External Sound Card?

[Lord Tim]

What astounds me so often (and I'm not specifically referring to the OP here, but just in general) the amount of people who go "My system is a i9-13900K, 128GB RAM, 48PB of fast SSD RAID storage, powered by a small nuclear reactor, will this $12 USB card with mini jack connectors I found on Ali Express be good enough to record?"

One of the most important parts of a DAW is a decent audio interface with good drivers. You could be plugged into a Borg Cube with a crap interface and still get pops and clicks (and likely assimilated - be warned!)

Edited May 16, 2023 by Lord Tim

[John Vere]

9 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Where did you get that information from, John? I found a couple of reviews that specifically praise the M-Track Solo for having an ASIO 

I had gone to the download page and it wasn’t listed. But further digging you are correct and I had neglected to push a hidden button to refresh the page after scrolling through 40 listings of Mac OS options. 
 

The fact that is only 16 bit is certainly a down side.  That points towards inferior quality converters. But it does win the award for lowest cost ASIO audio interface and generally M Audio is dependable stuff

Edited May 16, 2023 by John Vere

[John Vere]

14 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

One of the most important parts of a DAW is a decent audio interface with good drivers. You could be plugged into a Borg Cube with a crap interface and still get pops and clicks (and likely assimilated - be warned!)

This. I say in my video I produced ( I Think? ) that Cakewalk is a top end DAW that would cost you easily $500. So why not take the money you saved and invest it in a proper audio interface.  

I would say the people with the atomic powered computers are most likely Gamers. I know my son just built a gaming machine and it still cost over $2,000 and he's a smart shopper.  I really need a new machine myself, mine is 13 years old. I only have 12 GB RAM which has never been an issue but the rendering of  10 minute videos takes a good 1/2 hour. I'm going to put gig money in a piggy bank and see what I can do next fall. 

( I think we lost the OP! ) 

[Starship Krupa]

5 hours ago, John Vere said:

The fact that is only 16 bit is certainly a down side.  That points towards inferior quality converters.

It's a podcaster tool, for sure.

But since the OP has opened 3 different topics about whether this or that piece of cheap crap will help him make better recordings, I figured I'd check to see what the first rung out of the cheap crap pit costs these days. Pleasant surprise.

I don't buy any gear new if I can avoid it, so my recommendation would be a used Scarlett or Audiobox. I prefer Presonus because they haven't abandoned 5-pin MIDI. Behringer kind of screw themselves with the lower end of the line having similar units that do or do not have decent drivers, so I stay away from those in recommendations.

[John Vere]

I just found the script for the video I made a few years ago. I don't think it's out of date yet. 

 

Shopping for an Audio Interface?

There is a lot of choices.

But before you start looking   Make a list of your requirements first.   Example you might determine you need a 4x4 interface. That just narrowed down the search by a lot!  You might only find 12 models and a few of those might be way out of your budget. Now compare those to get the most features needed. Don’t cheap out. Get what you need now because it’s false economy to short change yourself on features. You’ll end up spending more money down the line to make up for it.

 Example,  only 1 headphone output and you all of a sudden need 2. Now it will cost you another $100 or more to buy a multi channel headphone amp.

What kind of connectivity do you require? and how many of each. This is the most important determining factor. Most of us only need a few in/outs. It’s nice to not have to unplug and plug stuff in.

 If you already own a mixing board you can most certainly get by with less.  

These are some of the connectivity options:

XLR for mikes & 1/4" for instruments or better yet Combi jacks which are both. 

Then other options are  RCA, ¼” line level, ¼” Instrument level ,MIDI, SPDIF, ADAT, MADI

Especially MIDI jacks if you use vintage synths, drum machines or pianos.

How many ins and outs do you think you'll need now and in the future?

Are they accessible or are some on the rear panel?

Are the ¼” jacks Balanced?   

RCA jacks are handy if you have a DJ mixer or any consumer audio gear. 

And sometimes there are RCA  in Parallel with main outputs. 

Just make sure the outputs have connectivity that matches your studio monitors.

Is there a true stereo input pair? Some don’t have matching inputs which sucks for recording stereo devices like guitar pedal boards,  Hardware piano’s, synth and drum machines.

Are there channel Insert jacks for using hardware compressors. 

What type of connection to your commuter does it use. USB 2 is all you need for up to 32 channels of audio streaming. But USB 3 is now the most common.

Here is some of the other front and rear panel features to look for

Are there peak level meters or just a little LEDs for each input? Do all inputs have a peak indicator?

Are there separate controls for Monitor level and headphone level? This is a pain when they combine these two.

Is there a blend control for mixing Input Source with Computer or DAW playback.  A lot of cheaper interfaces are missing this important feature and only have an on/off toggle. This makes it difficult to adjust what you’re hearing in your headphones and you have to muck about in your DAW to fix this. I think this control is a overlooked important feature.  

How many Headphone jacks? A level for each? This is also important if you work with other musicians.

And as I said it is cheaper to have it built in that having to go buy the additional hardware.

Are the input pads or line / Instrument toggle switches on the front, back or software controlled? Having them hidden is a bit of a pain because you might even forget they exist.

Is it a metal box or cheap plastic? Is it light and portable or large and bulky, Rack mountable? If you’re going to take it with you make sure it is road worthy.

