Which USB soundcard/audio interface should I buy?

Hi!

I'm currently in the process of upgrading my studio a bit. I've come to the conclusion that I need a new USB audio interface. ATM I have an M-Audio Audiophile USB, but I want something a little fancier.

Requirements: It must be USB. I have recently bought an MPC2500 Special Edition, so I need jack/phono input so I can hook that up. I also need phono input (or jack if necessary) for my Numark PT-01 turntable. Finally, phantom power input (for a microphone) would be a dope addition

Software: FL Studio and Renoise, although FL is my main weapon.

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Which audio interface should I buy? What gets me the most value for my money? I need an interface with 'crystal clear' sound and all the above-mentioned inputs. The interface must either have recieved good reviews or generally be accepted as a good product. Are any audio interfaces particularly popular in bedroom (hip-hop) music production ATM?

In advance, thanks a bunch for any suggestions.

Peace!

M audio Fast Track Ultra

If you're upgrading why you copping another USB interface?

With the specs you want, step up to Firewire at least dawg.

USB to USB aint no upgrade, that's a sidegrade...

wordup clint.

i was always told to avoid usb interfaces like the plague....


firewire is the way to go...



its been awhile though... maybe usb schit is more reliable now?

Jaytim3 wrote:M audio Fast Track Ultra

Sorry but M-Audio soundcards are crap....

maara wrote:

Jaytim3 wrote:M audio Fast Track Ultra

Sorry but M-Audio soundcards are ****....

I'm using a Fast Track Ultra at the moment, and I agree with these guys, skip it. It's actually a nice overall piece, but there's some issues. The first is that it's control panel software has a feature called "High Performance Mode", but it really should be called "Destroy Computer Mode". It's crazy, it worked for basically nobody, and worse M-Audio just shrugged and said "Sorry it doesn't work". On my quad i7 laptop pressing the mode freezes the whole OS instantly, but you can reboot. On my Boot Camp Win7 on my Mac Pro, pressing the button results in a full corruption of the OS, which I was able to repeat 4 times with all the clean installs it forced me to do.

With no High Performance Mode available you're stuck with 128 samples as the lowest buffer setting. I can tell on a decent computer this card could could do 96,88, even 64 buffers. But without a good driver (It's Avid/M-Audio you know the driver won't get updated ever again) you're stuck @128. The headphone jacks low output is the worst I've encountered in my life too.

Their ProFire interfaces are good, but their customer service sucks so bad I say avoid them all together. You'd be better off with a Focusrite Saffire or their new joints in that price range. If you want to step up to the $5-$600 range the steinberg_MR816 is excellent and has the best drivers/latency on that side of $1000, with the exception of the RME BabyFace, but that's like $7-$800.

M-Audio

Wal Martian wrote:....they make interfaces that connect via USB but they don't use the USB protocol to transfer audio information.

This seems rather vague and quite honestly, doesn't make much sense. Please explain or at least link to information that explains how this works and which RME interface does this.

Ocular wrote:

Wal Martian wrote:....they make interfaces that connect via USB but they don't use the USB protocol to transfer audio information.

This seems rather vague and quite honestly, doesn't make much sense. Please explain or at least link to information that explains how this works and which RME interface does this.

RME has the breakdowns of the tech on their site, Wal Martian is right though, they are the best performing USB interfaces on the market, although it isn't that they don't use the USB protocol. They very cleverly circumvent it though. The general idea is that a combination of a really well written driver, and safety buffers in the interface itself, allow the RME products to avoid the normal pitfalls of USB audio. Their USB stuff basically uses their proprietary tech to bypass the typical USB audio bottleneck that occurs when the CPU falls behind on the audio I/O stream.

The theoretical data throughput spec of USB 2.0 on paper, should meet or slightly exceed firewire, but in the real world it really doesn't. USB is a host based protocol, so your CPU has to handle the data I/O, once it hits a certain load (would depend on your specific CPU/RAM, host etc.), you may encounter more glitches, dropouts, stutters and jitter than a comparable firewire or PCI/e interface. Firewire is peer to peer data transfer, so no load is put on the CPU to manage the I/O stream.

So what other posters implied about $200-$500 USB interfaces all performing about the same is basically true. On a decent PC/Mac expect about 7-11ms round trip latency. That's real time, totaling the input, processing, and output latencies.

Aside from the Steinberg ($599) I mentioned earlier (very nice, but RME stuff is notch or 2 above it), you won't beat those performance numbers without spending at least $749 on RME's portable BabyFace. RME's other offerings are PCIe,PCIe/Breakout box,USB,and USB and Firewire combo. These all run between $1200-$2100, and obviously you're crossing a line into serious pro gear, but the BabyFace performs at a very high level too.

So if latency is a major issue for you (in other words you want all your VST's to feel as responsive as an MPC), your best choices on the USB front are the Steinberg or the BabyFace. The only thing matching or slightly exceeding those are all firewire or PCI based solutions. Basically Apogee(Mac), Echo, RME, Steinberg's MR interface, MOTU's products, or a Pro Tools HD are tops for the lowest possible latency while still running multiple VST's/tracks.

If it's gonna be USB Heretic, really think about breaking the extra bread for the BabyFace, 64/128 sample buffers with 32 tracks is a thing of joy.
I'm back on a tower, so I'm getting an internal RME card with the breakout box this week. But if I still used a laptop or was restricted to USB, I would get the Steinberg at minimum, and more likely an RME.

Metatron72 wrote:RME has the breakdowns of the tech on their site, Wal Martian is right though, they are the best performing USB interfaces on the market, although it isn't that they don't use the USB protocol. They very cleverly circumvent it though. The general idea is that a combination of a really well written driver, and safety buffers in the interface itself, allow the RME products to avoid the normal pitfalls of USB audio. Their USB stuff basically uses their proprietary tech to bypass the typical USB audio bottleneck that occurs when the CPU falls behind on the audio I/O stream.

That's interesting and I'll read up on RME's site to learn more about it.

Here's a great thread @GearSlutz were a guy accurately measured the latency of some top interfaces.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-co ... -base.html

They are all firewire or PCI though, but it's fair to substitute a RME Fireface UC (USB capable version) where the bar graph says Fireface, as the performance of the units has been shown to be equal. And even for $500 less the BabyFace will also do ultra low latency at a heavy track load.

Sorry I was mistaken on the Steinberg MR816X, it is a firewire interface, not USB, and it's $699 not $599.