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Well sure, interfaces with line inputs (often in addition to the mic inputs) are numerous. I'm not sure I would be able to pick out the difference in a double blind test though. A preamp that doesn't have to do any work has little opportunity to imprint any character or noise as far as I understand. Can't honestly say I've had the opportunity to actually test it.
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Oct 15, 2019 20:22
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It will kick up your noise floor a tiny little bit and impart a little of the pre character. Across 40 tracks you would notice it as a reduction in dynamic range, but not in this application. On consoles sometimes we'll return from tape somewhere farther down the chain (insert return) to bypass the preamp electronics and theoretically improve noise floor. The ISA pre's are nice and transparent. You will hear the difference in the upgrade.
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Oct 15, 2019 21:47
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That's good to hear! I can't wait to give it a try. On a semi-related note, I'm using Reaper as my DAW. What's the thread's opinion on Reaper for Windows?
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Oct 15, 2019 22:48
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SwitchbladeKult posted:That's good to hear! I can't wait to give it a try. As far as I know, we love it (at least I do). It can seem complicated and daunting at first, because you can quite literally accomplish virtually everything that all of the other DAWs do, but it also has a metric poo poo-ton of customizability. For example, you can not only set up your own shortcuts, but also custom actions to occur when pressing those shortcuts, and you can then make a custom button on the custom toolbar (by either choosing pre-made art, or literally designing your own in Paint or Photoshop or Illustrator or whatever) to execute your custom action. Reaper is very flexible. I have literally only one gripe with it (no 'Bounce on 2nd pass' option to help easily create seamless loops) that can still be accomplished via custom actions. EDIT: and to clarify, a custom action is anything from one specific function (like Play or Stop), to a series of scripted actions (like select region, copy it, move the copy down to a new track, reverse it, and add reverb, for one crazy example). EDIT 2: You'll need this for added functionality, but everyone using Reaper should have this. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Oct 16, 2019 |
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Oct 16, 2019 18:39
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:As far as I know, we love it (at least I do). It can seem complicated and daunting at first, because you can quite literally accomplish virtually everything that all of the other DAWs do, but it also has a metric poo poo-ton of customizability. For example, you can not only set up your own shortcuts, but also custom actions to occur when pressing those shortcuts, and you can then make a custom button on the custom toolbar (by either choosing pre-made art, or literally designing your own in Paint or Photoshop or Illustrator or whatever) to execute your custom action. That's awesome! I'll stick with it. Any good plugin recommendations?
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Oct 17, 2019 01:47
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SwitchbladeKult posted:That's awesome! I'll stick with it. Any good plugin recommendations? I'm not near my system right now, but make KVR your new home. They are the be-all, end-all site for all plugin reviews and news (and downloads), but for great deals, definitely become a member of Plugin Boutique Also, great learning resources are Kenny Gioia (Reaper Mania) and Jon Tidey (The Reaper Blog) on Youtube. Just fantastic stuff, and there are many recommended plugins from them. The stock Reaper plugins, while ugly, are VERY good once you know how to use them.
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Oct 17, 2019 13:20
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SwitchbladeKult posted:That's awesome! I'll stick with it. Any good plugin recommendations? This depends entirely on your budget and what you want to make. If you want Kontakt and another NI plugin, Komplete is a better deal. Deals are during summer, Black Friday, and Christmas. Soundtoys is great. They offer individual plugins at nice discounts sometimes, and the more of those you'll get, the cheaper SoundToys 5 gets. Arturia's V-Collection is good as well, and well-rounded; where NI has sort of stopped emulating vintage things, Arturia's picked up the slack. If you want to do soundscapes/soundtrack work Omnisphere is highly recommended. Laserjet 4P fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Oct 17, 2019 |
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Oct 17, 2019 19:58
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Flipperwaldt posted:It's not likely that the preamps on the interface will be bypassed entirely in a technical sense, but the signal you'll be feeding through them will be so strong that it shouldn't matter. Yeah, that interface's inputs always go through the preamp circuit. Ideallly you'd use a boutique preamp like this on an interface with dedicated balanced line inputs that don't pass through a preamp; but at the end of the day if you just keep your interface gain low and leave it switched in LINE mode, it will work.
