Audio interface-basic questions

Firstly,if I buy an audio interface am I stuck with the DAW that comes with the AI ? As a relative novice I,m bewildered by the various AI,s on offer. All I want to do is be able to assign Channel 1 on my mixing desk to Audio track 1 on my MC3 on my PC. So from what I can gather,I need an AI. I think firewire is the way to go as I need at least 4 I/O,s. I play guitar,bass,drums etc myself and use a reel to reel too,for FX etc,and have hit on the problem of being unable to Solo the drum track to my headfones. As a result if I monitor the drums on my monitors,the mike I,m using to record guitar picks up the drums,if you see what I mean.
 
I know I could get rid of the mixing desk,but it has a reasonble EQ section and I like the hands on,physical touch. I,m also bl**dy useless with computors. I have my eyes on a Focusrite LE Saffire Firewire soundcard. I also like the Alesis I/O 14 or 26. As money is a big consideration (£100 GBP ) I,ll have to buy SH. Ive also looked at the PCI soundcard type with breakout box,such as the M- Audio 44/66.
 
Sorry for the waffle. Basicly I need a no frills,simple to use device that allows me to assign 8 tracks max. No midi etc. I,m just using the PC as a replacement for an 8 track R2R.Any advice would be welcome,thanks in advance chaps,Andy

Thanks for your reply MR B. It looks like I,ve got to upgrade from MC3. I can already get two channels-ish by using left and right channels of my soundcard to two audio tracks. But its obviously ideal.

The reason I like MC3 is that it has a relatively simple layout and is easy to use. I tried a couple of Ableton,s platforms,but wasnt happy with them. Thanks for the heads up on Sonar X1.  Thats about £35 GBP I think.How does this compare ease of use wise with MC3 ? Lastly does anyone have a copy to sell ? Many thanks,Andy.

just to clarify something - MC6 is cheaper to "upgrade to" and guitarhacker suggested it, but MC6 still only allows 2 simultaneous inputs, so that wouldn't fit your needs.

X1 (and MC6 BTW) are very different from MC3, however.  the interface and workflow are very very different.  I suggest you download the X1 demo and try it out.  it's crippled some in functionality and very "slimmed down" as far as plugins and synths, but the basic GUI and functionality are there and would give you an idea what it would take to learn X1 Essentials for your multi-input purposes.
 
and if you're asking if anyone has a copy of X1 to sell, that's not supposed to happen.  the licensing agreement does not allow transfer of the software license to anyone.  once you pay for it - it's yours forever.  upgrade prices are here, tho:
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/

I've not said that the USB soundcards are faster than firewire.  it really depends on the way the soundcard hardware and software was created as to whether they are faster or not, and mostly it's about the software (drivers).

I used to have an m-audio 1010LT.  they are older technology, but should work great.  the non-LT version has balaced I/O and wordclock available.  the LT version has RCA connectors instead of 1/4" balanced (which I didn't like).  but don't count on the mic pres in the LT for anything.  use them as LINE inputs only and use your mixer for MIC pres.

dithering is just a way to add noise to the export instead of allowing the export to have empty zeros in the digital realm.  honestly, I don't think it's that important.  I can't hear any difference between any of the different types.

That is what I have heard.... I will not mention the source, suffice it to say the guy knows his stuff. 

The newer USB2 &3  ports have the ability to be faster then firewire in data transfer.   

A better reason to consider USB rather then  firewire is that firewire ports are not being put on all new computers AND the chipset that runs the firewire port is sometimes not compatible with the firewire interfaces. 

I also noticed that the new Focusrite Saffire interface is not firewire, it's USB so the manufacturers are moving towards the more common USB port. 

It is for those reasons as opposed to speed alone that I recommend a USB port based interface. If my firewire Saffire died, I would replace it with a USB interface.



Since you live so far out in the sticks, ....100 miles and no car , yeah that's an epic journey....check the ones available from the online outlets, research on Mr B's web site, ask questions here, and buy the one you find to be compatible with your needs. Let the delivery man make that journey to you. 

Beagle,
 
I see you only have one USB interface on your website's spreadsheet.  Can you recommend any others, paticularly with use with Sonar 1x and Windows 7, 64 bit?
 
thanks,
 
Reed

In a sense you probably will be beating your head against the wall. First you probably need a better computer. I still have Pentium 4 computer, and if not using any plug-ins it handles many tracks (40 or more probably but I only have used 36), but it is a false 64-bit computer, hyperthread technology 32-bit computer. It has two cores, but early two cores that don't work as well as newer two-core computers, but it works well enough. (It's the cache that gets muddled up with reused hit and misses of programming codes. But it is better than a single-core computer, which is what I am guessing you have. But yours may work well enough as it is, as long as you do not try and add all those plug-ins (which I do not) to make the music (plugins are like drum kits and any other instruments that are not real but used when you do not play the instrument and you have to change the MIDI type output to a wave file on the computer maybe on the fly while it is playing - that takes a lot of computing power - way more than just having the DAW record the output from a instrument with a live wave file recording).

