Bare-bones Audio Interface to Use with Mixer

I have a 1604 and route hardware synths and guitars through it into a Presonus Audiobox 44VSL. I haven't noticed any issues with the signal being adversely affected by the preamps on the Audiobox.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

dcumpian
I have a 1604 and route hardware synths and guitars through it into a Presonus Audiobox 44VSL. I haven't noticed any issues with the signal being adversely affected by the preamps on the Audiobox.

Thanks, Dan.

The thing to keep in mind with audio interfaces is your not just buying hardware, most important is the software,, drivers. Without good drivers the device is a door stop. You will not get good drivers for $60. 
Just look for an interface with stereo (a pair of)  line inputs. This will either be as a channel 3/4 or with Combi jacks on the front. Avoid interfaces that have 1 mike and 1 instrument jack. 
I run a Mackie Mix 8 into my interfaces  rear panel line inputs and have also used my front panel combi jacks on my Scarlett 6i6. Both work without issues if you toggle the correct pads and switches. The important thing is to match impedance. 
I would be looking at the Tascam for my next interface. Even though AT thinks the pre amps are all the same I do think think Tascam has upped the anti. And Mackies pre amps are still top notch too. 

I used a 1402VLZ for quite a while hooked up to an M-Audio Delta 66 PCI card and it turned in good results.

Most, maybe all, interfaces use a limited range of AD/DA convertor chips. For example, I understand thst the RME UFX and the Presonus Firestudio use the same PCM4104 chip. So at the conversion level interfaces should, in theory, have a similar performance.

Though in practice they don't quite because quite a lot depends on the circuitry that supports the convertor.

The big difference between interfaces is at the analogue circuitry level. Lower noise cleaner preamps, signal processing on the analogue side of the input and output and so on. Similar to the reasons one preamp costs £50 and another £1,000 really.

The good news for your purposes is that the weakest point in cheaper interfaces tends to be the mic pres, but for your setup you'd only need to be using the line level inputs and outputs so the mix pres are irrelevant.

Another difference between interfaces is the internal mixer they carry, the level of control over it and latency. Again, if you're using a mixer which can send individual channels to the interface via the Aux3/4 bus and has the interface outputs plugged into a mixer channel so there's no need to use Sonar's input echo function for monitoring that's not a problem.

How much degredation you'd get from the really cheap interfaces isn't easy to tell without testing them. Personally I'd look a little more up-market at some of the Focusrite range or maybe Roland with two or four line inputs and two or four line outputs. They'll have some mic pres, but they might come in handy (especially if one is high impedance for guitar/bass use) and will be decent quality. Whether they'll be equal to or better than the Mackie is hard to say.

One thing to watch if replacing the mixer is the number of inputs and outputs available on interfaces, and once you're mixer-less using input echo in the DAW for monitoring becomes more important if you need to hear effects while tracking because you'll no longer have the mixer's number of inserts and aux channels.

To completely get rid of a mixer I ended up with the RME/Focusrite setup in my sig. because of the number of ins and outs I require. Not a cheap way to go it has to be said.

Has anyone used the Mackie Onyx Blackjack with Sonar?

I myself picked the Scarlett 6i6 over the 2i2 and the 2i4 because it has a power supply. I have read about lots of issues with using USB powered interfaces. It's just not enough juice to run the pre amps and especially 48 volt phantom power. On some systems they report a grounding issue too... Go with the Tascam if it comes with a power supply. 
 

Cactus Music
I myself picked the Scarlett 6i6 over the 2i2 and the 2i4 because it has a power supply. I have read about lots of issues with using USB powered interfaces. It's just not enough juice to run the pre amps and especially 48 volt phantom power. On some systems they report a grounding issue too... Go with the Tascam if it comes with a power supply. 
 

Interesting. Perhaps the USB power is why there are bad reports floating around about the lower-end versions.

Focusrite Forte is superb, heads and tails above the other focusrite offerings.

Vastman
Focusrite Forte is superb, heads and tails above the other focusrite offerings.

Sure does look sweet. I don't have the money for something like that ATM, though. :)

He is using a Mackie mixer so the pre amps are not on the agenda. When you use a audio interface's line inputs you are by passing the pre amps. So the topic is still, a low cost interface that has good drivers. 
Why worry about interface pre amps when adding better quality is easy and not supper expensive. 
 This is why I bought a Joe Meek ThreeQ. I don't like the Scarlett's Pre amps but I'm OK because I never use them. I use the Joe Meek for 80% of my work. When I have other musicians in the studio I sometimes use the Mackie Mix 8 pre Amps and they are also way better than the Scarlett's. The Mix 8 was only $65. Can you believe it has replaced my $2,500 Yamaha 01V ? 
 
 
 The Scarlett 6i6 pre amps are overly sensitive and clip at the drop of a hat. You end up recording at way to low a level. Maybe the high end Focusrite interfaces uses better pre amps but the Scarlett's fail to please.
 You can hit the Joe Meek or the  Mackie hard. My old Tascam us1641 was the same way, it could take abuse and not clip. But the Focusrite drivers are better than my old Tascam so there you go. Drivers are paramount to me. So from my point of view, if the new Tascam interfaces now have better drivers and they also sport what the Craig claims are very good pre amps.. then ? Seems simple to me. 
And wouldn't the Steinberg be using cheaper Yamaha pre amps? But if the drivers are good then that's another pick.