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Oct 17, 2019 23:30
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Laserjet 4P posted:If you want to do soundscapes/soundtrack work Omnisphere is highly recommended. This reminds me that Iris 2 is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
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Oct 18, 2019 02:56
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Wow thanks y'all! I'll check it all out.
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Oct 18, 2019 23:39
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Looking for a new interface as my trusty Saffire Pro 40 is dying. I'm pretty sure on getting the Focusrite Clarret 8preX, however, a part of me is still wondering if I should go more with the RME Fireface UFX2. Has anyone had the chance to test both, especially when it comes to the pres? Only four mic pres on the Fireface is a bit problematic but I could probably used my old Saffire Pro for a while more through the ADAT.
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Nov 14, 2019 09:46
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abske_fides posted:Looking for a new interface as my trusty Saffire Pro 40 is dying. I'm pretty sure on getting the Focusrite Clarret 8preX, however, a part of me is still wondering if I should go more with the RME Fireface UFX2. Has anyone had the chance to test both, especially when it comes to the pres? Only four mic pres on the Fireface is a bit problematic but I could probably used my old Saffire Pro for a while more through the ADAT. The difference isn't going to be so much the sound quality of the 2 units, as it is the longevity of the units. RME isn't just a piece of hardware, it's an entire ecosystem that you buy into. I can't speak to the UFX but the ADI-2 Pro is an absolute loving powerhouse and so beautifully put together Albeit only a couple of inputs. All that being said, I just use a Scarlett 2i2 for literally everything. And the new gen has AIR is so good I literally have no reason to have a Clarett except 1) interface connection and 2) latency?
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Nov 14, 2019 21:39
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:This reminds me that Iris 2 is a beautiful, beautiful thing. It's not Omnisphere (and neither is Alchemy), but yes, there are some great 90s Korg Triton-style pads in there with a bit of work. Getting those really nice airy sounds (wavetables are too clean, analog synths aren't airy enough) can be done well with this.
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Nov 15, 2019 13:42
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Laserjet 4P posted:It's not Omnisphere (and neither is Alchemy), but yes, there are some great 90s Korg Triton-style pads in there with a bit of work. Getting those really nice airy sounds (wavetables are too clean, analog synths aren't airy enough) can be done well with this. This is totally something that should be in the synths or VST thread, but I've been making a some vaporwave recently with Iris 2 and it couldn't be more useful. The looping and layering is just so great. 
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Nov 15, 2019 17:19
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:The difference isn't going to be so much the sound quality of the 2 units, as it is the longevity of the units. RME isn't just a piece of hardware, it's an entire ecosystem that you buy into. Yeah I'm familiar with how good the RME stuff is, as I've used some of their interfaces before but it's a bit too expensive for me at this point with only 4 pre-amps, especially since I need something a bit more compact for live shows. The latency of the Clarett seems pretty nice, not RME nice but it's really not an issue whether it's 2.9 or 10 ms for my uses. The connectivity is good as well and I've had my Saffire Pro for almost ten years. First generation Scarletts had eh pres, but afterwards they got decent especially considering how darn cheap they are.
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Nov 18, 2019 10:59
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I kinda word-salad-ed that reply (sorry phoneposting) but yeah the point still stands. For the money, the Scarlett line is unbeatable, but performance wise, the Clarett definitely has the better preamp, more headroom and dynamic range, and faster latency. But the Clarett 8 vs the RME UFX II? I mean dude the RME is like 3x the price... Yeah you get twice as many front inputs and an extra adat our of the RME, but you could also just get 4 Clarett. lol
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Nov 19, 2019 19:41
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I'm a bit confused about this talk of some interfaces having better latency. When I've asked in the past (in various places, not casting blame on here!) about which interfaces have the best latency I've generally been told that it's down to how small your CPU allows you to have your buffer, not the interface itself. Is this not the case? Or is it down to how efficient the drivers are or something?
