlette 8i6o a couple fo weeks ago.
It's very good; very easy to use ONCE I set up the headphone routing in the mixer software that comes with it.
I was flummoxed that the headphone out on the box wasn't set up to use from the factory but apart from that little flutter everything seems to be very good.
The pres are much better than the ones I had in my previous interface (INCA 8I8O).
It was quite inexpensive as well.
I have a sep. presonus preamp (Blue Tube) & am happier with my little Behri Mic100 than with it.
 
rayc said:
I bought the Focusrite Scarlette 8i6o a couple fo weeks ago.
It's very good; very easy to use ONCE I set up the headphone routing in the mixer software that comes with it.
I was flummoxed that the headphone out on the box wasn't set up to use from the factory but apart from that little flutter everything seems to be very good.
The pres are much better than the ones I had in my previous interface (INCA 8I8O).
It was quite inexpensive as well.
I have a sep. presonus preamp (Blue Tube) & am happier with my little Behri Mic100 than with it.
Click to expand...


I have the 18i6...for the price theres a hell of a lot of features...i run a vamp pro through the sdif and have an octopre is my sights...thats 18 channels of recording altogether..

Only thing is if you run Ableton you cant really run its mixcontrol software (even though a Live Lite is bundled)...this means that no latency monitoring is more difficult as the Scarlett does have a little lag compared to my Delta. But this is only with Live as far as i can gather.

Also focusrite dont work using normal buffer sizes...128, 256, 512 etc...it works in milliseconds which dont fall exactly in these sizes. This only really matter when using some hardware, like a virus synth, that uses precise buffer sizes to communicate. The odd numbering can cause communication problems.

It also stops around 20ms...which for tracking is fine, but when i mix very large projects my quad core struggles,even with UAD and Liquidmix I still have to put my buffers past 20ms to stop crackles and pops. So it looks like Im keeping the Delta and only using the Scarlett for tracking.

One more thing...the scarlett has a noisy headphone amp..lits not noticable at low volumes but to drive 250ohm cans i need a loud volume...my old omni i/0 has a very quiet amp in comparision, and and extra headphone output too.

So if you use Live, and hardware instruments that communicate through usb, or produce large mixes on a PC a few years old, then the focusrite, although a great package, may not be the best choice.
 
kc,
I'll have to communicate with you regarding the looping functions and the rear panel in general. It certainly does have a lot going for it. Thanks for the tips re the h/p amp & latency.
I recently bought a Behri Miniamp Headphone amp so I should be able to either bypass the h/ph or take the lines from it to the miniamp & get some extra & cleaner vol.
I wish the Scarlet had had the h/phones routed to the socket ready to go - took me ages to work it out - I EVEN read the manual.
 
Pahtcub said:
I have the presonus 1818 Vsl and a focusrite isa one and I think the focusrite pres have more life than the xmax pres but still very usable.
Click to expand...

I have exactly the same setup and completely agree that the ISA one is more lively than the 181vsl, but let's keep in mind, the ISA one is a SINGLE pre that costs $500. The 1818vsl has 8 pres that cost $500. I also use a Focusrite Itrack Dock with my iPad mini 4 and the ISA One for guitar and honestly, it sounds just as good as when I run the ISA through the 1818VSL. To put it shortly, I believe that given whatever your budget is, as long as you are buying the equivalent interface (I.e. Audiobox 22vsl vs. Focusrite 2i2) you will more than likely end up with a great quality product no matter what
 
Prause13 said:
I have exactly the same setup and completely agree that the ISA one is more lively than the 181vsl, but let's keep in mind, the ISA one is a SINGLE pre that costs $500. The 1818vsl has 8 pres that cost $500. I also use a Focusrite Itrack Dock with my iPad mini 4 and the ISA One for guitar and honestly, it sounds just as good as when I run the ISA through the 1818VSL. To put it shortly, I believe that given whatever your budget is, as long as you are buying the equivalent interface (I.e. Audiobox 22vsl vs. Focusrite 2i2) you will more than likely end up with a great quality product no matter what
Click to expand...

Useful to know, but after four years, I reckon the OP would have sorted something by now.
 
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