Emu 0404 or the new Focusrite Scarlett? advice please!

Hi, hope I'm in the right part of the forum...

I'm looking to purchase an audio interface. Things that are important are that it is USB 2, that it has s/pdif digital input, and that it sounds as best as possible.

In my price range, I've narrowed it down to the Emu 0404 - which seems perfect, except there are known problems with Windows 7 - and the new Focusrite Scarlett - which has more inputs, but supposedly just isn't as good for A/D conversions etc as the Emu one.

Also, the Scarlett is £200 best price while the Emu is around £165.

Can anyone give me a bit of advice here, or, suggest an even better audio interface in that price range (max £200)?

Thanks in advance,
E

Neither. If the money isn't burning a hole in your pocket then try to save up and get something in the next price bracket. Preferably a firewire interface.

But if I had a gun to my head and had to pick one I'd go with the Focusrite.
I'll explain:

I used to have the 0404 around 7 years ago. The interface software was not user friendly at all. The analog ins and outs are unbalanced. If you want to do vocal work or record guitar or something you need to have a separate pre-amp (line level only on the 0404). Also, breakout cables.....I hate breakout cables. On the plus side the 0404 is a pci card, which means the interface and your cpu will have a nice quick communications link on that pci bus. Of course all this means nothing if your spending more time trying to get it to work with Windows 7 than actually recording music. So that's definitely something to consider.

The Focusrite Scarlett at least has built in pre-amps and balanced inputs. Also my personal experience with Focusrite hardware and software has been nothing but great. The one thing I really don't like about the Scarlett though is that it's usb, so the reliability on the connection between the interface and computer will depend on the cpu processing power as well as the amount of other usb devices taking up real estate on the usb bus.

Thanks - actually I got impatient waiting for a reply and I ordered the focusrite - actually my budget was £200 and the scarlett maxed it at 199. I'm glad you've at least got favourable things to say about it though. I did some reading and learned that usb2 isn't so bad, but maybe I should've gone FW. I'm getting a custom pc built for me at the moment, I've asked for decent specs and I don't plan to use anything else via usb, just the audio interface alone. So hopefully it's still not too bad a choice.

I'll make sure to get on here and let you know how it sounds though

Thanks!

Ok, if you're still with me on this thread, my focusrite came through today, and so did my computer, and the guy who built the computer said he found a firewire card around, and stuck it in there for free (nice guy).

Well that's put me in a completely new dilemma. I'm not sure whether to stick with my USB2 interface, which people on forums seem to think would do the job, (but with firewire being the obvious better choice if it's available)... or whether to take advantage of my firewire port, send this audio interface back, and get a new one??

Would you 100% say it's worth it to get a firewire one?? (I know there's lots of threads on this...)

Also, if you could save me another 2 days worth of research, and suggest good firewire interfaces on par with the focusrite, within my budget of £200?? (things that are necessary are that it has s/pdif I/O and preferably multiple inputs). I would be really grateful for that.

Thanks again in advance!!
E

The Saffire Pro 24 DSP is worth a look. I got a new one off eBay for £200 a few months back, although the regular price is around £250.

Thanks for that - actually I've been looking at the saffire pro 14 and the presonus firestudio mobile. And a bit at the Echo Audiofire. Was up for hours last night trying to decide...

The Echo seems to be known as being very reliable. This is selling it to me - however theres no great software with it , and there are no preamps.

The Focusrite has good preamps, ableton lite software, but isn't as good supposedly as the Echo.

The Presonus I've seen mixed reviews about, it seems as good as the focusrite but with more line inputs - unfortunately it has it's own "sound one" software which I don't know or trust.

This is making it really hard to choose between these three. Should software really be a tipping point? Any chance of some advice from someone who knows about these?

Thanks!!!

I can vouch for the Saffire Pro 24 but I can't for the others you listed. Never used them before.

One thing you need to check
When and if you do get a FW interface you have to make sure that you have a FW card that has a compatible chipset with the interface. Usually anything with a Texas Instrument (TI) chipset will work with the majority of audio interfaces out there but check first with the manufacturer.

Cheers for the tip, would you recommend the focusrite 24 with dsp, over the focusrite 14? The only real difference besides a couple of extra inputs is the VRA which I don't think I'll ever find use for (as it's all through headphones, I'd sooner take my mix around different actual systems). Would you recommend I get the 24 anyway because it's better, or are the extra onboard features not really worth the extra?

Ocular wrote:I used to have the 0404 around 7 years ago. The interface software was not user friendly at all. The analog ins and outs are unbalanced. If you want to do vocal work or record guitar or something you need to have a separate pre-amp (line level only on the 0404). Also, breakout cables.....I hate breakout cables. On the plus side the 0404 is a pci card, which means the interface and your cpu will have a nice quick communications link on that pci bus. Of course all this means nothing if your spending more time trying to get it to work with Windows 7 than actually recording music. So that's definitely something to consider.

Actually you are wrong about the 0404. Its a USB interface. It has balanced ins and outs. It has mic preamps with phantom power. And I'm willing to bet its better than the Focusrites. There was a shoot-out on Gearslutz which showed its A/D conversion and preamps were comparatively on par with the far more expensive Apogee Duet.

The only issues are that its getting old now, the drivers are a problem and its not bus powered. But they are replacing it with the Emu 0406 soon. And it would be interesting to see how that compares with the new Apogee Duet 2 and RME Babyface, which are the current top dawgs.

miscend wrote:
Actually you are wrong about the 0404. Its a USB interface.

Didn't know EMU had a USB version, as I stopped checking for EMU stuff awhile ago. Sorry about the mix up. There is a pci version though and everything I said about it is correct. Also, if the drivers are a problem than it doesn't matter how good the converters and preamps are...paperweight/ door stopper.
Going back to my original advice, for anyone who is in the market for an interface and is reading this, I'd skip both of these units and look into a firewire interface.

Quick 2 cents on this thread

I have the Scarlett which seems like a great piece of hardware. The drivers are absolute shit! I can't get the thing to be recognized by my PC. Total headache that has caused me to lose day after day after day trying everything. my computer sees the card for only a split second when i open the mixer and poof! = Gone
"NO HARDWARE CONNECTED"

So far all i can say is this card does not have a decent driver as of yet, so if your running win 7 64 bit it seems like shit!

If you want an anwswer to the question : E-MU vs Scarlett than check this:

Lampdog wrote:Link fixed

i didn't like the Alesis clip, muddy compared to the other two that were clear and almost the same to the ear.

The Scarlett sounds so much better. I bought mine in late 2011. Never had any problems with it. Not sure about the Windows drivers, since I use it with a Mac.