dubstar123 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 7:28 am
I am not going to be recording any live instruments and for the time being will just be using headphones. I did the same years ago with an iMac/Logic/headphones and had good results(had house/techno tracks released). Never used an external soundcard or monitors.
Fast forward several years and I have the itch again. No Mac now, will be using a Thinkpad laptop.
What benefits will I get from an interface? Is it the latency/processing of the sound?
I recall back then by the Logic pro guys being told unless I was going to get an Apogee Duet or something along those lines to just use the built in Apple interface. I assume this laptop interface isn't quite up to the same standards as the iMac I had.
You can download ASIO4ALL which should give your stock PC sound card low latency.
ASIO4ALL normally is "good enough" for soft synth playback.
Try it out. The sound quality is usually decent on most PCs, as people are using them to play music, movies etc. It is usually the speakers that are total crap but by using an audio cable connecting to a PA, you probably will be fine.
That said Focusrite Scarletts are good interfaces to start out with.
An interface will give the following:
1. More I/O options. Basic ones will have a line/monitor out, hiz input, mic pre, headphone output. More advanced ones will allow for recording full bands, different headphones monitoring outputs.
2. "Studio grade" sound quality. That said some low end interfaces might not be that much better than your sound card (some could even be worse). Some sound cards are pretty nice as well. High end ones will be pretty much transparent devices with better mic pres, headphone amps etc. You need to do your research here though. Usually though most are fine for studio grade recordings but some older interfaces are 16 bit only which is not necessarily a bad thing but can be noiser than a 24 bit especially if recording at low levels. 24 bits will allow recording at pretty low levels making it easier to avoid clipping while still achieving a high SNR. It pays to look at the specs of interface to see what you are getting. Dynamic Range should be high. THD should be low. Freq Response should be flat up to 20khz.
3. Lower latency (usually). Most modern interfaces will have low latency though. I find that almost any interface is good for soft synths. For monitoring audio with VSTS though low roundtrip latency is important. Usually if it is under 10 ms, it is reasonably low as most folks wont be able to sense it. Over 10ms starts to become annoying. Over 20ms is probably not even usable.
4. Peformance/stability. That said some USB interfaces especially older ones can be pretty bad but most new stuff is good. Not all USB is bad though. Some is great but you have to do your homework here.
5. Effects processing. Some higher end devices have built-in effects and are great effect processors as well as being great interfaces. It is all about finding what are your needs in an interface.
6. Allow multiclient audio (windows) usually. Not an issue with Macs at all but if you use ASIO4ALL, it only allows for one client in playing back audio which can be annoying when for example you are watching a YouTube tutorial and want to follow along in your DAW. Not possible with ASIO4ALL (and some older interfaces). Need to do your homework here but most modern interfaces support this. Some better than others though. While most modern USB interfaces will allow you to watch YouTube while playing your DAW, some can become glitchy if trying to play two different DAWS (Scarletts are glitchy in this case). Thunderbolt might be better here (or maybe even higher end USB interfaces).
That said if you dont need to record audio, or need multi-outs, you probably can get by without one and it can save money, headaches.