Lost among the Interfaces.

[Gar23]

hey everyone,

Gonna be honest with you. Partially thanks to the digital revolution(that I feel i am lagging behind in) I haven't bought a piece of hardware for my studio since 2007 with most of my gear coming from 2002. Now that I am updating all of the core components of my home studio I am trying to teach myself all that happened in music tech over the last decade.

I am used to internal ASIO PCI soundcards/audio interfaces being the only viable option for pro audio so i imagine I have a lot of preconceptions that I need to get over but as I look at what's available a lot of it doesn't make any sense to me. i.e. external interfaces only seem to give you the necessary I/O's for your gear but do they also affect vst performance? If they do i have no idea how.

If anyone could recommend me an interface(internal or external though I am used to working with internal) that has capacity for recording with 2 mic's simultaneously , has a combination of unbalanced and balanced 1/4" i/os MIDI In/Out separate out for headphones, has ASIO drivers and falls within the $300-$400 price range I would appreciate it! I also do mixing work for myself and others and use a lot of synth and sampled vst's along with live playing. My live playing is recorded via DI's and/or usually 1 or 2 mic's.

Thanks!

 

[Terminus]

Your computer is going to be a larger factor for recording while having synth plugins going, cpu/ram and such. I can't really recommend a specific card since I'm sort of nearing the point where I'm searching for one myself (6 y/o Profire 610) but you should be able to find a REALLY good one in that pricce range easily.

 

[Gar23]

So far i've been figuring out that most usb interfaces function the same way as my current gear. I always thought interfaces were JUST an array of I/O's and that people were using them in conjunction with internal hardware. Still trying to play catch up but I guess things haven't changed quite as much as they seemed to have. Still i would feel loads better investing in PCIe over a usb device.

 

[Terminus]

I'm not sure what you have as far as the hardware goes but the convenience of having volume and input trim knob at arms reach is a nice thing about external desktop interfaces.

 

[Delitzsch]

I'm not sure what you have as far as the hardware goes but the convenience of having volume and input trim knob at arms reach is a nice thing about external desktop interfaces.

Yes. I love my Steinberg UR28M with all it's options at arm's reach.