Why is audio interface needed?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lankkii
  • Start date Start date
L

Lankkii

New member
Hey, i'm just starting about this recording thing and got a lot questions, so is there any topic where you can ask simple stupid questions?
But let's head to my main problem. So i'm going to use my edrums (roland td-9) as midi controller and use EZdrummer. But why is audio interface needed for that? Why isn't MIDI to USB cable enough?
 
For getting the midi into the computer and triggering ezd, that's fine.

but once you have the song in the computer, are you going to be making sonic decisions on it?
If so, you'll be monitoring with the cheap pos 50-cent onboard soundcard and that's a no-no....
 
I am one of the guys that do NOT use an AI and am doing VERY good with a 50-cent onboard SC. But I do it for hobby and I only record one track per time.

;)
 
MIDI is just data, so you don't need an AI to get it into the computer. And if you're just buggering around then you can get away with the onboard soundcard,

If you seriously want to learn to record, get an audio interface for the purposes Tim O'B has outlined.
 
I forgot to mention that if you decide to NOT buy an AI and go for your soundcard you will need a preamp to raise the guitar and microphone signals to the correct recording levels. Having an AI you won't need the preamp. The problem is that a decent AI will cost 4-5 times the price of a decent preamp (and that's why I didn't bought one till the date).

:thumbs up:
 
YanKleber said:
I forgot to mention that if you decide to NOT buy an AI and go for your soundcard you will need a preamp to raise the guitar and microphone signals to the correct recording levels. Having an AI you won't need the preamp. The problem is that a decent AI will cost 4-5 times the price of a decent preamp (and that's why I didn't bought one till the date).

:thumbs up:
Click to expand...

And a decent eDrum kit costs 4 - 5 times what a quality 2-channel "prosumer" home recording AI costs. It's good you're having success with a preamp and your onboard soundcard, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it as the cheapest / best way to get to there from here, if the aim is recording.

And we don't even know the OP wants to record. Might just want to practice drumming... :D
 
This is where it gets a little foggy. "Audio Interface" is a name that typically refers to an external USB or Firewire attachment but an internal sound card is still an audio interface. External AIs are renowned for their superior mic preamps and convertors but you can also get PCI sound cards with excellent pres and convertors. If you do well with your internal sound card, fine. But if you want more options, such as extra mic inputs and audio outputs, then you have a better range of choices with external audio interfaces. Whether you can justify this is entirely up to you so let your choices be driven by your needs. If you don't know whether you need an external AI then you probably don't.
 
YanKleber said:
I forgot to mention that if you decide to NOT buy an AI and go for your soundcard you will need a preamp to raise the guitar and microphone signals to the correct recording levels. Having an AI you won't need the preamp. The problem is that a decent AI will cost 4-5 times the price of a decent preamp (and that's why I didn't bought one till the date).

:thumbs up:
Click to expand...

Sorry Yan but that is just misleading rubbish. The Steinberg UR22 cost around £100 here and has, by all the accounts I have read, very acceptable microphone amplifiers in it and the converters are going to be clicks better than those on a computer MOBO. The latency is also likely to be much better.

I know of no mic pre amp that could be seriously recommended at the £100 mark? Others might have suggestions? N! very B! I am NOT talking about some starved plate, toooob ***t thing but an amplifier with noise and distortion levels comparable to the UR22.
In fact if you need to amp up mics and you only have 50 to 100quid you are better off IMHO to buy a Berry mixer!

In fact Yan, I think you have the ratio arse'uppards! £400 STARTS to get you a decent pre amp! (but nobody noobwise really needs one).

Dave.
 
My M Audio M Track was $139 Australian (probably under $100 street value in the USA). The pre amps are entirely useful and streets ahead of the quality I'd get plugging a mic straight into my onboard Realtek sound card.

As others have said, if you're only using MIDI then you can get away with the onboard. Monitoring won't be idea but, at the same time, this doesn't change what you've recorded, just what you're hearing.

However, as soon as anyone wants to use a microphone (or just improve monitoring) an Audio Interface is an excellent investment.

Reasons to use a "proper" interface rather than an onboard sound card:

1. The interface will have connectors that allow you to connect a wide range of other gear (mics, line sources like electric pianos and synths, monitor speakers, etc.) without lots of (likely to fail) adaptors.

