Hey all,
 
I have a brand new DAW PC with my trusty SONAR 8.5 installed but the onboard audio card (RealtekHD) does not play nicely with it.  So, I am in the market for a good external audio interface. 
 
On my old Cakewalk Project5 rig, I had the M-Audio Firewire USB Solo audio interface.  My new PC has no Firewire port (and the IEEE1394 Firewire standard seems to have faded away.)
 
Are there any recommendations for best external audio interface for use in House music production on Sonar 8.5? 
 
I was interested in Steinberg's UR22...  Good?  Bad?
 
Would love to hear thoughts,
Jeff

DJRadboy
Hey all,
 
I have a brand new DAW PC with my trusty SONAR 8.5 installed but the onboard audio card (RealtekHD) does not play nicely with it.  So, I am in the market for a good external audio interface. 
 
On my old Cakewalk Project5 rig, I had the M-Audio Firewire USB Solo audio interface.  My new PC has no Firewire port (and the IEEE1394 Firewire standard seems to have faded away.)
 
Are there any recommendations for best external audio interface for use in House music production on Sonar 8.5? 
 
I was interested in Steinberg's UR22...  Good?  Bad?
 
Would love to hear thoughts,
Jeff

I assume you are stressing production of House music at least partly because you will be using very few (if any) acoustic instruments other than vocals, correct? What's your budget?
By the way, you won't get much love around here as a Sonar 8.5 user. Most people are only interested in the latest versions of Sonar, and the people who use them.
 
Oh well....

Yea, it is mostly a matter of how much do you have to spend.  The Focusrite stuff gets a lot of love among the cheaper interfaces.  I would also check out the Tascam interfaces since Gibson owns both them and cake and they have a new line out.
 
@

Audio interface has nothing to do with the DAW, really, and everything to do with the computer. There are no audio interfaces that are compatible or not compatible with Sonar, and none that are better or worse for Sonar. This is absolutely a hardware / OS question.
 
Focusrite make good stuff, as has been mentioned. So do PreSonus, for my money, at the not-cheap-but-not-overpriced end, very underrated.

Before you decide on external audio interface hardware, you need to look at the interface options your computer offers you. What type of expansion slots do you have on your new PC's motherboard (PCI, PCIe, PCI-x), and how many empty ones do you have? How many USB 2.0 ports do you have? How many USB 3.0 ports do you have. Do you have Thunderbolt ports? You've already said there are no firewire ports. Answers to these questions will help you narrow the field of choice for an interface.
 
And, yes, some interface options are definitely better than others.

Well, however that set of choices goes for you, and I hope it goes well, you will still get love for 8.5.3, as long as it's not disco music - (kidding, I actually used to own a leisure suit).
 
Anyways, don't worry about which release you have - folks here will still help you, if they can.
 
Bob Bone
 

You can buy a PCIe Firewire card
The U22 is also a good choice
 
It's the drivers that count. My 3 budget picks are the u22, the Scarlett and the Presonus. 
 
And don't rule out the value of the included DAW's that come with them
Focusrite comes with some plug ins. 
U22 comes with Cubase A1 
The Presonus all come with Studio 1 Artist