NAID: Audient Sono - USB audio interface with valve guitar preamp and reaping capability

TheBigDipperTheBigDipper Frets: 4722
edited November 2020 in Studio & Recording
Someone asked on here about these 2-3 months ago and I'd never heard of it. The launch last year must have passed me by. I took a look and was been intrigued enough to buy one and just see how I get on. I've had it for 10 weeks now.

I'm not a serious recording person. I'm doing rough recordings of kitchen table sessions and making song demos or arrangement demos. However, when I'm recording electric guitars, I've struggled with the sounds I get from plugins, modellers and mic'ing up amps. Getting a good sound in the room recorded properly is a skill I don't have. The best sounds I'm getting are by sending the speaker output of an amp into a silent load box, then into an IR cabinet sim and into the audio interface. Which sounds good to me, but isn't convenient - I don't leave it all set up "just in case". 

My audio interface for the last 4/5 years has been a Presonus Audiobox iTwo. 

So, after gorging on YouTube vids for a day or two, I ordered a Sono from Andertons to have a look. They must be clearing out their stocks, because they were heavily discounted to £219 (and still are). 

What is it?
- A proper USB audio interface, but aimed at electric guitar players. It's the size of a large effects pedal and intended to sit on a desktop.
- It has two combi inputs for mic/line inputs with (they say) the same preamps as other Audient products. Both combos can send phantom power or not - you aren't forced to do both or none like my iTwo.
- It also has a dedicated guitar input which goes through a 12AX7-based preamp, with a 3 band active tone stack and adjustable input and output gain.
- That input channel can then send its signal into a processor on the unit running a subset of Two Notes cabinet emulation software. There's a drive control on the Sono to increase the amount of power amp drive emulation, but it's not really an amp modeller.

The Two Notes software itself is running on the Sono. The control software to adjust it on the fly runs on your Win/Mac computer. The software has some limited (but effective) control over tone, room, mic, mic distance from cab (hearing more of the room, essentially). You can also set up three presets using the interface software and load them onto the Sono for times when you don't have the computer nearby or connected. Or if you’re recording on an iPad. The Two Notes interface software doesn't run on iOS. 

So, on my desk, I can use this to just play the guitar through headphones or speakers without setting anything up or turning on the computer. I've got three different sounds on the unit itself. I can plug my HX FX into the front for more options. It sounds pretty decent and usable to me. 

When recording, it's ready to go. I can either connect my iPad to its USB cable and use Garageband (using one of the Two Notes presets I've previously stored on the unit) or connect my MacBook, run Logic and start the Two Notes control software to set up whatever I want. If you don't want the CAB processing, you can turn it off. As well as sending the processed guitar signal on one channel, you can record the unprocessed raw signal on another channel for reamping later, or experimenting with plugins. 

There is an output socket for sending your raw guitar track back to the input of your amplifier. There's no extra reamping box required. 

So far, it's been going well. Anyone else got one?
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Comments

  • smigeonsmigeon Frets: 282
    I don’t have one but it sounds interesting. I do have an Audient interface - the ID4, which I think is the cheapest in their range. But it works really well for my needs. As with your Audient, the ID4 claims to use the same preamp as their high-end products - and it certainly sounds very good to me compared to the interface I was using previously (an A&H ZED10FX).
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