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Nov 20, 2019 12:50
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Does anyone know if it's possible to get the M-Audio Fast Track Pro running normally in later versions of Catalina or should I just put it on Kijiji for $20 and get something new? If "something new" is the answer, Focusrite Scarlett something or other? Just looking to make some lovely bedroom music with my guitar, bass, and a MIDI keyboard.
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Nov 20, 2019 15:17
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Just a warning that I’ve been finding some interfaces don’t play well with adapters. The clarett 4 pre (thunderbolt) driver doesn’t seem to work with a thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter.
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Nov 20, 2019 16:58
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chippy posted:I'm a bit confused about this talk of some interfaces having better latency. When I've asked in the past (in various places, not casting blame on here!) about which interfaces have the best latency I've generally been told that it's down to how small your CPU allows you to have your buffer, not the interface itself. Is this not the case? Or is it down to how efficient the drivers are or something? Note that the Scarlett here was on the old driver, which was terrible latency-wise. It's supposed to be more middle of the pack now. Latency still goes up if your cpu forces you to choose a larger buffer size, obviously.
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Nov 20, 2019 18:42
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Flipperwaldt posted:Note that the Scarlett here was on the old driver, which was terrible latency-wise. It's supposed to be more middle of the pack now. http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2018/04/comparing-usb-audio-interface-latency.html I found that the Clarett driver performs notably better than the original Scarlett USB driver on smaller buffer sizes, but gets exponentially worse with increasing buffer size- to the point where latency is worse than even the original 2i2 drivers, once the buffers reach a certain size. After doing that work, I learned of a theory that the new Scarlett drivers internally double the buffer size selected by the user/reported by the driver, which would explain the exponentially-increasing lag if true. But why they did that, I don't know... could be they were focusing on reliability/stability over performance when doing comparative testing at different sample rates and that was a quick hack to make it seem like they're reliable as RME at the same settings, for example. Again, this was April 2018. Focusrite might have tightened things up since then. But yeah, on Windows at least, with ASIO, driver quality might be the #1 factor in low latency performance.
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Nov 21, 2019 02:05
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Flipperwaldt posted:Driver efficiency is a major thing. Just look at this image from earlier in the thread where interfaces from different manufacturers are tested on the same computer with the same buffer size. Last column is round trip latency (in+out). Well that's kind of annoying, I asked around when I was researching my last purchase and everyone told me the same thing, it makes very little difference, it's down to your computer. I ended up with a 3rd Gen Scarlett 18i20 and I'm happy with it so far, so I'm glad to hear they have improved. It's definitely better than the Mbox 2 Mini it replaced, with that I couldn't play certain instruments live in Ableton with a buffer size of 64 without getting crackles and popping, and i can with the Scarlett, so there obviously is some difference. chippy fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Nov 21, 2019 |
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Nov 21, 2019 16:22
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Radiapathy posted:It's weird. I revisited the topic last year, in a test that includes the Novation Audiohub (which is more or less a re-skinned Scarlett 2i2 that uses the 1.x drivers) amd the Focusrite Clarett 2Pre USB, which uses the newer drivers. I would give up an arm for more testing for audio interfaces that do shoot outs like that. chippy posted:Well that's kind of annoying, I asked around when I was researching my last purchase and everyone told me the same thing, it makes very little difference, it's down to your computer. Yeah that was last page, I had mentioned reports of the USB-C driver helping with latency on the gen 3s but being unsure if that would be a significant difference because someone saying, "It's better than before!" without quantifying it means so loving little. Sorry if I gave a bad impression on that.
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Nov 22, 2019 06:34
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Weird BIAS posted:I would give up an arm for more testing for audio interfaces that do shoot outs like that. Ah it's alright, it wasn't only here that I was asking, and we were mainly chatting about the difference USB-C would make as opposed to the difference between different interfaces.
