Recommend interface

[Jevil]

I've been using a Terratec DMX6Fire for the last days at home and perhaps is time for a change.
I have no idea about how is the market now, which, brands, models...
I don't want to spend more than 200 €.

 

[Sweetnothing]

What do you need? many I/O's? firewire/pci/usb?

Many people praise Edirol interfaces...but I've never used them.

 

[Jevil]

What do you need? many I/O's? firewire/pci/usb?

Many people praise Edirol interfaces...but I've never used them.

It's for a desktop PC so the cheapest one. I mean, if 2 interfaces are the same quality and PCI is cheaper that would be ok.

About I/O, I only need 1 I/ 1 O

 

[Nukular!]

Two weeks ago I got me a Mackie Onyx Satellite. I'm very happy with it. Nice sounding and tons of features. The price is definately under 200€.
If you're just looking for a cheap interface then there is the older Line6 Toneport GX (the red one). With a little luck you find them for ~50€ new. The unit has just 1 input but runs very stable and comes with the gearbox amp sim.

 

[Jevil]

Two weeks ago I got me a Mackie Onyx Satellite. I'm very happy with it. Nice sounding and tons of features. The price is definately under 200€.

Yeah, my brother told me that has very good mic preamp.

 

[Jevil]

I'd prefer it is PCI audio interface with a front panel conexion in the PC case. I dont' want to have another external gadget over the desktop table. I have already, pod, modem, router, HDs... and it sucks when I have to clean the dust!
It's only for home recording purpose, guitars, bass.., mixing... so I prefer it has a good preamp and low latency instead of thousand I/O and tons of features that I won't use.

 

[Sweetnothing]

Emu 0404 pci? I had one on my windows pc and it sounded great, latency was really nice.
Plus you get spdif I/O

 

[16S]

What about the Focusrite Saffire ~250Euro? I am using a crappy Creative SB LiveDrive and was thinking about the Focusrite...

 

[digitaldeath]

Well if you want to use Pro-Tools you'll have to look at Digidesign or M-Audio hardware.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

What do you need? many I/O's? firewire/pci/usb?

Many people praise Edirol interfaces...but I've never used them.

I had to track a very simple rehearsal demo with one of Edirol's cheaper interfaces, and the thing seemed impossible to get stable on an XP laptop.

 

[16S]

...also USB vs. Firewire? USB2.0 and Firewire400 would be the same speed...right?

 

[Jevil]

But which is better? FW, PCI, USB?

 

[16S]

I think PCI will take less resource from the CPU coz its plugged into the board. FW seems to be adopted for pro stuff over USB. FW800 is twice the speed of USB2.0 i believe.

HAve you checked out the Lexicon Omega (USB)? Less than 200 Euro IIRC

 

[Metaltastic]

FUCK USB, cuz it sends data in packets, rather than a constant stream like Firewire, so hello bottlenecks. Not sure about PCI, but I've never heard any complaints (besides it being really hard to take to another computer to work with). All the best interfaces are firewire, USB is strictly a budget/convenience solution, that's its only advantage!

 

[16S]

Good point Marcus, i had forgotten that. I am quite interested in the Saffire, think i will go check it out as my creative interface is on the way out...

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah man, as far as Firewire interfaces go, I'm actually planning on upgrading to a mid-level one this summer, and I'm between the Saffire (not LE) and Edirol FA-101 - I feel like the Saffire will probably have the advantage as far as built-in preamps go, but it only has 2 analog inputs (plus 2 SPDIF), whereas the Edirol has 8 + SPDIF, and I'm pretty sure the converters are nearly if not entirely the same (both go to 192k, which is usually a good indicator of overall quality, even if I never go above 44.1 ). So right now I'm leaning towards the FA-101 and an FMR RNP to take care of preamp duties, cuz I'm pretty certain it'd have better pres even than the Saffire!