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John Vere

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ThxAloT for this brilliant wholistic approach to an important issue.

I came to SonarX1 buying a "Roland Quad-Capture" interface.

BTW: Phantom Power, High-Z and  Ground Lift switches are on the back 😉

All the best to you...

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Making this video I spent a lot of time on a few vendor sites just looking for the pictures. Often they don't even show the back which is more important to me than the front. It's easier to understand features by looking at the pictures than to read through  2 paragraphs of hype.

 I discovered  where this is not always the case is with items like Instrument/line toggle buttons and the  mix control for blending playback with input. This is sometimes hidden away in the software mixer. If you hate software mixers then you need to be aware of this. When you first look at the picture you would have to assume these features are missing.. which sometimes they are.  But you can understand  that using a software solution instead of the more convenient hardware option keeps the cost down. 

Like the missing power supply on my Motu M4 cost me $40 to fix. I would have been happy to pay that to have it included, but then the Motu would have been a higher price than the other competing 4x4 units on the market so you can see the strategy there. Consumers drive the market and the majority make the mistake of shopping by cost and not shopping by other important factors. 

I had never even heard of a lot of the units I found. Amazing at how many I would never consider purchasing because my list of needs. 

People come on this forum a lot asking for recommendations and that's OK but its only a small factor on choosing the correct interface. 

And we can become easily Biased when we only have a small world of experience. So therefore this video which I hope will help the many people who have never used an interface before look a little harder at what they need first before pulling the trigger. I think at this point in time interfaces all have good ASIO drivers and then it's really a price point driven market of the more you spend the more you get. 

My quest last November for a 4x4 interface showed me that once you narrow it down to say 6 brands then the final pick is the one that is the closest to your ideal. They are never perfect. And price can defiantly sway you. 

Edited by John Vere
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I got a PM from You Tube asking why I didn't mention USB mixing boards. I thought about it but the video was already 12 minutes before editing.  Yes USB mixing boards can also be audio interfaces but to me they fall under Mixing board first- Audio interface second. I decided to stick to the topic that I figured most would be interested in. 

I have a Soundcraft Signature 10 which I used as an interface briefly before it just stop working. Hard to recommend that. Crappy generic drivers. 

I have also used Behringer Xair and a Yamaha mixer. The Xair was so complicated I just gave up, I really needed an iPad,, but I do believe they make good interfaces. The Yamaha was basically a Steinberg audio interface and I would highly recommend that, But my experience is very limited and short lived so why trust my opinion. 

The problem is most are only a 2x2 interface and this confuses people when they see all of those inputs. And some have bad drivers or use generic. Then the good ones like the Yamaha are probably out of a lot of peoples budgets. $600 is a lot to pay for a 2x2 interface.  It's certainly is a great choice for a band needing board mixes or a person with a lot of hardware needing to be connected. But then It might be more cost effective to purchase a none USB mixer and a 4x4 interface.  

So there, I left all of this out of the video to save time. Maybe I'll make a part II and elaborate on the process of choosing. 

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