What audio interface do you use or recommend?

I am looking into buying an audio interface to record vocals and guitar.

I am redisigning my recording set up. I already have an M Audio Firewire solo but would like something with more inputs.

Any recommendations?

I run the apogee ensemble, best integration if you are on a mac, if not just get pro tools...

the Apogee ensemble may be just a bit out of my price range at $1800.

Right now I have Garage band.

M Audio makes an interface that has 8 inputs but does not come with any software. I was originally planning on getting some sort of digidesign interface (includes Pro Tools.) MAudio has an 8 input interface minus software for about 5 bills. Not sure....

I have had good luck with anything by M-Audio and Presonus.

If you get an M-Audio you better hope everything works flawlessly right off the bat because their driver support is a joke. I bought a FW1814 at a really good price (MF "Stupid Deal Of The Day") after good experience with a FW Solo but I've regretted it since because of the horror of trying to get the thing to work reliably in Windows 7 (they never got anything working right in Vista, and allegedly their Mac support is just as bad.) It sounds great when it works, but it's completely unstable.

I have a PreSonus Firestudio Mobile that I'm happy enough with. Was going to go Apogee (running a MacBook Pro with Logic Studio 9), but the limited features of the Apogee in my price range offset the sound quality of it. The Presonus has 10 inputs and MIDI in/out (which is what I needed for my application).

Funny, I've never had a problem with my Mobile-Pre in Vista.

CoG said:

If you get an M-Audio you better hope everything works flawlessly right off the bat because their driver support is a joke. I bought a FW1814 at a really good price (MF "Stupid Deal Of The Day") after good experience with a FW Solo but I've regretted it since because of the horror of trying to get the thing to work reliably in Windows 7 (they never got anything working right in Vista, and allegedly their Mac support is just as bad.) It sounds great when it works, but it's completely unstable.

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I use Reaper. It's super cheap and pretty intuitive.

Jacko123 said:

I use Reaper. It's super cheap and pretty intuitive.

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Couldnt agree more. Its a great way to get into recording if you have little to no experience.

I actually prefer Reaper to Sonar 8 Producer for just recording off the floor! It's quicker to set up and go if you don't have the same setup every time. Then I pull the tracks into Sonar after that and do post-production, eq, and mastering there.

TimeSignature said:

I am looking into buying an audio interface to record vocals and guitar.

I am redisigning my recording set up. I already have an M Audio Firewire solo but would like something with more inputs.

Any recommendations?

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How many inputs? I just bought the M-Audio Profire 610 and for its price range I don't think it can be matched. Also if you happen to run Vista 64 its one of few interfaces that has drivers that support it. I literally was setup without a hiccup in under an hour. If you need more inputs the Profire 2626 might be an option as well.

Thank you everyone for your input!

Wish me luck, I ended up buying an M Audio Profire 2626. I wanted something with at least 4 or 5 inputs... the Profire 2626 has 8 so I'm all set. Now I just need to figure out how the heck this thing works.

TimeSignature said:

Thank you everyone for your input!

Wish me luck, I ended up buying an M Audio Profire 2626. I wanted something with at least 4 or 5 inputs... the Profire 2626 has 8 so I'm all set. Now I just need to figure out how the heck this thing works.

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Nice pickup... if its anything like the setup of the profire 610 it should be pretty easy. Just make sure you download the drivers from the website and dont even mess with the setup disk. Also i would make sure you're as up to date with your computer as possible (get to SP2 for Vista if your using it).

I started out my home studio setup Dec of 08 with a custom-made destop with Vista 64 and Focusrite's Saffire Pro 10 with Sonar 8PE. NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS! Finally the firewire connection faulted and fried my motherboard. Computer was luckily under warranty and replaced the motherboard. Then the Saffire unit FRIED itself. Now I'm waiting for Focusrite to refund my purchase price so I can get some other replacement. I've decided to stay away from Focusrite for now and I'm going to try to get a Firewire PCIe card to try to speed up my connection. I was dealing with a lot of pops and clicks even before the hardware fried. I've been seriously considering the Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2. Has anyone here had any experience with this unit? 16 xlr inputs with great dynamics/EQ section for live/studio use. I know when it first came out there were some issues but it's been a while and they now have the 24 channel version that was just released.

You can get a Digi 002 used for less than 1000 dls. And you will get also Pro Tools LE.

If not, you can always consider getting an M-box.

He is right about M-Audio drivers. But that is mainly for 64-bit drivers. They still have not been able to write one that works for their Delta cards which came out in like 2001, and 64-bit OS have been out for about I don't know 5 years?

ECHO is your best bet in that price range. The Mackie Onyx rack unit would be best but it's >$1k. I did not like using a FirePod and I know people who had lots of problems with reliability, and I just hate Presonus because they are the McDonalds of recording gear, unless you buy their highest end stuff which isn't even that great either.

Jacko123 said:

I use Reaper. It's super cheap and pretty intuitive.

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Same here. Great VST plugins, and you can basically download any plugins you will ever need.

Also, I have an M-Audio Fast Track Pro. At first, it gave me glitches in the audio (pops, clicks, dropouts while recording) and I had put it back in the box and swore I'd never use it. Basically, any length of recorded audio was unusable because it had these pops and glitches in it. After some research and hair pulling, I tried one final solution: Disabled my Network Adapters under Device Manager. something to do with the internet connection or my WLAN card was effecting the audio. The problem goes away totally when I disable these adapters!