Newbie looking for advice re: Audio Interfaces

ORIGINAL: localjoker

Just recently bought Sonar Home Studio 7. Until recently I had been running an old version of CakeWalk Pro Audio focusing exclusively on MIDI but am now anxious to include Audio which requires additional hardware that I am unfamiliar with. In doing a bit of research regarding Audio interfaces I am getting mixed messages re: Firewire vs. USB. Is one better than another for avoiding latency problems? Are there Audio Interfaces that work better with Sonar? Are there particular nuances to Audio interfaces I should know about to avoid making a purchase mistake? Any advice to steer me in the right direction would be welcomed.

Thanks lcljkr

Good drivers are first to consider. RME, Lynx, Echo, Edirol, and M-Audio are good brands and tend to keep their drivers updated. The lowest latency you can achieve also depends on how fast your computer is.

Both Firewire and USB2 are plenty fast enough for audio and interfaces are available for both. Firewire tends to use less CPU then USB2 so many brands offer most of their models in firewire. However, if you have a new computer with a multi-core CPU it may not matter that much because you have enough CPU to spare. Again, it's all in how good the drivers are and how fast your computer is.

Keep in mind latency is mainly an issue if you use software synths (midi sound modules) or want to monitor with effects while recording audio. If you don't do those things then you can use the built in mixer on the interface to set up zero latency monitoring. Some of the new ones even have some effects built in to use while monitoring to give you confidence while tracking.

If you are going to play software synths and need to hear them in real time then you need to get the lowest latency you can. In some cases you can get it low enough by freeing up as much CPU power as possible. You can do this by only having one software synth at a time in the project and freeze or bounce the ones that are finished. Also, avoid using effects plugins till you get ready to mix.

If you are just recording audio and using the zero latency mixer in your interface (via it's software mixer that installs with the driver) then you can leave input monitoring off in Sonar and not worry about latency.