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Nov 22, 2019 11:18
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Need some Behringer love on those tests.
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Nov 22, 2019 21:36
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I'm currently using a Windows PC I built back in early 2012 to do recording and messing around in Cubase and Ableton (using a Steinberg UR44), and it's getting a bit long in the tooth in various ways, so I'm looking to upgrade. I kind of want to get a laptop in order to easily be able to set up in a few different rooms in my house where I want to record -- at least, the prospect of moving a desktop machine up to my living room to record by the piano, and then back to the basement to record guitars is not really appealing. I'd been inclined to get a Windows laptop, because Macbook Pros just seem too expensive for what you get, and I'd strongly prefer a machine where I can upgrade the RAM and HDDs down the road. But this weekend I've been going deep down a rabbit hole of online threads with people concerned about "DPC latency" and apparently unsolvable issues that make some Windows laptops difficult to use with DAWs and recording -- even if they otherwise have impressive specs. This has made me concerned that the machines I was looking -- maybe a Thinkpad P53 or Acer Predator 300 -- might not be suitable for my Ableton/Cubase use, even though the specs seem pretty capable. Has anyone deal with this recently, and have any thoughts on good Windows laptop options? Or if the nature of Apple hardware makes an MBP worth considering even given how much more expensive it is for the equivalent specs when compared to a PC?
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Nov 24, 2019 04:02
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Crosspost from the recording thread, so apologies in advance. Anyway, I've got a Behringer UMC22, and the output from my guitar and bass is way lower than a YouTube video or anything else really. Is there anything I can adjust to even this out? Would a better interface not have this problem? I'm running macOS Catalina for what it's worth. If you'd go the route of another interface, is there anything not too terribly expensive that would work with iOS as well? I think I prefer macOS' GarageBand, but it'd be nice to have the option if nothing else.
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Dec 5, 2019 17:31
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What you need is a DI box. There are interfaces with the functionality built in, but you might as well get a separate one as they are not necessarily expensive and open you up to using them in other contexts.
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Dec 5, 2019 18:31
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Or an amp with a thru/di out in a pinch.
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Dec 5, 2019 19:23
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nitsuga posted:Anyway, I've got a Behringer UMC22, and the output from my guitar and bass is way lower than a YouTube video or anything else really. Is there anything I can adjust to even this out? Would a better interface not have this problem? I'm running macOS Catalina for what it's worth. There are a lot of entry-level interfaces that would probably suit your needs, though. I've owned and liked devices by all of these companies, but I haven't used these specific devices. They all have explicit support for guitar, and all have iOS compatibility as well, per your question: List is in order of my preference, in terms of driver performance/stability on Windows (i am not a mac user, but have done some stuff on iOS): - MOTU M2 - https://motu.com/en-us/products/m-series/m2/ - Steinberg UR12 - https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/audio_interfaces/ur_series/models/ur12.html (Actually, have a look at the UR22mkII instead, as it has balanced outs like the other two. https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/audio_interfaces/ur_series/models/ur22mkii.html ) - Roland Rubix22 - https://www.roland.com/us/products/rubix22/ Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Dec 5, 2019 |
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Dec 5, 2019 22:13
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Radiapathy posted:A couple others have already mentioned DIs, which would give you the boost you need regardless of what interface you use. I would emphasize that if you go this route you should get some quality shielded interconnect cables of the right kinds for your devices' connectors. Because using a bad 3-conductor cable for a 2-conductor connection (or vice versa) can reduce output levels and/or introduce interference. Thanks! I think I might just spring for the UR22mkII rather than trying to wade through the DI and cabling route. It’ll be a cleaner setup even if it costs more. I’d be able to plug it into a USB-C port with an adapter, right? Would I really be losing out (again) with the UR12? Edit: I am a little confused though. The Behringer does have a Hi-Z input and that’s what I’m using. With that, should I still need a DI box? nitsuga fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Dec 6, 2019 |
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Dec 6, 2019 01:16
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nitsuga posted:Edit: I am a little confused though. The Behringer does have a Hi-Z input and that’s what I’m using. With that, should I still need a DI box? But after snooping a bit, looks like the Behringer's dyn range is rated at 100dB, which isn't much worse than the Roland/Steinberg. Can't remember if this was covered, but have you been making sure to use only 2-conductor/TS cables from your guitars to the INST input? (Also, if you do experiment with the DI route, make sure to go TS/unbalanced from guitar->DI and TRS/balanced from DI->MIC input; not INST)
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Dec 6, 2019 23:12
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nitsuga posted:Edit: I am a little confused though. The Behringer does have a Hi-Z input and that’s what I’m using. With that, should I still need a DI box?
