New interface time: seeking recommendations

[musicturtle]

For expanding the Focusrite 18i20 looks like you would need something like this.

41OVVCfvb9L.jpg

Granted it's another couple hundred bucks or so, but if you ran your drums into this permanently it would be set it and forget it.

www.amazon.com/Behringer-ADA8200-BEHRIN ... B00E87OLFQ

[Greg_L]

That focusrite control panel thing was hard to get used to and navigate around in.

I haven't even looked into that clusterfuck yet. Is it even necessary?

[WhiskeyJack]

That focusrite control panel thing was hard to get used to and navigate around in.

I haven't even looked into that clusterfuck yet. Is it even necessary?

Yes. There is some audio routing stuff you will likely want to do before you get going to hard. if you DI anything it will be a huge pain in the ass. I had some weird issues with latency and delay times and weird odd ball stuff. But that was easily solvable.

Word of caution, Don't leave that focustrite control panel open and on while tracking and playback you will hate your life. Not many people have been experiencing the dropouts like i did and it may be a windows 7 thing but that was my biggest issue with the 18i20. As long as it is not running things have been awesome for me.

ref: https://therecordingrebels.com/viewtopi ... 512#p55512

[Greg_L]

Yes. There is some audio routing stuff you will likely want to do before you get going to hard. if you DI anything it will be a huge pain in the ass. I had some weird issues with latency and delay times and weird odd ball stuff. But that was easily solvable.

Word of caution, Don't leave that focustrite control panel open and on while tracking and playback you will hate your life. Not many people have been experiencing the dropouts like i did and it may be a windows 7 thing but that was my biggest issue with the 18i20. As long as it is not running things have been awesome for me.

ref: https://therecordingrebels.com/viewtopi ... 512#p55512

Ugh. I hope I don't have to fuck with any of that. Score one more point for the ancient old Tascam.

[Minerman]

I'm gonna suggest the Tascam 16x08...Now I do admit I wasn't totally happy with it for quite a while, & was pretty close to replacing it, but I ran an update & it took care of the issues I'd been having...

The issues were:

• 1) - I could only listen to one thing at a time (IE: couldn't stream/play YouTube or whatever with Reaper running)...This was the reason I started to sell it & get something else, but an update window magically popped up, which took care of this...

• 2) - Sometimes after tweaking a plugin, I'd have latency...For a while, this was solved by re-setting the buffer size (IE: From 64 to 128, then back to 64), which was pretty annoying, but the update seems to have smoothed that out too...

The 16x08 is pretty simple, has 8 mic pre's (all w/phantom power) plus another 8 inputs to connect more pre-amps...8 outputs to send whatever to wherever you want/need 'em, like a re-amp box for example...

I'm on Windows 7, running an Intel i7-4790, 16gb of ram (not sure what your computer specs are)...

I almost went with the Focurite ($420) the rest of the guys have, & was also considering the Behringer ($280) in the same price range...Seems the price of the 16x08 has dropped a little since I bought mine, it's now $270 (IIRC I paid $300)...

So my vote is for the Tascam 16x08...

[WhiskeyJack]

For expanding the Focusrite 18i20 looks like you would need something like this.

41OVVCfvb9L.jpg

Granted it's another couple hundred bucks or so, but if you ran your drums into this permanently it would be set it and forget it.

www.amazon.com/Behringer-ADA8200-BEHRIN ... B00E87OLFQ

Dude good find. That is awesome. I don't need that but it is good to know the possibility of expansion is there. I'd never ever use any of those weird digital inputs lol.

[Greg_L]

Dude good find. That is awesome. I don't need that but it is good to know the possibility of expansion is there. I'd never ever use any of those weird digital inputs lol.

That ADA8200 is what I'd get if I go the Behringer interface route for the drums. The Uphoria plus that preamp thing is 16 easy XLR inputs for the price of one 8-input Focusrite 18i20.

[Minerman]

That ADA8200 is what I'd get if I go the Behringer interface route for the drums. The Uphoria plus that preamp thing is 16 easy XLR inputs for the price of one 8-input Focusrite 18i20.

