A good audio interface?

[Tuinboy]

Hi,

I'm looking for a good audio interface to record acoustic music (folk) in my room. I have a shure sm57 and a rode NT1a which I plan to record with. I have no experience with Audio interfaces whatsoever. I've been looking at the apogee duet, fireface 400, focusrite liquid saffire 56 and m-audio fasttrack. I just want a very nice and clean sounding recording, a recording that's honest. I have an imac so I'll proabably use garageband.
So if anyone could help me out I'd be very grateful. I have about 750 euros (930 dollars) to spend.

Johan

 

[ChrisA]

Hi,

I'm looking for a good audio interface to record acoustic music (folk) in my room. I have a shure sm57 and a rode NT1a which I plan to record with. I have no experience with Audio interfaces whatsoever. I've been looking at the apogee duet, fireface 400, focusrite liquid saffire 56 and m-audio fasttrack. I just want a very nice and clean sounding recording, a recording that's honest. I have an imac so I'll proabably use garageband.
So if anyone could help me out I'd be very grateful. I have about 750 euros (930 dollars) to spend.

Johan

I just bought a Presonus "Fire Box". Sweetwater has them on sale for $180. Great price. One of the advantages of this unit is that it needs no drivers on the Mac. Just plug it in and configure with Apple's audio/midi setup app. The pre's are clean and there 4 ins and 6 outs.

 

[Mkz]

I recently bought the Apogee One, it only lets you record one thing at a time or use the internal mic (surprisingly good) and it seems to be way under your budget at around 170 british pounds. Don't just take my word for it though, try it before you buy it.

 

[Fishrrman]

Of those that you mentioned, the fireface 400 would be the "box to buy". It's expensive, but you get what you pay for with RME.

I'd like to suggest a company that you _didn't_ mention: Echo Audio. You should check out the "AudioFire" line of products.

I started out with a Presonus Firebox, and it was a good unit. I moved up to an Echo AudioFire8, and it's better. It's got excellent analog-to-digital converters, clean mic preamps, plenty of ins/outs, and worked from get-go. Installation took about 5 minutes, just plug it in and use it.

The AudioFire8 has recently been replaced in their lineup, but you might still find a "new-unsold-old stock" one, or even consider used. Excellent product for the money.

And you could use those extra Euros you save for another mic or two!

 

[MarcusH]

I love the Apogee Duet - The guy in the shop lent it to me for the weekend and I never gave it back - had to buy it. The sound is really good, both going in and coming out.

Check-out the sound if you can.

Marcus

 

[jcportillo]

I've been using MOTU's 896mk3, amazing intarface!🙂