2. An interface will provide phantom power allowing the use of condenser mics or active DI boxes for guitar, again without spending money on a power supply and adaptors.

3. (A biggie). The noise floor with any decent interface (including my cheapie M Track) will be significantly lower than on onboard. Anything recorded on my Realtek has a noise floor in the -58 to -60dB range, i.e. easily audible before you even add and mic preamp gain. Any interface worth considering will have a noise floor of around -85dB. (i.e. inaudible).

4. (Another biggie) Any half decent AI will have significantly more headroom before clipping.

6. Any AI worth considering will use ASIO drivers for much lower latency.

7. Any decent AI will feature "direct hardware monitoring" allowing you to create a headphone monitor mix without a round trip through the computer,

8. An AI will give you physical knobs for functions like adjusting levels, rather than having to do software adjustments on your computer.

I'm sure there are others I'm missing but, frankly, although you CAN get away with using an onboard sound card at the most basic level, it's a case of "any damn fool can be uncomfortable". Even a basic interface makes so many things easier and better that it's a false economy not to just buy one.
 
Zero (direct) or low-latency monitoring is the real key (to me) - unless you are doing single track (or stereo single take) recording (no overdubbing).
When I first started back up with recording 7-8 years ago (2 computers ago) with just the internal soundcard, the latency was so bad I gave up trying - I hadn't started to mine this place with it's wealth of knowledge and knowledgable people. I bought a Boss stand-alone recorder, not understanding the need for an AI. Lesson learned ($$$ and years later).
 
YanKleber said:
I am one of the guys that do NOT use an AI and am doing VERY good
Click to expand...
OK, let's not get carried away here. You've made some ok recordings. Like anything else, listen back to those recordings in a year or so and then see if you still think they're VERY good.

ecc83 said:
Sorry Yan but that is just misleading rubbish. The Steinberg UR22 cost around £100 here and has, by all the accounts I have read, very acceptable microphone amplifiers in it and the converters are going to be clicks better than those on a computer MOBO. The latency is also likely to be much better.

I know of no mic pre amp that could be seriously recommended at the £100 mark? Others might have suggestions? N! very B! I am NOT talking about some starved plate, toooob ***t thing but an amplifier with noise and distortion levels comparable to the UR22.
In fact if you need to amp up mics and you only have 50 to 100quid you are better off IMHO to buy a Berry mixer!

In fact Yan, I think you have the ratio arse'uppards! £400 STARTS to get you a decent pre amp! (but nobody noobwise really needs one).

Dave.
Click to expand...
Don't tell anyone I said this, but I totally agree. :eek: :D
 
ecc83 said:
Sorry Yan but that is just misleading rubbish. The Steinberg UR22 cost around £100 here and has, by all the accounts I have read, very acceptable microphone amplifiers in it and the converters are going to be clicks better than those on a computer MOBO. The latency is also likely to be much better.

I know of no mic pre amp that could be seriously recommended at the £100 mark? Others might have suggestions? N! very B! I am NOT talking about some starved plate, toooob ***t thing but an amplifier with noise and distortion levels comparable to the UR22.
In fact if you need to amp up mics and you only have 50 to 100quid you are better off IMHO to buy a Berry mixer!

In fact Yan, I think you have the ratio arse'uppards! £400 STARTS to get you a decent pre amp! (but nobody noobwise really needs one).

Dave.
Click to expand...

Dave, I am sorry because maybe I wasn't fair because I was talking with my brazilian mind... The fact is that here in Brasil all of those things are pricey. The tag price for an UR22 here, for instances, is USD 350 while a Behringer Mic100 preamp (my own) can be purchased for about USD 75.
:rolleyes:

About the Behringer Mic100 preamp I don't see anything wrong with it as it gives to me everything that I need: it brings the level to a good level either for guitars as for microphones, it doesn't add noise to the equation, do not distorts the signal (unless I saturate it by purpose) and has phantom power. What else I could expect from a preamp? Now you really put me curious to know what a 400 pounds preamp has to offer to worth such rip off. LoL!

:)

And yes, as far as I could understand we are stepping in the newbies ground. I am a newby myself (and a hobbyst too) and I believe the OP is also.

