Sorry if this has been asked before. I see a lot of questions about interfaces for the purpose of recording but I actually want it for practice. All my practice tracks are on my desktop PC so I want to play tracks from my computer & route them to my headphones with my bass. I would probably use Amplitube or similar as well for some compression or EQ. I just tried an MBox Mini but it was just barely loud enough to hear my bass. Anything past 1 O'clock just distorts. I adjusted input, output & pad but I still couldn't get enough. I'm using Sony MDR V-500 headphones. I was going to go second hand. Maybe a Scarlet 2i2 2nd Gen but I'm open to suggestions.
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USB Interface for Practice with Good Volume
- Thread starter Lee Wright
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Go for an interface with external power. The headphone amplifiers on most usb-powered interfaces are too weak for high-impedance headphones.
yep - my experience exactly.
@Lee Wright - before I got into recording, I simply used a cheapo desktop mixer to do what you're trying to do. No DA/AD required.
- line out from computer to mixer (from headphone out on your computer to line in on a mixer)
- bass in on a line/instrument in on one of the mixer's channels. You could use a preamp in front - or line out from a bass amp.
- plug headphones into mixer, voila!
No need to go through the whole audio interface nonsense if recording, therefore conversion of your bass signal from analog to digital, is not your use case.
I used one of these - Alesis MultiMix 4 USB FX - although you don't NEED the USB functionality. The EQ and FX was useful, though, especially for when I wanted to put a vocal mic into the mix.
If you're using a DAW in your PC, you should be able to set up a separate headphone mix for tracking and playback. This will let you set the proper record levels and adjust headphone mix/volumes independently. This will let you hear your bass much better.
Sony MDR-V500 headphones operate at 24 ohms and have 102db sensitivity. I don't think you'll have a problem driving them to an adequate volume with any USB audio interface's built in headphone amp. Just remember that you may need to turn up the master fader (or all the individual track faders) in the DAW to solve an "it's too quiet" issue. It's not always about the hardware... If your master fader is peaking at -12db and you can't get it loud enough in the headphones, try adding 9db of gain on the master fader...
the problems you describe with the m-box mini sound like gain staging issues, not headphone volume issues.
the problems you describe with the m-box mini sound like gain staging issues, not headphone volume issues.
My Fender bass amp (Rumble Studio 40) has an AUX in and headphone out, and separate volume for the AUX and bass tone. So I can just use my amp. Plug in my iPhone and choose a song to play, and set levels the way I want them in my headphones. Most amps I have been looking at recently have an AUX in for this purpose, so I don't think it should be hard to find.
Thanks. Yes I've been actually wondering if that might be a better solution. The Behringer Xenyx Q802USB has compression, 3 band EQ & USB if I need it.
What he said above.
If you don't already have one, and are planning to roll with an interface, or even desktop mixer, then there's no reason not to have a daw to go along with it.
Just an update on this. I pulled out my Allen & Heath ZED18 to compare which has a USB port. I'm finding the same problem with that too. The headphone socket on that normally goes quite loud when monitoring bands but it was struggling to hear my bass well with that too. I actually think it's my headphones that are the problem. They just don't go very loud before distorting. I tried my Bose QC2's. They were a bit better. I hear good things about the Sony MDR-7506 so I might save up for some of those. In the meantime I'm just using my Bose Companion desktop speakers & keeping them fairly low. They sound clean enough just quite tinny being small speakers.
I don't use the PC at al. Move the files to my phone, then that audio out goes to AUX into my headphone amp plugged into the bass.