Does it have an on / off switch? Many don’t. I use this a lot because I might change from on board audio to my interface. Much easier to turn off a switch than unplug it.  

Does it use Buss power or a power supply?  Look for at least an optional power supply. 

Buss power can have issues with noise and Phantom power and some need a dedicated USB 3 buss.

I had to purchase a special PCIe card just to power my Motu m4 and that cost me 40 bucks.

Does it have DSP effects built in? This is great for adding reverb to you headphone mix without actually recording it. And there might be a compressor and special guitar effects you do want to record. Once again it’s saves you money if you will need these things.

Does it use a Software  GUI mixer? Having a software mixer adds more monitoring options. My Focusrite 6i6 has a mixer and I can use it to create 6 different headphone Que mixes.  

Does it have a Loop back function. This is a newer feature that is real important if you do live streaming,  screen captures, Zoom or stand alone VST recording. It will also record off the internet say from you tube or sites that won’t let you download. Ahrr Captain there’s Pirates a float.  

Do you need low  Round Trip Latency for real time processing like Guitar Sims?  

Most average priced interfaces like Tascam, Steinberg, Pro Sonis,  Scarlett’s and my Motu have around 10 ms of RTL at a working Buffer of 256. You might get this lower if you have a very fast computer but most of us will have around this amount of delay. This delay is very annoying to most of us so be warned.

Low RTL is going to be at a higher price point. Probably over $500  like RME stuff. There is almost no information or specs supplied buy most manufacturers. They will tell you up to 5ms of RTL but they are not getting that at a buffer setting that is actually usable on most systems. You’ll suffer drop out and stuttering.

Zero Latency monitoring is not the same as round trip latency All interfaces have latency. The A/D converter adds almost 1ms of latency for starters, your USB system, computer processing the D/A converter and so on. But this doesn’t matter when you use direct monitoring. You’ll hear everything in perfect sync.

Zero latency is only referring to monitoring directly from the interface.

And most important of all, Does it have top notch ASIO drivers for your OS.  Don’t buy any interface that say’s “class compliant driver”  That will work for a Mac, but not very well with a PC.

What is the word on support from the company? Visit the web site and try creating an Account before you purchase. Pretend you just bought the device.  

See if the drivers and manuals are easy to get at and kept up to date. Are they a  PC or Mac oriented company.

And this one I think is also overlooked--

Does it come with free software, Example Focusrite interfaces seem to come with a lot of good actually usable stuff.  There could be over $200 in value here so make sure you check this out. Most companies only give you some lame version of a DAW that you are probably not interested in because you already have a great free DAW with Cakewalk.  

Everyone will recommend the interface they have chosen, that doesn't mean it is the right one for you. But recommendations are also part of the research needed to make the right decisions.

Make your list starting with the input /output specs. Check for pricing on sites like Sweetwater or Musicians Friend. The reviews are a very good resource but take the negatives with a grain of salt. There’s a lot of idiots who have no clue as what they are doing and they vent by writing a negative review.  

The audio interface is the heart of a digital studio. It is the centerpiece and spending money on this is more important than your actual computer. So have fun shopping.

[mettelus]

I hope the OP doesn't get overwhelmed reading this. We jumped in a bit deeper than he was anticipating already.

[John Vere]

Yes but the title of the thread will result I 100’s of other people over time reading this information.  
Try it. Go enter the title in a search engine and add the word Cakewalk. 
This thread shows up 5 th on the list for me. It’s title is wrong as audio interfaces are not sound cards as we all know but the the term seems to persist. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by John Vere

[mettelus]

That is true, threads tend to get dredged up after a few years and your list of audio interface questions is timeless. I hadn't looked at the Solo since it came out, so was pleasantly surprised to see it got some real upgrades. When first released it had RCA jacks on the back and now they are balanced outputs. My FW card (not the Saffire) is starting to degrade on me so been debating just shifting to a USB interface since I could actually carry it someplace else and use USB ?. I was surprised Amazon has like 48,000 reviews on the Scarletts...  that number was way higher than I expected.

[Robert Hale]

On 5/14/2023 at 6:04 AM, Lord Tim said:

Connect it to your USB port, let Windows detect the device.

Do NOT install their ASIO4ALL software they have listed on the Behringer site, and if you have, uninstall it.

Open Cakewalk, if it hasn't done so already, it should detect your interface. 

Go to Preferences and in Audio > Playback and Recording, choose WASAPI Shared.

Then in Audio > Devices, make sure there's a tick in anything that lists your UM2 USB Audio.

Then in Audio > Driver Settings, make sure you have the UM2 selected in both the Playback and Record Timing Masters.

Click OK.

You should now be able to use it to record in Cakewalk.

Hi Lord Tim,

thank you for the step by step sequence.

Using the UM2, do I plug in a Casio keyboard to the (left) MIC/ LINE 1, or to the right INST 2?  

 

[scook]

11 minutes ago, Robert Hale said:

Using the UM2, do I plug in a Casio keyboard to the (left) MIC/ LINE 1, or to the right INST 2?  

Generally, keyboards have line level outputs; "Instrument" inputs are for high impedance devices such as electric guitars without active electronics.

[John Vere]

Looks like the OP was overwhelmed. Didn’t seem to read or understand anything posted about the fact the interface is useless.