whenever you upgrade your front end,
and particularly, your CONVERTORS....
 
you improve your clarity of every track you make.
 

Ha, Jim , I just realized that you built my pc for me about 5 years ago. It’s still running great (it’s been rock solid - not a single problem) and like to upgrade the interface. Thanks for your input.

Bat, I’ve been doing lots a reading / searching. I did check out the rme babyface - a bit over my budget but I can afford one the lower priced Audient units so I may go that route. Thanks again for your input.

For a simple/inexpensive audio interface, Audient is a great choice.
You can't go wrong with anything RME; Babyface Pro is rock-solid... but that's significantly higher cost.
 
Glad the machine is still working well for you!  

Wayfarer - You may be right. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and watching reviews and there is definitely a sense that the PCI card is better in some ways and that I might not improve anything by going to a USB based interface. Yeesh - maybe my cheesy little $ 100 mixer needs and update OR maybe nothing needs improving except my mixing. Frustrating and informative. I’d love to spend an afternoon with a good engineer - that might be the best investment I make.

Have you got a looper pedal? If so, do a test by recording keyboard, guitar and whatever other instruments you normally record with one at a time into your looper and listen to it play each back through your studio monitors. Then record what the looper is playing into your DAW and switch back and forth between the looper playback and the recorded playback to see if there is any difference between them. Do these recordings in mono with no effects. If the recorded playback sounds exactly the same as your looper, then you have to ask yourself, how do you improve on "exactly the same"? If you honestly do hear a difference, then yeah, upgrading may be helpful in your case.
 
If you want to try it in stereo also, do it at 16/48. At any resolution higher than 44.1 there probably won't be any oversampling employed, although that wouldn't likely change anything anyway. 24-bit is okay too as long as you aren't using any effects.
 
Bill

Wayfarer
Have you got a looper pedal? If so, do a test by recording keyboard, guitar and whatever other instruments you normally record with one at a time into your looper and listen to it play each back through your studio monitors. Then record what the looper is playing into your DAW and switch back and forth between the looper playback and the recorded playback to see if there is any difference between them. Do these recordings in mono with no effects. If the recorded playback sounds exactly the same as your looper, then you have to ask yourself, how do you improve on "exactly the same"? If you honestly do hear a difference, then yeah, upgrading may be helpful in your case.
 
If you want to try it in stereo also, do it at 16/48. At any resolution higher than 44.1 there probably won't be any oversampling employed, although that wouldn't likely change anything anyway. 24-bit is okay too as long as you aren't using any effects.
 
Bill

Don’t have a looper pedal but I can do the same with my electric piano and drum machine. Good idea. Thanks for the info.

I did do the comparison on several sources. To my aging ears there’s little if any discernible difference between the source and recorded-then played back material. I’ll stick with the 2496 and upgrade the mixer and get a compressor.

There is a difference between the lower priced audient pres and the rest of the line, I believe. Or maybe the conversion. Audient has an online chart I recently found. Check their site.

The audient id44 sounds beautiful. Very round and analog. Haven’t tested the pres one on one. But I, too, use the rnd portico is, which is in a different league than ic interface pres (or mackie’s). FYI the TAscam uh 7000 has pres (and conversion) that also stand head and shoulders above similar interfaces, esp. the precise pres. As soon as I have the hours on the audient, I plan on integrating the two, if the tascam will sync. It has great hardware but subpar software.

AT
There is a difference between the lower priced audient pres and the rest of the line, I believe. Or maybe the conversion. Audient has an online chart I recently found. Check their site.

The audient id44 sounds beautiful. Very round and analog. Haven’t tested the pres one on one. But I, too, use the rnd portico is, which is in a different league than ic interface pres (or mackie’s). FYI the TAscam uh 7000 has pres (and conversion) that also stand head and shoulders above similar interfaces, esp. the precise pres. As soon as I have the hours on the audient, I plan on integrating the two, if the tascam will sync. It has great hardware but subpar software.

Yeah, I checked out that chart and it appears (according to specs) that the 22 or 44 have better specs. At this point I’m thinking that maybe the problem (for my crappy recordings) is me. Maybe my money would be better spent on a good compressor for vocals. Or better yet , a case of proper twelve.

It is never a bad investment in upgrading hardware.  Because it also takes practice.  The few dBs difference between the two audient units won't make a spits difference, in the end.  If you have a good song, it should be there, no matter how rough.  If you want a finished product, not just demo, you have to learn to track and mix to do it at home.  It isn't rocket science, but just time to figure out how you hear things and make that work for you.