phil_mayne
Hi Guys,
Hope it's OK to resurrect an old thread, but the content is appropriate to what I'm about to ask.
I'm a hobbyist music maker, trying to get back into the game after a couple of years out and am facing the eternal problem of which audio interface to buy.
I've read the details on the Cakewalk Blog about how to choose an interface (posted in one of the responses above) but the advice seems to be weighted towards users who intend to record live instruments.
My requirements are much simpler. All of my creative efforts will revolve around the use of virtual instruments on multiple tracks. I'd like to be able to record a virtual instrument track using my Korg Microkey2 MIDI Controller with no perceptible input lag/latency and then be able to play the entire multi-track virtual instrument composition back.
I may at some point want to record, say, a single guitar track so I'm guessing I'll need at least one input.
In the past I've had internal PCI sound cards (EMU 0404) and have always steered clear of USB/Firewire as I'm rightly or wrongly under the impression that the recording latencies are higher with external interfaces. Is this still the case?
The Focusrite series of USB/Firewire interfaces looks interesting (although the Firewire option may have problems running on my system due to the VIA 1394 IEEE chipset and Windows 10 problems mentioned on the Focusrite website).
So, any advice on an interface that will allow me to accomplish the above? Budget is up to £200. System Specs as follows:
Intel I7 950
ASUS P6X58D-E (with on-board VIA 1394 Firewire chipset)
8GB RAM
2 x 1TB 7200RPM WD Hardrives
Windows 10
Sonar X3 Producer
Advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
Focusrite has a simple, 1-mic input USB interface, which yes, you'll want if you ever want to record vocals or guitar. Thing is, you'll be hard pressed to find an interface without a mic input. On my i5 desktop, I can get latency down to 1ms if I want with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4. So USB is fine for what you are doing. In fact, more virtual instruments in your session is more taxing on your CPU than many audio tracks.