Budget Interface Recommendations

Darren

Looking for some recommendations for a budget audio interface..

Will be using it to record with my Kemper into my iMac. 

I have Garageband already installed which I have used a little in the past.. I know nothing else about other recording software.

Primarily this setup will be for importing backing tracks to jam - record over.

My Mac is an early 2009 - 3.06 GHz Intel core 2 duo - 4Gb Memory.

Monitoring will more than like be headphones as this will only be used at home.

Budget around £100-120.

Cheers,

Darren 

TheBigDipper

I'm pretty happy with my Presonus iTwo. Connects with both USB and Lightning, so you could also take it out of the house if you have an iPad. Also has MIDI in/thru and out ports. I am not, in any way, an expert, BTW. 

Darren

TheBigDipper said:

I'm pretty happy with my Presonus iTwo. Connects with both USB and Lightning, so you could also take it out of the house if you have an iPad. Also has MIDI in/thru and out ports. I am not, in any way, an expert, BTW. 

Thank you for the suggestion. I'm pretty new to this myself, seems to be lots of different options our there.

thegummy

Ah, I was just going to recommend a couple because I thought you said £100-200.

If £120 is the upper limit then I don't know of any, it would be quite a limiting budget I think.

If you can go a bit higher I'd go for the Zoom UAC-2 if I was in your position. I'm guessing that since you have a Kemper and an iMac, the extra 50 quid wouldn't put you in to hardship and I think you'd be getting something much better than you can for under £120.

WiresDreamDisasters

I've been told - but don't know first hand - that the Behringer units offer surprisingly good performance for their price.
https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_umc404hd.htm

fatherchewielewie

That Behringer is what I'm going for. It's pretty tough to find a bad review of it. A ton of people don't like the company but I've been using their kit for years without too many problems. That interface is regarded as punching above its weight at their price point.

markv

There's loads of choice at this price point. I bought a Focusrite Scarlett Solo a few years ago and haven't regretted it a bit.

duotone

TheBigDipper said:

I'm pretty happy with my Presonus iTwo. Connects with both USB and Lightning, so you could also take it out of the house if you have an iPad. Also has MIDI in/thru and out ports. I am not, in any way, an expert, BTW. 

That’s what I’ve been using for the past 2 years or so and have been very happy with it. 

randerson

Buy the new SSL interface =  £170 awesome value. 

Darren

Thank you to all for the suggestions.. I'm going to take a look through all these suggestions during the week. 

thegummy

markv said:

There's loads of choice at this price point. I bought a Focusrite Scarlett Solo a few years ago and haven't regretted it a bit.

Looking at that one I can't tell if it would do what he wants.

Does it accept 2 line level inputs? (i.e. can the mic input take a line level and would it be matched with a line going in to the instrument input?)

Also see that the "direct monitoring" seems to be a button, would that not mean that he could either hear the Kemper or the backing track but not both at the same time?

markv

thegummy said:

markv said:

There's loads of choice at this price point. I bought a Focusrite Scarlett Solo a few years ago and haven't regretted it a bit.

Looking at that one I can't tell if it would do what he wants.

Does it accept 2 line level inputs? (i.e. can the mic input take a line level and would it be matched with a line going in to the instrument input?)

Also see that the "direct monitoring" seems to be a button, would that not mean that he could either hear the Kemper or the backing track but not both at the same time?

Ah, I see what you mean. I had assumed the OP would import tracks into a DAW and playback on that, while playing via the Kemper - and hence would only need the one input. Reading the original question again, I'm not sure what his approach is going to be?

But you're right, the Solo doesn't have 2 line level inputs, so if the intention was to have the backing track into one input and the guitar into another, then you'd need something else (e.g. the Focusrite 2i2, Steinberg UR22 etc).

The direct monitoring switch on my Solo (1st gen) switches direct monitoring on for both inputs, so I assume this (on the 3rd gen) would do the same.

siremoon

Steinberg UR22 is my usual answer to this question.  Well made and it just works.

Darren

@markv this is exactly how I intend to approach it. Importing the tracks into the DAW and then record, jam over the top.

thegummy

markv said:

thegummy said:

markv said:

There's loads of choice at this price point. I bought a Focusrite Scarlett Solo a few years ago and haven't regretted it a bit.

Looking at that one I can't tell if it would do what he wants.

Does it accept 2 line level inputs? (i.e. can the mic input take a line level and would it be matched with a line going in to the instrument input?)

Also see that the "direct monitoring" seems to be a button, would that not mean that he could either hear the Kemper or the backing track but not both at the same time?

Ah, I see what you mean. I had assumed the OP would import tracks into a DAW and playback on that, while playing via the Kemper - and hence would only need the one input. Reading the original question again, I'm not sure what his approach is going to be?

But you're right, the Solo doesn't have 2 line level inputs, so if the intention was to have the backing track into one input and the guitar into another, then you'd need something else (e.g. the Focusrite 2i2, Steinberg UR22 etc).

The direct monitoring switch on my Solo (1st gen) switches direct monitoring on for both inputs, so I assume this (on the 3rd gen) would do the same.

The Kemper is stereo, that's what I meant by two inputs.

He could go for the solo if he wanted to sacrifice all the stereo effects in the Kemper, would be up to him if it was worth it to save some money.

markv

thegummy said:

markv said:

thegummy said:

markv said:

There's loads of choice at this price point. I bought a Focusrite Scarlett Solo a few years ago and haven't regretted it a bit.

Looking at that one I can't tell if it would do what he wants.

Does it accept 2 line level inputs? (i.e. can the mic input take a line level and would it be matched with a line going in to the instrument input?)

Also see that the "direct monitoring" seems to be a button, would that not mean that he could either hear the Kemper or the backing track but not both at the same time?

Ah, I see what you mean. I had assumed the OP would import tracks into a DAW and playback on that, while playing via the Kemper - and hence would only need the one input. Reading the original question again, I'm not sure what his approach is going to be?

But you're right, the Solo doesn't have 2 line level inputs, so if the intention was to have the backing track into one input and the guitar into another, then you'd need something else (e.g. the Focusrite 2i2, Steinberg UR22 etc).

The direct monitoring switch on my Solo (1st gen) switches direct monitoring on for both inputs, so I assume this (on the 3rd gen) would do the same.

The Kemper is stereo, that's what I meant by two inputs.

He could go for the solo if he wanted to sacrifice all the stereo effects in the Kemper, would be up to him if it was worth it to save some money.

Very good point. Definitely not worth sacrificing the stereo option. Don't do it!

Danny1969

What iMac do you have ? most of them have a line input and you can connect the kemper direct to that if you want to ... doesn't get cheaper than that 

ICBM

The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is around £120 if you shop around, I think - and even if it isn't, it's worth the extra £19.

I think that will do everything you want. I had been thinking of selling mine since I very rarely record at home any more, but I'm probably not going to, because...

Danny1969 said:

What iMac do you have ? most of them have a line input and you can connect the kemper direct to that if you want to ... doesn't get cheaper than that 

A 2009 will have a mic input - my 2011 does. My 2017 doesn't though, so presumably no future ones will either and I'll need it.

Darren

@ICBM the Scarlett 2i2 is the one I have been looking at.
Do you know of there is much of a difference between second & third generation? 

This is very much of a new learning curve for me. 

JAYJO

Steinberg UR22 MK11  £115 Thomman. 

ICBM

Darren said:

@ICBM the Scarlett 2i2 is the one I have been looking at.
Do you know of there is much of a difference between second & third generation? 

This is very much of a new learning curve for me. 

No idea, sorry - I think mine is actually first generation. It's extremely simple and intuitive to use though.