Capturing / interface device

hotpickups

Im wanting to go down the road of home recording. I have the software and computer but need a decent capturing device and some speakers. Anyone got any recommendations of such items? Also anything else I’d need ?

octatonic

Do you mean an audio interface?

Check out Focusrite, Audient and SSL but there are loads of different options.

hotpickups

octatonic said:

Do you mean an audio interface?

Check out Focusrite, Audient and SSL but there are loads of different options.

Yes that’s what I mean. Yeah that’s what I mean about options. I guess my usage wouldn’t be to a professional standard so I guess anyone will be ok realistically 

octatonic

hotpickups said:

octatonic said:

Do you mean an audio interface?

Check out Focusrite, Audient and SSL but there are loads of different options.

Yes that’s what I mean. Yeah that’s what I mean about options. I guess my usage wouldn’t be to a professional standard so I guess anyone will be ok realistically 

Essentially you want one capable of as low latency as possible with good driver support.

Are you Mac or PC?
What budget do you have in mind?

Musicwolf

octatonic said:

Essentially you want one capable of as low latency as possible with good driver support.

The other thing to look for, when considering latency, is the ability to support Direct Monitoring. The latency is introduced because the incoming analogue signal, from your guitar or mic, is digitised and processed by the computer.  The time taken to do this depends upon a few things (the audio interface itself, the computer and the drivers) but anything more than a few msec and it becomes noticeable (some people are more sensitive to it than others).  If you have direct monitoring you basically hear the incoming signal, before processing, mixed in with playback.  This means that you can run with large buffer sizes (which reduces the frequency of pops / dropouts during recording and also means that you can get away with a lower spec computer).  The downside is that you can’t hear any plugin effects during the recording process.

Until you get into this you are not really going to know what will work for you but it’s probably worth having direct monitoring on your wish list.

Also, think about how many inputs you will need.  This will be driven by the maximum number of tracks that you need to laydown at one time.  If you are just recording yourself then more than likely 2 will be sufficient.

octatonic

Musicwolf said:

octatonic said:

Essentially you want one capable of as low latency as possible with good driver support.

The other thing to look for, when considering latency, is the ability to support Direct Monitoring. 

Yes but with the caveat that sometimes direct monitoring is used as a crutch because of poor latency values of the device itself.
There are times you want to monitor with effects- this is why DSP-based systems like HDX and UA are favoured at the professional level.

One of the best companies who do extremely low latency drivers are Presonus.
RME are very good too.

hotpickups

octatonic said:

hotpickups said:

octatonic said:

Do you mean an audio interface?

Check out Focusrite, Audient and SSL but there are loads of different options.

Yes that’s what I mean. Yeah that’s what I mean about options. I guess my usage wouldn’t be to a professional standard so I guess anyone will be ok realistically 

Essentially you want one capable of as low latency as possible with good driver support.

Are you Mac or PC?
What budget do you have in mind?

Mac all the way. Haven’t thought of budget yet but not much I guess as it’s my first dabble into recording 

Danny1969

One thing I've found over the years is the latency is highly dependent on the drivers of the audio interface but also dependent on the OS and the load. OSX seems to manage a 128 buffer with no problems even on very old machines like my 2007 iMac, which is low enough for me to monitor everything directly. 

Stuckfast

octatonic said:

One of the best companies who do extremely low latency drivers are Presonus.

PreSonus's Thunderbolt interfaces have superb low-latency performance, but their USB interfaces are pretty poor in this respect. Unless they've changed since I last tested one.

RME get much better USB performance than almost anyone else. I was told this is because they found a way of using the USB Bulk Transfer mode to stream audio.

octatonic

Stuckfast said:

octatonic said:

One of the best companies who do extremely low latency drivers are Presonus.

PreSonus's Thunderbolt interfaces have superb low-latency performance, but their USB interfaces are pretty poor in this respect. Unless they've changed since I last tested one.

RME get much better USB performance than almost anyone else. I was told this is because they found a way of using the USB Bulk Transfer mode to stream audio.

Good point, yes the Presonus TB devices are what I was thinking about.

hotpickups

octatonic said:

Stuckfast said:

octatonic said:

One of the best companies who do extremely low latency drivers are Presonus.

PreSonus's Thunderbolt interfaces have superb low-latency performance, but their USB interfaces are pretty poor in this respect. Unless they've changed since I last tested one.

RME get much better USB performance than almost anyone else. I was told this is because they found a way of using the USB Bulk Transfer mode to stream audio.

Good point, yes the Presonus TB devices are wHat I was thinking about.

Ok I’ll check out those. I bet they are really expensive  

octatonic

Try this

hotpickups

octatonic said:

Try this

Holy moly that’s gonna be way out of my budget  

Stuckfast

Yes the Thunderbolt Tax is still pretty steep unfortunately. Also not all Windows machines have Thunderbolt and you generally can't add it after the fact.

octatonic

hotpickups said:

octatonic said:

Try this

Holy moly that’s gonna be way out of my budget  

No worries, that is why I asked for a budget earlier.

Check out the Focusrite Scarlett devices, they start around £100-150 ish I think.
I’ve never used one but they are ubiquitous and people seem to like them.

hotpickups

octatonic said:

hotpickups said:

octatonic said:

Try this

Holy moly that’s gonna be way out of my budget  

No worries, that is why I asked for a budget earlier.

Check out the Focusrite Scarlett devices, they start around £100-150 ish I think.
I’ve never used one but they are ubiquitous and people seem to like them.

That’s getting in the right ball park. Thanks 

Stuckfast

The SSL 2+ is nice, also the MOTU M2 and M4 are worth checking out too.

PolarityMan

octatonic said:

Musicwolf said:

octatonic said:

Essentially you want one capable of as low latency as possible with good driver support.

The other thing to look for, when considering latency, is the ability to support Direct Monitoring. 

Yes but with the caveat that sometimes direct monitoring is used as a crutch because of poor latency values of the device itself.
There are times you want to monitor with effects- this is why DSP-based systems like HDX and UA are favoured at the professional level.

One of the best companies who do extremely low latency drivers are Presonus.
RME are very good too.

Do RME do anything in the USB space thogh? Admittedly last time I looked it was secondhand but seemed to be all firewire.

octatonic

PolarityMan said:

octatonic said:

Musicwolf said:

octatonic said:

Essentially you want one capable of as low latency as possible with good driver support.

The other thing to look for, when considering latency, is the ability to support Direct Monitoring. 

Yes but with the caveat that sometimes direct monitoring is used as a crutch because of poor latency values of the device itself.
There are times you want to monitor with effects- this is why DSP-based systems like HDX and UA are favoured at the professional level.

One of the best companies who do extremely low latency drivers are Presonus.
RME are very good too.

Do RME do anything in the USB space thogh? Admittedly last time I looked it was secondhand but seemed to be all firewire.

Quite a few Digiface devices are USB.
I reviewed some recently and latency very good.
RME also have totalmix for hardware monitoring as well.

robinbowes

How many channels do you want/need?

I'm using an SSL2+ at the moment, but it's just two channels. 

R.

hotpickups

robinbowes said:

How many channels do you want/need?

I'm using an SSL2+ at the moment, but it's just two channels. 

R.

Not many. I’m planning to put my guitar down as a guide. Then share the file to the rest of the band for them to lay their bits down. Gonna build it up like that. Is that an arse about face way of working by any chance lol