:thumbs up:
 
RAMI said:
OK, let's not get carried away here. You've made some ok recordings. Like anything else, listen back to those recordings in a year or so and then see if you still think they're VERY good.
Click to expand...
Well, I think that you are mixing things. I agree with you that in one year or so I MAY think that it is not as good as today but actually it doesn't have nothing to do with the fact that I am not using an AI. Instead it will have do do with my (lack of) ability on equalize and mix today. C'mon... you know that replace my preamp by an AI will not make that difference.

Beside being a hobbyst myself and not doing it for living I think that in a year or so I still will be happy with the result. See, I am not going to pursuit a big improvement on my audio productions. Comparing what I have now with what I was used to hear on 'demo tapes' 30 years ago (that's when I started to cultivate this dream of record an album) now it is a million times better. I don't think that at this point of my life (almost turning 50) and doing this exclusively for fun I will be going to anywhere further than this.

And see Rami, all of us have to live with bad recordings at all. What about the 60s and 70s tracks that all of us love and still hear (and think they are absolutely great!) regardless the awful quality? Sorry, I know that this is not fair, but this is a fact!

:laughings:

Anyway, I am not saying to the OP (or to anyone) to not buy an AI. I am just giving the feedback of someone that does NOT have one. Don't you think it is valid? By the other hand your words are sounds to me like a way to scare people that by do not using an AI it will make their recordings to sound like crap. I think THIS is not fair at all.

Of course all of this is parting from the principle that the OP is someone like me that wants to do it for fun and as a hobby.

:listeningmusic:
 
YanKleber said:
Well, I think that you are mixing things. I agree with you that in one year or so I MAY think that it is not as good as today but actually it doesn't have nothing to do with the fact that I am not using an AI.
Click to expand...
We're all just doing it for fun, etc.......You're not the only one, even though you're the only one that keeps repeating that.

An AI WILL make a difference. Maybe not the only difference, but it will make a difference, for all the reasons given in this thread. Noise, latency, etc.....

I was just responding to you saying that you don't use an AI and implying that you don't need one because you still get VERY good results. Keep in mind that the people that comment on songs will usually only comment if they have something positive to say. Many people will hear something they don't like and refrain from commenting on it. That applies to you, me and everyone else. I'm not putting you down. But I don't think it's helpful to tell a newb they don't need an AI.

---------- Update ----------

YanKleber said:
And see Rami, all of us have to live with bad recordings at all. What about the 60s and 70s tracks that all of us love and still hear (and think they are absolutely great!) regardless the awful quality? Sorry, I know that this is not fair, but this is a fact!
Click to expand...
So what are you saying? Let's all make shitty recordings because there were a few shitty recordings in the 60's that still became popular? Your logic is a little weird. Let's just close down this whole site since it doesn't matter how shitty anything sounds. Let's set our standards really low and not give a shit. :rolleyes:
 
When I listen to some of the recordings I made ten years ago that I thought were very good then, I am disgusted in them now. Its silly to say that you will still think todays recordings are very good in a year's time. Even without trying, your ears will get better at what they do and then you will hear the difference between a decent audio interface and a common sound card.
 
GuitarLegend said:
you will hear the difference between a decent audio interface and a common sound card.
Click to expand...
That's my point, thank you. That's also the point everyone else making. But when one doesn't know any better, one thinks one has all the answers. I'll let the points Dave, Bobbsy and everyone else made speak for themselves. This is isn't worth arguing about. Sorry Yan, but you're wrong.
 
RAMI said:
Sorry Yan, but you're wrong.
Click to expand...
LOL, I never wanted to be the carrier of the truth here (or anywhere else). You guys are funny!

:)

To be honest I really don't care if the OP will buy an AI or a preamp. I was just giving my opinion and it is a decision exclusively of him.

:thumbs up:

PS: you have mentioned a certain point that 'all of us is doing it here for fun'. I don't think that this is true. In a short time I am here I could notice that there is a BUNCH of pros here. Actually I think that mostly of forum members does (or have done it at some point of their lives) for living. Of course I want to believe that they have a good time doing that, but as 'for fun' I meant 'as a hobby'. Anyway, that's why I insist on always say that I am a hobbyst, then it can help others to evaluate my opinions. I know that lots of what I say here may sound silly from the point of view of the professional but they are quite fair from the point of the hobbyst that doesn't want to bury a lot of money and time on recording (my case).

:D

Carry on! Hey, by the way, why are we wasting time on this silly argue?????

:laughings:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top