I'd narrowed my search down to 3 interfaces in that price range, the Tascam, Behringer & Focusrite...I almost went with the Behringer just because of the ability to expand with the ADA8200, but chose the Tascam in the end just because of the name...The Focusrite scared me away because I read quite a few people had driver issues...

Everything said, I would still recommend the Tascam for VHS, after I finally got it sorted (this could've very well been my own fault by not updating), I think it's pretty good...

[Greg_L]

I think the real bottom line in this home-studio modest-budget half-a-grand price range is....they're basically all the fucking same! Just get whatever routing and inputs you need and get on with it. None of them have any "sound" to them, so it's not like one has magic preamps and another doesn't. They're all some made in China shit, so just go whatever appeals to you. It's all the same.

[musicturtle]

I think the real bottom line in this home-studio modest-budget half-a-grand price range is....they're basically all the fucking same! Just get whatever routing and inputs you need and get on with it. None of them have any "sound" to them, so it's not like one has magic preamps and another doesn't. They're all some made in China shit, so just go whatever appeals to you. It's all the same.

This I happen to agree with.

[Tadpui]

Win7 compatibility is going to start to be hard to come by before too long, since MS is planning to sunset it in 2020. Nobody is going to be developing or updating drivers for Win7 before too long (if they even still are today). Since you're kind of at a crossroads right now, it might be time to think about upgrading to Win10. OK, I'll duck to avoid the rotten tomatoes that you're probably flinging at me right now

As far as interfaces, any of the ones mentioned so far would be great. I'd say get one of the 18/20 interfaces with ADAT connectivity and start saving up another $200 for the ADA8200 and a couple TOSLink cables to have 16 input preamps and 16 line outputs at some point. Of course that suggestions is absolutely one of those "it's what I have, so it should be what everybody has" kind of things. The connectivity is simple, set-and-forget kind of thing. The only time I've had to jack with my ADA8200 is when I've moved houses. Otherwise it stays powered up 24x7 and is ready to go any time.

I wouldn't be scared away by Behringer's reputation. That U-Phoria series is the real deal. Their acquisition of Midas was a revelation. Those preamps are solid. The drivers are even good. I've had a UMC404HD for several months now, and I've used it intermittently. It's stable, fast, quiet, and does everything I've asked of it. The 404HD runs off of USB power or a wall wart, but I'm not so sure that the 1820 would run off of bus power. Maybe. And I don't know what to promise about long-term reliability since mine lives most of its life in a box in the closet.

The offerings from PreSonus and Focusrite add some better routing options (although with that damned confounding control panel).

I don't think that you're going to find a mid-level interface that uses a 3-prong power supply. Everything I've seen is either bus powered or uses a 2-prong wall wart or inline transformer. I have a bit of a suspicion that if you're using a FireWire interface, that maybe your FireWire port/card on your computer might be failing, if you're getting shocks and intermittent power. Or maybe your cable is worn out. But FireWire is undoubtedly a dead technology, so going USB is a good idea. Unless you want to futureproof and try to get Thunderbolt working on a PC (which doesn't sound fun). PreSonus does have a line of USB-C interfaces though.

Anyways, best of luck in your search! There are too damn many options out there, it's a pain to choose. I'd just go to Sweetwater and start filtering by your needs and see what's left in the search results once you've culled the options a bit. Jeez, I could have just typed that last couple of sentences instead of the novel above. If you can't tell, I like audio interfaces

[vomitHatSteve]

Win7 compatibility is going to start to be hard to come by before too long, since MS is planning to sunset it in 2020. Nobody is going to be developing or updating drivers for Win7 before too long (if they even still are today). Since you're kind of at a crossroads right now, it might be time to think about upgrading to Win10. OK, I'll duck to avoid the rotten tomatoes that you're probably flinging at me right now

Yeah. I just rotated my computers this year. (Win 7 general use PC became air-gapped daw. Win XP Daw became ubuntu. Got a new win10 for general use)
I'm not too worried about ongoing support for it. As long as the drivers work initially, they should be fine.

