Budget USB interfaces

TTBZ

After a load of mucking about and comparing, I think I’ve come to the conclusion for my home rig I may sell my HX Stomp and use software - yes the Helix interface and hardware are nice, but I’ve ended up playing sat at my laptop every night anyway and Spark just sounds so much better and more raw/real than anything in Helix.

What sub £100 (used) USB interface would you suggest primarily for playing guitar through headphones via VST plugins for minimal latency/best feel, not too noisy and with a good headphone amp output. Planning on plugging my guitar straight in so a good hi-z input is crucial. Currently will be on my old Windows 7 i3 laptop which I will eventually be upgrading to something Win10 and i7, so good windows drivers are essential.


Audient id4? Or a 2nd gen Focusrite Clarett?

pintspiller

I use an M-Audio USB. Plug a Behringer GDI before it and no need for VST unless you recording.

kennedydream1980

I’ve got a boxed 1st gen Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 you can have for £50 posted.

phil_b

Beringer u phoria

Macca_25387

Audient id4. Had a j-fet input for guitars. Superb bit of kit. 

TTBZ

Macca_25387 said:

Audient id4. Had a j-fet input for guitars. Superb bit of kit. 

Is that preferable to whatever is on a Scarlett solo? What’s the latency like or is that more down to the pc spec?

stratman3142

The new Focusrite Scarlett Solo (3rd Generation) looks like an attractive option to me. It claims to have low latency but I haven't seen any user reported figures yet. It's something I'm considering as part of a portable set up to use with my laptop.

It's new but I believe it comes in at just under £100.

Heel

Yes the new Focusrites are meant to be superb. SoS did some in depth reviews. 

TTBZ

Scarlett Solo 3rd gen is looking pretty ideal. Would I be ok with an older/cheaper 2nd gen though or is it worth spending the bit extra on the newest? 

stratman3142

TTBZ said:

Scarlett Solo 3rd gen is looking pretty ideal. Would I be ok with an older/cheaper 2nd gen though or is it worth spending the bit extra on the newest? 

I can't answer that question directly, but I tracked down the SoS review of the 3rd gen interfaces that was mentioned by @Heel. It's at the link below.
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/focusrite-scarlett-usbc

Snags

I'm currently using an Alesis iO2 which looks remarkably similar to one of the m-Audio units.

Based on my experience with that, I'd spend the extra on a Focusrite next time (although it does work, and was a lot cheaper).

TTBZ

Thanks guys. At £97 brand new the latest Focusrite solo is probably the one I’ll go for if I end up taking this route, I’ll only regret it if I buy something marginally cheaper.

guitartango

I use my old Zoom G2 and turn off the amps,effects etc, works really well as a USB interface into a  VST.

guitartango

TTBZ said:

After a load of mucking about and comparing, I think I’ve come to the conclusion for my home rig I may sell my HX Stomp and use software - yes the Helix interface and hardware are nice, but I’ve ended up playing sat at my laptop every night anyway and Spark just sounds so much better and more raw/real than anything in Helix.

What sub £100 (used) USB interface would you suggest primarily for playing guitar through headphones via VST plugins for minimal latency/best feel, not too noisy and with a good headphone amp output. Planning on plugging my guitar straight in so a good hi-z input is crucial. Currently will be on my old Windows 7 i3 laptop which I will eventually be upgrading to something Win10 and i7, so good windows drivers are essential.


Audient id4? Or a 2nd gen Focusrite Clarett?

What is Spark ?

TTBZ

The best plugin or modeller I’ve tried for Marshall tones. It’s brilliant and doesn’t need any external IRs or anything to sound good.

https://mercuriall.com/cms/details_spark

Pete Thorn has a great demo of it on YouTube.

Fretwired

I have a couple of Steinberg interfaces - the UR22 MK2 is a solid unit which is designed by Yamaha and uses their mic pre amps. The drivers are rock solid, the audio quality great and in includes MIDI. You can get one for around £100 ...

https://www.andertons.co.uk/steinberg-ur22-mkii-usb-audio-midi-interface-w-cubase-ai-cubasis-le-ur22mkii?lgw_code=16284-UR22MKII&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrpDYy4Ls5AIVhPdRCh0QrQBAEAQYASABEgK2NPD_BwE

TTBZ

Hmm. My laptop may not be powerful enough to cope with low latency playing after all despite being within the minimum spec according to the Mercuriall website. I’m getting pops and crackles with any buffer setting if I want to have low latency. Using HX Stomp as my interface. Would a different interface be any better or am always going to suffer with these pops and glitches without a decent PC? I do plan on upgrading eventually but not for a while. Quite annoying as I’m much happier with the tone and feel of Spark.

edit - looking at my task manager cpu usage is only at 20% when playing with Spark so is the laptop power (ram/processor) likely to be the problem or something else going on?

edit2 - turns out I only get glitches and pops when I have the reaper FX window open to tweak settings. With it shut I get no glitches unless I’m running very low latency settings. Strange but it all seems to work, sound and feel great!

duotone

I find that the pops/crackles appear when I have my laptop plugged in while charging. When the power cable is unplugged it sounds much better.

stratman3142

TTBZ said:

Hmm. My laptop may not be powerful enough to cope with low latency playing after all despite being within the minimum spec according to the Mercuriall website. I’m getting pops and crackles with any buffer setting if I want to have low latency. Using HX Stomp as my interface. Would a different interface be any better or am always going to suffer with these pops and glitches without a decent PC? I do plan on upgrading eventually but not for a while. Quite annoying as I’m much happier with the tone and feel of Spark.

edit - looking at my task manager cpu usage is only at 20% when playing with Spark so is the laptop power (ram/processor) likely to be the problem or something else going on?

I wanted to check by using my Helix LT as my interface to compare with my Zoom UAC-2. As I expect the Helix LT will behave similarly to the HX Stomp. But for some reason I can't get Reaper to recognise my Helix LT. Anyway that's my problem that I need to sort out.

Moving on, does the Helix Stomp give an spls reading on your computer and what is it for your low latency? IIRC the Helix doesn't give particularly low latency when used as an audio interface (as opposed to using the internal sounds). So you might be able to use a higher spls setting on a different interface and get low enough latency. But this is currently guesswork on my part. 

At least I've bumped your post and someone else might be able to give a more definitive answer.

TTBZ

The battery is nackered so I have no choice but to be plugged into the mains do you think the small pops & glitches I’m getting are down to the Helix driver when I’m running low latency settings and would the Focusrite be better in this regard? Again with the plugin and a backing track running I’m only using about 20% CPU and not much more RAM.

Heartfeltdawn

In this price bracket, Focusrite, Steinberg UR22, and the relatively new Native Instruments Audio 1 and 2 are the ones you should look at. I've had the UR22, totally fine driverwise, sound pretty much as everything else. I'm now running a Komplete Audio 2 on the audiodoodle laptop and I'm very happy with how it performs. I wanted something small and lightweight and it totally ticks every box. Headphone output is a little stronger than the UR22. 

With all of the laptop issues, there's plenty you could try to sort it. I might start a thread on this.