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Dec 6, 2019 23:51
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Radiapathy posted:I didn't realize the UMC22 had a Hi-Z input, but I was assuming the issue you were having was due to dynamic range. The Roland and Steinberg both are rated at 104dB and the MOTU at 120dB, I think? (And no, an impedance-adjusted instrument input on an interface serves the purpose of a DI, so unless you're looking for DI "color" you don't need one so long as the interface is up to the task.) Quite all right, guys! I'm using the guitar cable I do normally, which doesn't cause any problems with either of my amps, it is a 30' cable though, so I can definitely give it a go with one of my 6' cables to see if it improves any. The other thing that makes this a bit puzzling is that I think playback levels on the recorded tracks are all right (I'll check on this later). My recorded bass and guitar tracks are as loud as anything else played on the computer. It's just when I lay down the track or try to use GarageBand as an amp modeler for playing along with lessons on YouTube that it's a lot quieter. I might still snag a UR22mkII while they're on sale. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it out and see if it was any better.
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Dec 7, 2019 00:01
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I wonder if it's something to do with how it does monitoring. Is the sound when you do tracking/recording the direct input sound or the processed sound? Are you setting up garageband to do input monitoring?
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Dec 7, 2019 00:39
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Weird BIAS posted:I wonder if it's something to do with how it does monitoring. Is the sound when you do tracking/recording the direct input sound or the processed sound? Are you setting up garageband to do input monitoring? I am monitoring the processed signal in GarageBand, and I’ve got direct monitoring switched off on the interface. When I’m recording it is just the direct signal. I can’t return the UMC, but I’ll at least email Behringer about it. Edit: I’m getting a 502 from their website and I did last night too. 
nitsuga fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Dec 7, 2019 |
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Dec 7, 2019 01:05
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If recording an active bass as opposed to a passive one, would you use a Line or Hi-Z input? I was tracking a little live session with my Scarlett 18i20 and I wasn't sure whether to hit the INST switch or not. I tried both ways and the only difference I could hear was that I got a hotter signal when I used INST, but I didn't hear any of the tone issues I'd associate with an impedance mismatch. The bassist felt like he was getting a slightly better tone when I didn't use the Hi-Z. I couldn't hear a difference myself, so I ended up leaving if off to keep him happy. I did a bit of googling and got mixed results - a lot said it depends on the spec of the active electronics in the instrument, and i couldn't find those. What do you guys think? chippy fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Dec 16, 2019 |
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Dec 9, 2019 15:39
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Generally speaking the top end should open up dynamically at higher impedance. If the electronics in the bass are noisy up there you might prefer it on the line setting. Sounds good is good though and making the bassist feel important is nice. 
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Dec 12, 2019 18:24
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A year from now I'm going to purchase myself a really nice mic for recording voice over. The only high dollar microphone I know much about it is the Neuman u87 ai but I'd like to know more about what's it there. What is everyone here's favorite microphone?
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Dec 13, 2019 04:00
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A Gefell 92.1S will slap a U87 silly any day of the week if you're dropping that kind of coin. I like the Schoeps V4 a lot. Maybe try a bright ribbon like the Coles 4040. Depending on your voice, the C414. And of course an SM7 is a good choice if you want to just order something that's going to work assuming you aren't already using one.
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Dec 13, 2019 10:42
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