USB interfaces

Shawnn

Shawnn

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Apr 27, 2009
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I got a new laptop last week to replace my broken old one, and unfortunately, it doesn't have a FireWire port or an Expresscard slot, just like the large majority of laptops out today. Instead, it only has two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports. I have a Mackie Onyx Satellite, which connects by FireWire.

I went on the Sneap Search and tried to find a viable USB interface, but I haven't seen anything I liked. I found out too that USB to FireWire cables/converters don't work at all, and that there are no USB 3.0 interfaces currently out on the market.

I really liked the preamps and the control room/monitoring thing on the Mackie Onyx Satellite, so I considered getting a Mackie Onyx Blackjack (http://www.mackie.com/products/onyxblackjack/) but it runs on USB 1.1, which I think is too slow, and the drivers don't work with Windows 7 64-bit(or as I've heard from reviews on Amazon).

At the moment, I'm considering the Focusrite Scarlet, which runs on USB 2.0. As far as I know, it has the things I need. It looks pretty nice too, so that's a plus.

Should I go with the Focusrite Scarlet? Or are there better options/interfaces out there that will suit my lack of a FireWire port and Expresscard slot.?
 
Got a Scarlett and it was bad news. Returned it. The Saffire 6 USB we recorded our album on sounded great though.
Anyway, I'll hijack this thread to ask, what is the best USB interface under $300 nowadays?
 
Laptops with FireWire/Expresscard seem to be extinct unfortunately, especially in the light of USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. I opted to buying one without it hoping there would be some decent USB interfaces in 2012.

And I just found out too that the Scarlett clips on active pups. Damn this sucks.

I was gonna ask the same question Spiritbeast did. So, what is the best USB interface under $300 nowadays?
 
I've heard so many good things about the UFX and Babyface. It costs A LOT though unfortunately.
 
You know, I made this same mistake about 8 months ago.....

Pulled the trigger on a new laptop, upgraded from factory, etc, and it wasn't until the day it arrived and I set it up that the moment of mental retardation kicked me in the face when I realized it didn't have Firewire. So now I have a Profire 2626 that sits around unused. I haven't been recording any bands or I'd have just returned the laptop.
 
I have the RME Babyface and love it! I also run a focusrite OctoPre into the ADAT and that gives me 10 mic pres. I have a lot less latency issues than I did with my older computer and firewire card.
 
Shawnn said:
Laptops with FireWire/Expresscard seem to be extinct unfortunately, especially in the light of USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. I opted to buying one without it hoping there would be some decent USB interfaces in 2012.

And I just found out too that the Scarlett clips on active pups. Damn this sucks.

I was gonna ask the same question Spiritbeast did. So, what is the best USB interface under $300 nowadays?
Click to expand...

Bump on best under 300? Lots of smack talking about POS interfaces, but what's decent? Is 2i2 really that bad? Is USB 1.1 really that bad for tracking only 2 channels?
 
I tried the 2i2, the saffire and end up buying the blackjack, they all suck in different ways.
My opinion is that
The 2i2 is a piece of crap if you want to track guitars(get a di-box maybe?), if not, well my friend makes pretty impressive electronic music with it so i guess its okay for a Dj and 96khz sampling rate is a big plus for synth sounds.

The Saffire was kind of handy, it has several rca/trs input-outputs, still the preamps were weak i dont know maybe its me but hey you gotta hear it yourself. Also it felt like its going to fall into pieces very soon, but again maybe it wasnt treated well.

The blackjack got the sound quality i was actually willing to pay for, but its working differently nearly on every system. Sometimes its flawless, but generally ehm.. not. If you are experienced in solving problems on your PC im sure you can manage to work with this little guy. On Win7 the default driver sux (So far Asio4ALL didnt fail me on Win7) and on older notebooks you can expect errors, random hisses etc..even on winXP. I could bring this device back in time when they could exchange it to something other but i had too much work to do so i just couldnt, and now i dont regret it.
 
AudioGeekZine said:
why would you buy a laptop for recording that doesn't have firewire???

don't buy USB1 interface.
Click to expand...

Firewire ports on laptops are soon to become like the dinosaurs. Current USB spec is fine for most audio recording needs these days.
 
Just wondering - do people only dislike the scarlett's because the inbuilt DI can't handle most pickups, or are there other problems too?
 
Quite frankly these days it's more about driver support than anything else - look for a company that stays on top of updating drivers and has a decent track record for quality drivers. I find that to be the key factor with audio interfaces these days - how it connects to the PC is quickly becoming a low on the list issue for me at least.
 
Actually - Craig Anderton (one of the people on the internet I trust completely when it comes to audio equipment reviews) gave the Mackie Blackjack a good review.

http://www.harmonycentral.com/docs/DOC-1621

If you don't know who Craig Anderton is - you really should look him up, aside from being a big Sonar user (my DAW of choice), he writes some of the best pro audio reviews I've read.
 
After a lot of searching, I am considering the Presonus 22VSL. Ola has gotten some great sounds from the box, but also looks like he got a sponsor from Presonus too (which I always follow the money). It has all I need, 2 ins, phantom, USB 2.0, and seemingly decent preamps. It also seems driver support is great.

Anybody else have this box to chime in?
 
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