Let's play another round of "Recommend me an interface"

[Flow Of Time]

Let's face it: There is not a single interface in the pricerange between 100 - 200 bucks, that doesn't make you wanna scream in anger.
Feel free to prove me wrong.

Fortunately I'm not in the market for one of those anymore. I'm looking for an interface that has at least 4 line outputs (reamping and stuff..) and a decent headphone amp.

Shit I don't want to endure with this interface:

+ Crackling audio
+ High latency (64 would be nice, 128 if necessary)
+ Clicking or popping in recorded audio
+ Humming, beeping etc. through the monitors or from the interface itself
+ Channel imbalance

Flaws I'm willing to accept:

+ Clipping instrument inputs

I'm still on my Hackintosh without Firewire, so USB would be mandatory.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

 

[Delitzsch]

Steinberg UR28M. I've been through a few interfaces and I've had this one now for a couple years. It's solid and has lots of options. Bonus points if you use Cubase (as I do).

 

[Revson]

Steinberg ur44
Fireface UC
Apogee Quartet
MOTU 1248

*Edit*

I've got the ur28m, too, and the direct monitoring is a lifesaver if you're on Cubase. It's latency without direct monitoring isn't that great, though, and it doesn't play that well with PT10 in my experience. It's kind of regarded as the bastard step-child of Steinberg's UR line of interfaces.

 

[MartijnPaauwe]

You're probably looking for something with 4 TRS outputs right? I saw some Focusrite stuff which had 4 line outputs in that price range, but that were RCA outputs.

I should definitely recommend looking for a used Focusrite, I had my Focusrite Saffire Pro40 for now years and it's still going strong!

 

[dominus_malas]

Look for a MOTU unit with the specs you want. Their drivers on Mac are solid and the hardware is decent.

Edit: Is your Hackintosh a desktop or a laptop? If it's a desktop, get a TI firewire card. It should work as soon as you plug it in and turn the computer back on. *Then* get a firewire based MOTU interface.

 

[mva801]

I LOVE my Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6. Fits my bill for a perfect home studio interface. spdif, 4 line outs, 2 mic pres/ instrument ins, 2 line ins. Sounds great. around $300. I've had it over a year, daily use and zero issues. Sounds WAY better than the avid m-box my buddy has, and Just as good as the pro fire 26 i used to have, if not better.

 

[Flow Of Time]

@Delitzsch+Revson:
I'm using Reaper, so I guess the UR28M wouldn't be the best option. I'll take a look at the other ones you mentioned.

@MartijnPaauwe:
Honestly, I've never heard about the difference between TRS and RCA before I just googled it.

I was fine with RCA outputs for monitoring purposes until now. Would it make a difference for reamping?

@dominus_malas:
It's a desktop. I'd need a firewire 400 card, right? What exactly would be the benefits of firewire over USB?

@mva801
I'll take a look at this one aswell.

Edit: Can you use all 4 outputs at a time? I've spotted a "Monitor 1/2 / 3/4" switch on a product image that makes me tend to believe otherwise..

 

[cobhc]

Got a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 for £312 recently, and it's solid as hell.

 

[Flow Of Time]

I had a Scarlett 2i4 once. It had pretty bad humming issues.

Did you notice anything like that with yours?

 

[cobhc]

Seems clean as a whistle so far, but I haven't done much recording on it yet.

 

[Flow Of Time]

I think mine always made noise for about 10 seconds after playing audio. I'm not sure if it was present in the DAW or just on something like Youtube videos though.

@Revson:
Except for the UR44, those are way to expansive. 500 bucks would be the limit, I guess.

 

[EachHit]

I bought myself an Audient ID22 a few days ago and that is so much better than my previous Focusrite Saffire 6 USB. It has only 2 Inputs but one of them is split into a DI Input.
And with that Interface it is the first Time I Hear that the the Preamp is doing something with the Signal when I crank it a little bit.

But I only use it for DI Recording, Mixing and Reamping with my Kemper.

And I absolutely love the MONO Button on the Interface so I can easily switch from Stereo to Mono to hear if something is wrong with my Mix phasewise.

If you need more inputs and Outputs I may recommend an X32 Rack from Behringer. I have one of these in my DrumRecording Room.

Heavy Greetz

 

[Flow Of Time]

The ID 22 looks nice, but it's a bit pricy for the features it offers.

I'm flirting with the UR44, but heard about issues with channel imbalance on a cheaper UR modell. Can anyone who has a 44 comment on this?

 

[EachHit]

The ID 22 looks nice, but it's a bit pricy for the features it offers.

I'm flirting with the UR44, but heard about issues with channel imbalance on a cheaper UR modell. Can anyone who has a 44 comment on this?

Yeah, it is a bit pricier but I wanted to have an interface which has good AD/DA Converters and good Pre's and thaz one seemed to be the only one which offers all that. On the cheaper one's I seemed to miss something.

The UR44 was also on my List but I decided to go for the ID22 cause it had a SPDIF In and Out.

I am not sure about the UR 44 but it seems that they have the same Preamps and the same Channel Strip like the Yamaha N12 I used for my Drumrecordins. They were pretty good.

Heavy Greetz

Heavy Greetz

 

[PD-Baraka]

RME raydat here. Running it everyday for 5 years with the buffer size 32, never had a glitch or lost any data.

 

[LeSedna]

RME on windows, Apogee on mac. No brainers there, others might be very good as well, but these brands are simply no brainers !

 

[Sloan]

Ive been using two Presonus Firestudio Projects for years. You can score one used for cheeeeeeep. 8 outputs and the first two inputs have inserts and are combo 1/4 inst/xlr mic, the rest are 1/4 line/xlr mic.

 

[AxeCop]

I'm looking for an interface to only record guitar and bass direct with using vst amps. All of my guitars have emg's in them but I keep reading about interfaces clipping with emg's.

I'm thinking about getting a Mackie Onyx Blackjack because so far that's the only interface I've been able to confirm doesn't clip with emg's.

Does anyone have experience with emg's and a USB AI that won't clip running them?

 

[mva801]

@mva801
I'll take a look at this one aswell.

Edit: Can you use all 4 outputs at a time? I've spotted a "Monitor 1/2 / 3/4" switch on a product image that makes me tend to believe otherwise..

That switch is just for you to select the headphone output, so you can set up a separate headphone mix and monitor off that through output 3/4. I re-amp through it all the time. For the price I haven't found an interface that sounds nearly as good with all the options.

I've had a lot of experience with the focusrites and Avid around the same price and the NI sounds the best for sure.

 

[dominus_malas]

RME on windows, Apogee on mac. No brainers there, others might be very good as well, but these brands are simply no brainers !

I typically recommend RME on Windows, MOTU on Mac. The MOTU can be used on a PC if necessary.