Latency is the lag in recording and listening to the recording when recording more than one track (usually I record stereo or left and right) and trying to record another track. ASIO drivers allow for that latency so what you record and what you listen to happen to be the same timing, or else with WDM/KS or MME drivers you will always have that lag that can amount to more the slower the computer is, but never disappear no matter what audio interface you use or recording you make. It can be very low like 6ms (milliseconds which ain't much but not exactly on) to more like mine with the WDM/KS drivers for Sonar 7 which is going to not be less than 21 ms. It just don't work well to do that while trying to record, so ASIO drivers (with the audio interface) are used so everything comes out together, listening to an already recorded track and adding a new track and tracks and tracks.


As to firewire, yes it still is faster, but if not the new technology (plus not having a firewire input on the computer while having at least a USB2 (not a USB1.1)  many ports, it just will not be faster. a 400mB firewire is slower than a 480mB USB2 port. If they were using a 800mB firewire port then that would be faster, but now there will be USB3 pretty soon and that will probably still be faster. A 1600 firewire port would still be faster, but you have to use what you can get. And although there may be standards that they have agreed to, there will always be lag in what is made and what can be made. I have a USB2 audio interface (not a USB1.1 interface which was the first one and is too slow anymore) so my RME Babyface works great with it (although you may get a click or something sometimes - it just happens but it never does it when recording and usually only when listening - they tightened up the drivers so a PCI-e card probably still is faster than any firewire or USB type audio interface. But only have one PCI-e port which I use for my graphic card, and they have a PCI-e not 16 port but a PCI-1 port which may be fast enough, usually there is no one really using it, so again it depends on what you can get. PCI can still work fine, but the choices are limited and not as good as the newer versions of audio interface, especially like a USB2 interface which can plugged in or unplugged into your computer, but I don't disconnect mine so I use it as a soundcard for anything else, like DVD movies or listening to music to youtube videos. Plus the new ones can record all the way up to 24-bit (32-bit rendering) and 192kHz sample rates. Music Creator will not do that, and I don't know if you can get over 44, 100 sample rate (the same rate used for CDs) and 16-bit (CDs) but the newer one may allow that. I use Sonar 7 now, instead of MC4 which I still have on my computer, so I record lately only at 48000 sample rate and 24-bit, but not at 16-bit and 44100 sample rate. Still have to end up at the low end, but I guess it is suppose to give anyone recording the higher up in sample rate (up to 192000 now with newer audio interfaces like mine) more head room. I doubt if I go at anytime over 96000 sample rate - and 24-bit. It takes more harddrive space (a lot) if going up to higher rates, and well Windows Media Player, only works up to 48000 and 16-bit anyway, so even if a DVD is better because a real recording studio or movie studio was used and makes it better, a DAW on a home computer will only do so much, and that will be it. Unfortunately the standard for a CD is still 44100 and 16-bit, even if recorded at 24-bit and whatever sample rate. Youtube videos are even that good and usually more like mp3 files like a lot of people mix-down to, to limit the size of the file or music song.

Well, that's about it, and if I missed anything, well, just know that it all can be researched on the Internet.

If I had a 64-bit computer and newer processor then I probably would consider Sonar newest one (X1b) whatever it is. But then I only have a 32-bit computer and OS system called Windows XP, but it works still for what I do, and that is not use a bunch of plug-in tracks that I think if I read correctly, make the MIDI into a wave file on the fly with instruments plug-ins. I won't record guitar amps either, for I can buy a digital simulator type box that simulates guitar amps and effects and whatever and record direct into the DAW (digital audio workstation which MC3 or MC4 or Sonar 7 or higher is).

And I can solo any number of tracks and listen to only the tracks I want to (with headphones and not monitor speakers) because except for voice, everything is only with the headphones and not speakers at any time, while recording a new track. I could listen to part of the drums, or some of the drums while recording a new track or any which way I want to listen. I think I can do that with MC4 also, so knowing that I had MC 3 also somewhere around here, I think that could do it also, I think I finally took that off of my computer because I had it on a older computer and got MC4 a while back now before I sprang for Sonar 7 (which had a huge patch but I finally got it). Sonar 7 works well enough for me, but then I do not use those plug-in type instruments although they may give different or even better sounds, but then that is that. I probably could use some of those and have those included with Sonar 7 whatever they gave with that, but have not even tried those out yet.

youtube videos are not as good is what I meant to say, unless done by a real studio or now using HD recording codecs for videos and audio in the videos. That's another subject I have to read more about.

I think dithering is the process of adding noise because when you record at a different sample rate (usually higher) than what you probably will export the audio in (say like you record at the 96000 24-bit sample rate but mix-it down or export the audio to the standard 44100 - 16 bit sample rate) there may be artifacts or distortion or modulation noise introduced into the final wave file because of converting the signal. Triangle usually is better than rectangle, and if not changing too much (say like going from 48000 to 44100 - all 16bit) then perhaps no dithering is needed.

X2 should work fine, its just that Cake won't help w/ any issues, the same as Microsoft.  It is like the warrenty on your car running out - you can still get it fixed, just not for free.

@

Thanks. (""Left behind in the dust"") In what respect? The PC I use for recording,I use only for recording. It has all the specs I need to run X1 essentials. Unless I make a best selling album(doubtfull) I havnt got the dosh for continual upgrades in PC's or anything. All I need really is a DAW with at least 4/IO's so I can multitrack via my mixing desk. I,ve recently got an Allen and Heath Mod 2 desk,whilst not as good as the AMEK I used to have,it has all I need,and I dont have to sod about finding the right menu/box to click. sorry,I,m a Luddite.
   Andy.