fret_man

First, I apologize for this rather long post! I may be doing some remote collaboration in the near future and my old trustworthy RME UFX doesn't lend itself to portability. I feel a need for a 2nd set of eyes (or more) on what I've decided to get. I embarked on the search for a portable interface with 2 headphone outputs (for collaborative recording). I could get one with 2 headphone outputs or just 2 stereo line outputs and buy 2 headphone amps but 1) all the headphone amps I found were almost as expensive as an interface and 2) they use a wall wart. Since I'm trying to maximize portability, I want to minimize the number of AC-powered boxes. So no headphone amps. MIDI would be nice, but not necessary. MIDI-USB cables are inexpensive and run off USB power, although they will take up another USB port (which should be OK). I will be using Beyerdynamic DT 1770 PRO headphones (250 ohms which is high, but according to these measurements they will reach 90dB SPL with only 10mW). This will be used with a new Win11 laptop with two each of USB3.1 and USB-C/Thunderbolt ports. Each port will supply 5C x 3A = 15W. So, now I reduced the search to interfaces with 2 headphone outputs. I found these that use USB power (along with problems areas I found): NI Komplete Audio 6 ($200, both headphones hear the same mix, doubtful headphone output has enough power) Arturia Minifuse 4 ($220, no meters on inputs, rubberized knobs might get gooey) SSL 2+ ($300, headphone power is just barely OK) UAD Volt 476P ($469, both headphones hear same mix) Arturia AudioFuse Rev2 ($590, both headphones hear same mix during loopback) Antelope Audio Zen Go Synergy Core ($550 + $200 for plugin, measured EIN audibly louder than all of the others) Antelope Audio Zen Q USB Synergy Core ($765+$200 for plugin, measured EIN audibly louder than all of the others) If I don't like those, there are also these that use a wall wart: Focusright Scarlett 8i6 ($300, headphone output not enough power) Presonus Studio 1810c ($420) Audient iD44 MKII ($700, measured EIN audibly louder than most of the others) Focusright Clarett+ 4pre ($700, mic max gain is too low for low sens mics) So, it appears the SSL2+ gives me the best chance of what I want. The Presonus is a good 2nd choice and is much more flexible when controlled by a DAW, but it requires a wall wart. So I'm considering the SSL2+. Now the question is: Do I wait for a sale? Does hardware like this ever go on sale? I think this unit was released less than 2 yrs ago. I can wait until BF. Should I get this now before inflation makes the price go up. It's already gone up from $279 to $299 in the past 1.5 yrs. Thanks for reading this far. Thoughts on any of this?

Well, the update is FREE for previous owners. That's a deal!

Ample Sound has updated Acoustic Guitar to v3.6 with GP7 GP8 supports. New Features: Tab module added support for GP7 and GP8 formats. Optimized UI with improved efficiency, including Strummer, Riffer and Tab modules. Updated parameter system. BPM Sync function added to FX Echo. Improved accessibility support for pop-up windows such as CPC and Preset Manager. Issues Fixed: Fixed timing issue related to BPM sync functions. Fixed a number of bugs in Strummer, Riffer, and the conversion between Strummer pattern and riff Ample Sound users can update for free through the MyAmpleSound: https://www.amplesound.net/en/account.asp

If you get on the Strix Instrument website you can see that the Pripyat pianos are only $19.99 right now.

I stole this headphone summary from one of Julian's videos. It seems the 18i20 3rd generation has mediocre headphone performance. Don't know about Gen2 but Julian mentioned gen3 didn't changed much in this regard, so I'll assume gen2 is also not an excellent headphone driver.

Groove3 has been a tremendous help getting me up to speed with Melodyne. It's a very nice program.

This guy does a great job comparing headphone outputs for a variety of audio interfaces:

Is this better than Melodyne?

Hmmm, but I need a portable interface with 2 headphone outputs.

Sarah is kazooing into the mic to get the sound. I wanna know what that thing is plugged into the "membrane port" of the kazoo.

RX10 is VST3 only, unlike RX9.

I can't even log into my izotope account to check me status. It keeps returning me to "enter your email". No, wait.... There we go! It shows I have the "full trial" version of RX10 Standard. What does "full trial" even mean? It shouldn't be a trial if I bought MPS 5, right?

All of a sudden I'm getting malicous detections in some old Line6 and Log drivers, as well as a few others I haven't yet identified. I sure hope I don't lose connetivity to my POD HD500.

These look fantastic! Except for the rear-facing port. That severely limits where I can place these in my room.

I've had 0 (zero) problems with NA2.