[musicturtle]

Win7 compatibility is going to start to be hard to come by before too long, since MS is planning to sunset it in 2020. Nobody is going to be developing or updating drivers for Win7 before too long (if they even still are today). Since you're kind of at a crossroads right now, it might be time to think about upgrading to Win10. OK, I'll duck to avoid the rotten tomatoes that you're probably flinging at me right now

Yeah. I just rotated my computers this year. (Win 7 general use PC became air-gapped daw. Win XP Daw became ubuntu. Got a new win10 for general use)
I'm not too worried about ongoing support for it. As long as the drivers work initially, they should be fine.

I used Ubuntu to keep one of my laptops alive for a while. Is there any good recording software for that operating system?

[vomitHatSteve]

Yeah. I just rotated my computers this year. (Win 7 general use PC became air-gapped daw. Win XP Daw became ubuntu. Got a new win10 for general use)
I'm not too worried about ongoing support for it. As long as the drivers work initially, they should be fine.

I used Ubuntu to keep one of my laptops alive for a while. Is there any good recording software for that operating system?

I've been meaning to try out Ardour, but this computer is command-line only.

Sonic Pi is very cool but not really a DAW
Sox can do almost anything, but it's completely user-unfriendly, and you may have to program it yourself sometimes.
Audacity is cool but pretty limited.

*edit* Oh! And Reaper. Reaper works on Linux and is great.

[musicturtle]

I used Ubuntu to keep one of my laptops alive for a while. Is there any good recording software for that operating system?

I've been meaning to try out Ardour, but this computer is command-line only.

Sonic Pi is very cool but not really a DAW
Sox can do almost anything, but it's completely user-unfriendly, and you may have to program it yourself sometimes.
Audacity is cool but pretty limited.

*edit* Oh! And Reaper. Reaper works on Linux and is great.

That is awesome that Reaper works on there. I am pretty much all in on Cubase...but you never know when you are gonna be in pinch. Thanks

[SweetDan]

...Oh! And Reaper. Reaper works on Linux and is great.

That is awesome that Reaper works on there. I am pretty much all in on Cubase...but you never know when you are gonna be in pinch. Thanks

Agree that Linux+Reaper = awesome; I didn't know that, and I'll have to check it out.

In other news, it looks like Tascam must have re-done their line of interfaces, and retailers are therefore dropping prices on the current line. I saw that Sweetwater has the 16x08 priced down $30 from where it was a while ago: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -interface (I wasn't planning on moving up from my 2-channel interface for a while, but I might want to get one of these)

[vomitHatSteve]

Ok. My tascam 16x08 came in yesterday. I'm liking it so far.

Setting it up was pretty straightforward except that I had to manually find the drivers on Tascam's site.

It doesn't have built-in monitoring of the input signal, but it turns out that it plays nicer with Reaper so the software-level input monitoring doesn't add the latency that ruined it before.
It only has balanced outs, and it turns out my monitors only support RCA and digital coax. I probably need to figure out a better long-term then a TS to RCA adapter.
Tons of inputs relative to what I had before. Technically my mixer could send it 8 signals to its 6 balanced in, but any band playing in my practice space with more than 6 vocals should just calm down instead.

[Greg_L]

Ok. My tascam 16x08 came in yesterday. I'm liking it so far.

Setting it up was pretty straightforward except that I had to manually find the drivers on Tascam's site.

It doesn't have built-in monitoring of the input signal,

Are you sure? It doesn't have a "mix" knob on the front somewhere?

[vomitHatSteve]

Nope.

Even rifled through the manual and didn't find anything.

Honestly tho, doing it in software will be fine. One problem with the FW-1804 was that it's monitoring was just switches ("computer", "inputs", or "both"). If I can do real-time monitoring in the DAW, I have pretty fine-grained control over it.

[vomitHatSteve]

Ok. My tascam 16x08 came in yesterday. I'm liking it so far.

Setting it up was pretty straightforward except that I had to manually find the drivers on Tascam's site.

It doesn't have built-in monitoring of the input signal,

Are you sure? It doesn't have a "mix" knob on the front somewhere?

Found it. It's in software. Kind of a hassle since I have to use the software control panel, but it is much more fine-grained.