Dude Ivey
I'm wanting to get an audio interface so im looking for opinions on the best ones. i dont need a million in's and out's but i want a reasonable amount. In a big name studio what brands do they use? i want the best quality i can possibly get. It has to work with a PC. Suggestions would be great.

what's your budget? for cheap and nice, I rec the focusrite 8i6, used. the 8i6 was the only interface in scarlett range that had a virtual loopback built into the driver. it was AWESOME for routing audio between applications.
 
otherwise, I now use an octacapture. the Auto-Gain functionality is so nice. set-in-and-forget-it style.
 
EDIT: derp. how do these old threads get moved back up the list?

Thanks for that gunboatdiplomacy. I was thinking that the loopback was available in the Saffire Pro 26. There are only 2 outs on the FW version, so I was looking at the Pro 26.
 

RE the Focusrite 8i6, I found a very thorough review by Mike Rivers comparing it to the 18i6
https://mikeriversaudio.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/focusrite-scarlett-8i6-and-18i6-review.pdf
 
for anyone considering either.
Michael

Pretty outdated review as he's on Windows XP. But still covered the hardware end of things nicely. 
This dudes willing to spend $2,500 so won't be looking at the Scarletts. 
 
PCI card seems still the way to go if you can afford it. 
 
Look at all those old PCI cards that people are still running. They never seem to die. 
I've got this old Card Deluxe PCI 2x2 with SPDIF and it's rock solid still. I've never used it much with my DAW because of the lack of in outs but I just tested it and it is way up there with my Scarlett as far as specs and performance go and it's from something like 2003. 

 

Yeah, John, I had complete faith in my Aardvark Q10. Like you, I got a Tascam us 1641, but feel OK about it, but not much more. I'd like to love the next one!
Michael
ps even though River's review is old, I thought it might prove interesting here.

I have used an Aurora Lynx 8 for many years now with great results. I added the usb card to run through a laptop and it's been solid and transparent (to my ears). I love that I never have to worry about that part of the chain. I'm always glad that I invested a bit more in that end.

I appreciate flexibility and that's why I've recently sold my 2 x RME Ff800s and bought an RME UFX.

It's a full 30 x 30 mixer with onboard fx and dynamics control inside the unit. It's class compliant and can record direct to USB 2. I can even connect it to an iPad if I want to run the TotalMix software that controls the mixer.

I don't need any of that because I can set up the unit entirely via the front panel and run it standalone. That sort flexibility is worth a lot. To cap it off its backed by RME which is every bit as good saying that Sonar is backed by Cakewalk

As to the question of the VS 700 - great controller (on older SONARs - don't know about new versions), good converters and preamps.  Certainly good enough to do pro work.  I didn't like the digital track effects - or maybe I never set them right.  But the analog in is very clean and good gain.  Almost any modern interfacer from the last 5 years will work fine in most situations.  The less money you spend, in general tho, means you should run the unit less at the extremes.  IC-based units tend to crap out (technical term) when pushed to the edge, esp. the preamps.  It is the difference between analog overdrive and digital.  One bit over in digital land means hash - on good analog you get wonderful saturation into distortion. 
 
That is one reason why the Sound on Sound preamp shoot-out showed the lower cost units performing so well.  They used a disk-player piano for perfect replication.  They did not have a punk band in the studio for the first time cranking up the amps after setting levels or a singer finally hitting her groove and belting out instead of whispering the lines.  Good hardware can save your hinny then.  That is one reason studios spend what would otherwise be stupid money on the front end - it makes you seem a much better engineer than you are rather than sounding 10 times better on a well-controller signal.
 
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AT
As to the question of the VS 700 - great controller (on older SONARs - don't know about new versions), good converters and preamps.  Certainly good enough to do pro work.  I didn't like the digital track effects - or maybe I never set them right.  But the analog in is very clean and good gain. [...]
 

 
totally agree and would like to add that it's interaction with X3/platinum is good: I'm only aware of one feature from the 8.5 days / official manual which is no longer working and that is locking individual channels on the VC-700C but apart form that integration is sweet ...
 
as regards the digital track effects (i reckon you talk about compressor built into the audio interface as there isn't anything else in the vs-700) ... i don't use that, either ... i generally don't fancy digital compression on the way in, my approach is either analog when recording or applied afterwards ... but pls feel free to educate me on the benefits of using the digital compressor from the audio interface [ that's the great thing about this forum :-) ]
 

AT
That is one reason why the Sound on Sound preamp shoot-out showed the lower cost units performing so well.  They used a disk-player piano for perfect replication.  They did not have a punk band in the studio for the first time cranking up the amps after setting levels or a singer finally hitting her groove and belting out instead of whispering the lines.  Good hardware can save your hinny then.  That is one reason studios spend what would otherwise be stupid money on the front end - it makes you seem a much better engineer than you are rather than sounding 10 times better on a well-controller signal.

funny ... but i wonder what those guys with the expensive toys would reply ...

No, I hated the digital comp/limiter on the VS-700.  And the 100.  I never could get them to work. Glad to know the controller still works well.  That was really sweet integration.
 
And I've got some expensive toys, and use them elsewhere.  Love 'em.  They have really helped my sound here at home - a decent room and some good equipment can give excellent results.  I just think you can get really good results with lower cost hardware, all other things being equal.   It is as much experience as anything that makes a good recording.
 
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