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Which interface?

A

anonymous278347457

Feb 12, 2005
1,833
4
#1
Hey guys,

I'm looking for a new interface. I'm basically a hobby user and don't imagine myself doing anything serious with it, just some band songs and my own compositions. It's rather unlikely that I will start a project studio or anything like that (mainly due to lack of skill/experience haha)

Requirements:

- Recording guitar , 2 mics + DI track maximum
- Recording Bass
- Recording vocals (Decent mic preamp would be good, or I'll get one of those ART TubeMP things)
- I want a reasonably high quality "instrument" input, or a decent line input and a cheap DI to go with it.
- Reamping guitars (hence why I want semi decent DI quality)
- MIDI functionality would be a plus
- USB would be ideal, but unlikely, I know.
- Not too big

I'm fairly sure I won't be mic'ing up a kit, but I suppose I might, how many inputs do I need for micing a kit?

I was looking at these interfaces in particular:

- Presonus Firebox
- Presonus Inspure
- Focusrite Saffire
- M-audio ProFire 610

What do you guys reckon?
 
#3
As long as you don't need an ADAT expansion option, the Mackie 400F is probably the best bang for the buck right now. You get 4 onboard Onyx preamps (which are killer), 2 of which have instrument inputs and an extra 4 line inputs on top of those. It has MIDI too. Only issue for you might be that it is in a 1U rack format which might be bigger than you had in mind.
 
#4
I've got the FireBox and I like it a lot. I went from having a Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro into two M-Audio Delta 1010's to the FireBox. The old system wasn't bad at all. The FireBox seems to have as good a quality. I get some digital crud on playback that isn't in my recordings. It might just be how my monitoring system is laid out. I've got an external tube preamp (Peavey VMP-2) that I run into the line ins on it and I have done four track drum recording with it. It's fine.

Overall, it's worked well for me.

KO
 
#5
The FireBox has also worked well for me. Only problem is that if you use it with certain laptops (like my MacBook Pro) you need to use an external power supply to start it up. After it's on you can then unplug the power cable and power it solely via FireWire. The sound quality is excellent and the preamp quality is good.
 
#6
joeyjazz said:
As long as you don't need an ADAT expansion option, the Mackie 400F is probably the best bang for the buck right now. You get 4 onboard Onyx preamps (which are killer), 2 of which have instrument inputs and an extra 4 line inputs on top of those. It has MIDI too. Only issue for you might be that it is in a 1U rack format which might be bigger than you had in mind.
Click to expand...

A rack format interface it a bit of overkill at the moment. Plus the Mackie is pretty expensive over here.

I've been thinking that ADAT expansion would be ideal for me. If I could get an interface with 2 to 6 inputs with ADAT I could get an ADAT compatible preamp later on, when I want to do drums, and expand to get enough inputs.

The only interfaces that fit the bill seem to be:

-M audio FW 1814 (Seems to be discontinued but I reckon I could still track one down)

-Alesis IO24

-TC Electronics Konnekt 24D

Suggestions?
 
#7
I don't have any experience with any of those specific products, but just going from brand bias alone the only one I'd personally look at would be the TC Electronic. They generally make very solid products with a lot of options and flexibility, though they tend to be overpriced here in the states.
 
#8
In addition to my ProTools LE kit, I have a Presonus Inspire I bought used locally. It's a fine little utility box. It's not what I'd call noteworthy in any respect, but it has two mic pres with instrument DI and an unbalanced stereo in with unbalanced monitor outs and a headphone out.

I would suggest a firewire interface vs. a USB one - primarily due to the nature of the bus and the lower monitoring latency possible.

The Profire 610 offers you the ability to use ProTools M-Powered, which is worth noting should you be familiar with or want to work in ProTools.

HTH,
MB
 
#9
I have an M-Audio FireWire 410 that I like quite a lot. It has everything you're looking for and is quite cheap these days. Pair it with Amplitube or some sort of guitar amp modeling plug-in and you're golden!

As for more inputs/ADAT, I've been considering the MOTU 8pre. 8 ins, 2 outs, and has an ADAT optical out. So that might be a good option for you too...
 
#11
I bought a Focusrite Saffire that I bought from a well-known auction site as a B-stock unit. I made an offer that was a bit below the asking price and got two mic cables thrown in. FedEx shipping included for just over $200. About the only issue I had was that I needed to update the firmware before I could get it installed all the way. I have been trying it out with Ableton Live (comes with Cubase LE), and am pleased by the sound. You have to monkey around a bit in order to understand the software-mixer. But I was pretty successful getting it to do what I wanted just by twiddling virtual knobs. I've had it about a month and am still pleased.
 
#13
PreSonus has some of the best preamps for the price tag. I use an M-Audio NRV10, but I need a mixer to route various things in my home studio anyway, so having the interface built-in is nice. If I were doing it over again, I'd have spent a few bucks more and gone with one of the PreSonus boxes
 

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