I'm looking to upgrade my 1st Gen Focusrite 2i4, which I've made many recordings on since I got it 5-6 years ago.
The abundance of options today is dizzying, but I have a few requirements and a few preferences to narrow down my search.
Requirement
- 4 mic pres/instrument/line level inputs (Can be 2 mic pres + 2 inst/line inputs, but crucially, I want to have 4 tracks ready to go at any time)
- Line level hardware inserts for external sound processors
- Low latency (the faster, the better!)
Preference
- On-board DSP effects to effect direct mix (i.e. add reverb directly to monitor feeds for vocal recordings)
I've had a look around and came up with a shortlist, but they are all lacking in one way or another
- Focusrite 18i8 (no dedicated inserts, but it appears to be possible to set it up by using routing software; no onboard DSP effects)
- Audient iD44 (no onboard DSP effects; not entirely sure about the JFET DI input and the effect on the sound, as I use an amp modeller and am quite happy with my direct sound already)
- Steinberg UR44 (no hardware inserts and is abit dated)
Any suggestions?
Comments
Thanks for the suggestions. Some of those options, I've not heard of.
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Some units will have an intentional mismatch between output level and input level which will mean you have to compensate for this in order to get a unit gain hardware IO.
For instance, the Focusrite Red 4Pre and Red 8Pre have a 9db mismatch between input and output operating level, so if you had a hardware compressor that you wanted to use on insert then you'd have to use a trim plugin to compensate.
This can be a real pain in the ass.
The Focusrite Red 16Line has identical input and output operating level so you can simply instantiate an IO plugin and have the input and output level match.
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I'm sure the ID44 is even better.
As for the JFET input... every option has a sound, but I think you'd need to drive it pretty insanely before it'd actually be distorting or changing things in an audible way. I think the principle is that it has a better impedance curve for instruments, and is less likely to bugger things up that a cheap op-amp.
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Or a UA Apollo Twin, the USB one.
The RME babyface pro looks really good, but again, too pricey.. What latency do you get on your ID22? Are u on a PC or a Mac?
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https://www.juno.co.uk/products/rme-babyface-pro-audio-midi-interface/571284-01/
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I need a small portable interface with great driver support and also outside the EU.
Thomann has these for £650 at the moment.
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One of the main selling points of the babyface pro for me is the ultra-low latency, but looking at this table, it does seem that the Focusrite technology (2nd gen scarlett) has caught up. The difference is marginal with the scarlett 6i6 even beating the babyface pro at 96KHz.
With ultra low latency, arguably there is no need for onboard DSP to process vocals for monitoring as you could just slap it on the track and monitor with the effect added in the DAW. Food for thought..
And now my head has been turned by the ZOOM UAC-8..
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I still wouldn't buy an interface without hardware monitoring unless it is based around Pro Tools HDX.
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I'd assumed (possibly mistakenly) that a VST didn't add latency if it reported 0/0 spls in Reaper. I haven't noticed an issue with my Zoom UAC-2 when stacking VSTs reporting 0/0 spls.