interface recomendations?

[ac-mac]

Im looking for an audio interface and have no idea what to get... everything looks complicated, so i thought id lay out what i need and maybe someone here could recommend something.

i need to record 2 mics and 2 guitars at the same time into garageband or logic express, and have them on seperate tracks so i can do some simple editing. thats pretty much it, but some simple EQ controls would be good to.

Not looking to spend more than £75. Ive seen stuff on the Apple Store around that price but not sure if thats what im looking for?

Anyone got any suggestions? Thanks

 

[Sesshi]

One of these maybe?

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/5407

It says it will record each channel separately but I haven't used it so can't confirm. If true it is absolutely the cheapest interface with more than two or three physical analog inputs under £200ish.

 

[sammyman]

Im looking for an audio interface and have no idea what to get... everything looks complicated, so i thought id lay out what i need and maybe someone here could recommend something.

i need to record 2 mics and 2 guitars at the same time into garageband or logic express, and have them on seperate tracks so i can do some simple editing. thats pretty much it, but some simple EQ controls would be good to.

Not looking to spend more than £75. Ive seen stuff on the Apple Store around that price but not sure if thats what im looking for?

Anyone got any suggestions? Thanks

Get a Presonus Firepod, or a small mixer and a presonus firebox

 

[GanleyBurger]

.

I'm looking at the Alesis io/14.

Look on Hardware posts and you'll find people giving pros and cons. It's new, but I think that it should be able to do this.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/251234/

 

[ac-mac]

decided

thanks for the advice... but i think im gonna get the MultiMix 8USB now and maybe later sell it and get the iO|14.

 

[Sesshi]

Let us know how you get on, that interface has interested me for a while. I'm all set for main systems but it might be good for organising the audio clutter in my bedroom or something. I prefer knobs to prodding screen controls.

 

[cmccarten]

oh man, don't get that!
there's no way you'll be able to record 4 inputs simultaneously with USB! it may say that you can do that, but you will almost certainly have major crackling / latency issues.

get a firewire interface like the focusrite saffire LE.
it will has WAY better preamps than anything that alesis offers.

 

[Sesshi]

oh man, don't get that!
there's no way you'll be able to record 4 inputs simultaneously with USB! it may say that you can do that, but you will almost certainly have major crackling / latency issues.

get a firewire interface like the focusrite saffire LE.
it will has WAY better preamps than anything that alesis offers.

It's USB2.0. So less chance of that happening, and why I'm so intrigued for the money. And he wasn't asking for a £200 interface.

 

[scottlinux]

thanks for the advice... but i think im gonna get the MultiMix 8USB now and maybe later sell it and get the iO|14.

This is a BAD choice. Send it back. These USB mixers do NOT send independent channels to the computer. In other words, you cannot record 8 different mics independently. It only sends a stereo mix.

Only use firewire for audio interfaces. There is a reason why the pro audio and pro video I/O devices are all firewire. Firewire sends data in a constant stream whereas usb is just small bursts. This does not work for audio.

 

[cmccarten]

My thoughts exactly! I had a USB interface and it was virtually unusable. Despite the fact that you'll pay a bit more for firewire, it is the difference between having something that works or doesn't. USB will provide about a couple of hour's worth of solid interest before you realize how hugely limited it is.
Presonus Firebox, Focusrite Saffire, M-Audio firewire 410...are really the only reasonable entry-level interfaces.

tweakheadz has a great comparison chart that can help you find a good solution (lots of other really, really helpful information on that site)

 

[Sesshi]

This is a BAD choice. Send it back. These USB mixers do NOT send independent channels to the computer. In other words, you cannot record 8 different mics independently. It only sends a stereo mix.

Only use firewire for audio interfaces. There is a reason why the pro audio and pro video I/O devices are all firewire. Firewire sends data in a constant stream whereas usb is just small bursts. This does not work for audio.

This is what I thought as well... but the Multimix purports to offer independent recording of each channel. It is possible under USB2.0 - no-one's talking about 30 channels of IO, etc.

 

[gvdv]

Hi,
I'm about to buy a Mac Pro and an RME Fireface 400 firewire audio interface.

Apparently the RME 400 and it's bigger brother the 800 have excellent quality pre-amps, and drivers that work flawlessly with both PC and Mac (now I've said that, I'm sure there'll be some horror stories). If I could afford the Fireface 800, I'd go for that, but I can't, and in some ways (according to a review I read, the 400 has some advantages).

The '800' and '400' in the model numbers refer - I believe - to the throughput, measured in Mbps (mega bits - not bytes - per second) that the signal travels at.


GVDV