Choosing Audio interface for home studio

[HesitationMarksjagged]

Hi, i've been successfully using a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 for my Audio interface duty, but, in the last few months i've been buying many hardware synths (elektron analog rytm, modular synth and a minibrute) plus i have other 3 synts aaaaaaaand in october i'll leave my home because of university and i will not bring my entire studio 200km away and the bring it back home when i'm not at university so i've created an A/B rig, one for home (Modular , analog Rytm, Virus Kb so the expensive stuff) and one for university (minibrute, Erebus + Push 2). I decided to bring the Scarlett 6i6 with me in the B rig (university rig)but i need an audio interface to keep at home and be able to have all my hardware connected at the same time to please my Lazyness.... I like focusrite stuff, they are simple and works great but i can't find a USB audio interface from them with lots of input for synths and also my guitars. The 18i20 seems cool but i think it only works for guitars and microphones. I also saw the new Behringer X Air mixers and they seems really cool..

What do you suggest for my home studio interface that is easy, not too expensive and reliable? i think the Behringer X Air could be ok for my needs..

[chrk]

...but i think it only works for guitars and microphones.

Why would that be so?

[Tagor]

For real work get the best you can afford. maybe better a babyface with less inputs then any other whith a lot..

just my opinion... one of the oldest parts in my setup is the RME
it came to stay while other parts, controllers, laptops & desktops changed over the time.

[jlgrimes]

Hi, i've been successfully using a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 for my Audio interface duty, but, in the last few months i've been buying many hardware synths (elektron analog rytm, modular synth and a minibrute) plus i have other 3 synts aaaaaaaand in october i'll leave my home because of university and i will not bring my entire studio 200km away and the bring it back home when i'm not at university so i've created an A/B rig, one for home (Modular , analog Rytm, Virus Kb so the expensive stuff) and one for university (minibrute, Erebus + Push 2). I decided to bring the Scarlett 6i6 with me in the B rig (university rig)but i need an audio interface to keep at home and be able to have all my hardware connected at the same time to please my Lazyness.... I like focusrite stuff, they are simple and works great but i can't find a USB audio interface from them with lots of input for synths and also my guitars. The 18i20 seems cool but i think it only works for guitars and microphones. I also saw the new Behringer X Air mixers and they seems really cool..

What do you suggest for my home studio interface that is easy, not too expensive and reliable? i think the Behringer X Air could be ok for my needs..

Actually an 18i20 does line inputs, hi Z, and mics.

So it pretty much can record anything with the only exception being a phono input for vinyl but very few audio interfaces have that.

Also if your interface has ADAT inputs you can expand your interface with a Behringer ADA8000 which adds 8 more inputs (Preamps/Inst/Line) to your interface.



When you need to go over 8 inputs on an Audio Interface you usually have to consider a couple of options to get more inputs since very few Audio Interfaces have over 8 analog inputs built right into them:

1. Buy an ADAT expansion IO box if your interface has ADAT inputs. Behringer ADA8000 is the only reasonable priced one at about $250 I can find. It has preamps, line and Instrument I/O. These boxes get expensive pretty fast and some are preamp only, so research wisely. The only other boxes I know are from Presonus and Focusrite (I believe Focusrite's is definietly over $1000 since it features preamps based off of a pretty popular analog console (NEVE I believe). The Behringer model also limits you to either 44.1 or 48 khz sample rates so no high sample rates. Apogee used to kind of specialize in this type of stuff but I think now they focus on interfaces themselves.

2. Buy an Spidif expansion IO box if your interface has Spidif inputs. This only gives you 2 channels unlike Adat's 8 channels, but many high end preamps feature spidif out if you want a front end that's pretty elaborite. Focusrite ISA series has a great sounding preamp with spidif out (only one channel I think). And many of the mastering grade ADs like Benchmark work over spidif. This is usually an expensive option but is good if you want to invest in a high end mic pre.

3. Invest in an Interface that can be daisy chained. Unfortunately not many USB interfaces support daisy chaining but Firewire and Thunderbolt does. An advantage to this is not having to worry about clocking unlike the previous 2 methods. Probably the easiest option to maintain but this option is probably only available for the expensive interfaces and might be more Mac oriented depending on inteface. I believe Focusrite has some interfaces that expands over Ethernet. They are pretty high end.

4. Invest in a mixer. This is the crudest and probably the most used method. A mixer will probably take up one stereo channel of interface but from there, you will be able to hook up alot of stuff (depending on how big of a mixer you get). That said this probably isn't the cleanest route to go, but if you are careful about gain staging and such I doubt if anyone would really notice a difference.

[Liam]

Thought I saw the Behringer X 18 price drop to $499 recently - try Google?


http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ ... oC4AHw_wcB