"best" Audio Interface 2nd hand for under £100?

[skidder652003]

Subjective I know, but any comments/thoughts,?? just want to do some noodling at home into PC.

Couple of Inputs, decent Pre amps for the price? Possible?

Thanks!

[andydye]

I have an Alesis io-2, I'll pm you.

[Zenitram]

This strikes me as a good deal:

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/m-audio-focusrite-protools-audio-interface/1033396953#photo-content

[paul_5]

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1380193076' post='2222054']
This strikes me as a good deal:

[url="http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/m-audio-focusrite-protools-audio-interface/1033396953#photo-content"]http://www.gumtree.c...3#photo-content[/url]
[/quote]

Yup, I'd check compatibility with your OS though, as these don't run on OS X 10.7 and up (on Mac, not sure about PC)

[OldG]

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/217253-focusrite-scarlett-2i2-audio-interface/page__pid__2218171#entry2218171"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/217253-focusrite-scarlett-2i2-audio-interface/page__pid__2218171#entry2218171[/url]

If i didn't already have myself sorted - I would be all over this...

[Jellyfish]

Got my Focusrite Saffire 6 USB for a couple quid under £100 and I love it.

[JamesXP]

I got my focusrite saffire 18i6 usb for £50 at a local cash generators

[51m0n]

Theres a bunch of consumer grade kit out there that will make a stab at the job you require in that price range.

No one would suggest any of them had all of the "decent mic pre's, decent clean headroom, decent MIDI, decent ADC/DAC, decent drivers, cross-platform ability and decent software" ability that you really want, they [i]all[/i] fall well short in at least one area, the trick is to find something that falls short in an area you dont care about....

You are looking more in the region of £500 to £600 to get in the interface area where the devices are really getting pretty darned good at everything you could hope for in truth (talking about RME, Apogee, Audient units in that price range). And thats for ickle two input interfaces.

I'm not being negative about your desire, I'm just trying to suggest that you keep your expectations sensible given the outlay you are looking to make. I've made perfectly reasnable recordings on very average kit, by working within its limitations and dealing with its frustrations....

[ironside1966]

When I first started out I used the old M-Audio[b] Audiophile 2496 [/b]
[b]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M-Audio-Audiophile-2496-Soundcard-Free-UK-Shipping-/321213931566?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_SoundCards&hash=item4ac9d7a02e[/b]
And a small Behringer desk they worked ok and the sound card was stable and sounded fine. I revisited some old songs I did with this gear not long ago and the tracks were perfectly usable.
I would buy Studio Monitors and room treatment long before I would upgrade this card and the Behringer desk.

[lurksalot]

I bought the little Scarlett 2i2 from NEW , just over a ton, I think it is a superb bit of kit (performance newbie accepted), soooo user friendly.

[51m0n]

I've made usable recordings with a Soundblaster. It just wasnt as easy to get [s]great[/s] usable sounds, be confident in tracking more than a couple of tracks, be able to get a low enough latency monitor to feel really comfortable overdubbing etc etc.

Like I said you can make good recordings of music with these devices, just bear in mind that given they are built to cost there are definite shortcomings somewhere. Until you've used RME kit, for instance, you haven't used the most stable driver package on a USB interface available today. This is partly because RME are the only manufacturer to roll their own USB chips, so their driver and hardware are more tightly aligned than anyone else. Small wonder its so damned stable and fast even under Windows then.

Until you've played with Apogee you haven't seen how tightly its possible to integrate an interface into the Mac OSX either, although I'd hardly say RME are struggling in this regard, again their hardware advantage is very evident in the UCX's sub 2ms latency times on a Mac.

And Audient are a small British company who've a reputation for excellent mic-pres that go in their big desk, 8 channel mic pre and their brand new interface (which reviewers are saying is a better bang for your buck than the Apogee DUet 2, which is high praise indeed).

Steinberg make some fantastic kit, their UR824 is particularly well regarded, 8 channels of very usable mic pres and an interface all in one, for £650-ish, ace!

Focusrite's consumer kit is fine, but its not going to come close to the better stuff, a lot of people reckon they've taken a dip into the economy bucket since the series 1 octopre, although their upper range stuff is still excellent.

Recording kit is like bass kit x1000, yes you can play a decent song well on a starters bass, more than ever these days (Squire stuff is fab, as are the Ibanez SR series for instance) but ti wont sound as good, or play as well as a really good instrument, and that really good instrument makes it easier to play the same song.

Just saying...

[pantherairsoft]

I have to say that 51m0n knows his stuff. He has recently helped direct me quite a bit on a similar search. My budget, like yours, started pretty small but after trying stuff out I opted to sell off a pile of instruments and other stuff to raise the funds for something that will last a lifetime.

Simon has pretty much covered all the main contenders, but I'd like to add that I have made a point to try most of these out in some capacity over the last few weeks but contacting people and studios who have them. I thought the extra legwork was worth the effort and most studios seem very open to showing off their gear for 20 mins.

At the cheap end, most people seem to opt for the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, while is has some impressive features for such a small package, it's preamps are pretty rubbish IMO. Sound wise, in the cheap range nothing came close in sound quality to the Mackie Onyx Blackjack. It's pretty featureless in comparison to a few others, but the preamps sound as though they should be in a more expensive interface.
There are ALOT of products in that cheap-mid price range, but if I was on a budget I'd be buying the Mackie.

The next jump to the true mid-professional interfaces is all about MOTU range. The 4pre and Ultralite Mk3 Hybrid both clock in between £350 and £400 and around £250-275 on the 2nd hand market. For a little more you can get the Track16 and breakout box which gives you serious options. For this money they are amazing. Both have different pro's and cons and both have arguably the best on-board features of any interface of any price, though the control system is a little complex on the Mk3. I would say the preamps in the MOTU are a touch darker sounding, particularly on vocals, compared to other pre's around but I couldn't really hear that on a bass. I very nearly went with the 4pre (as I didn't need the fancy DSP in the Mk3 and 4 mic pres at that price is impressive!) as the next price jump is quite a lot BUT the quality jump is also great and I managed to find buyers quickly for the stuff I was selling so decides to take another step up.

The next jump is, IMO, into real pro sounding kit, jut with a reduction in features. The new Roland stuff sits here but I was unable to try it and reviews online are mixed, so I disregarded it. If you're a PC user re only thing you should consider is the RME Babyface. It's annoying that it is breakout cable only for it's I/O but it's SERIOUS quality. If you are a Mac user, the Babyface is also an option, along with the Apogee Duet 2 and the Audient ID22. The Duet has become the go-to pro interface for mac users and it sounds excellent, but I experienced some digital interference that I couldn't shake (a friend lent me one over night). He has no such problem but I couldn't solve it. A look around online revealed others that had the same problem, leading me to believe that it is very environmental/set up sensitive. That put me off, though others swear by it. Many even claim they prefer the Apogee pre's to RME ones. The Audient is pretty new, and I couldn't find one to try myself, but did spend some time with a guy on Skype who had one trying a few things out and I was blown away. The pres are bloody amazing, the functions are impressive, the mixer software is awesome. Mind blowing. It's not PC compatible yet, though apparently it will be soon.

The last jump for home interfaces is really all about the RME UCX as Simon mentioned. That thing sounds incredible and is comparable to the quality in real top end studios. It is very expensive but will last a life time. The Apogee Quartet is even more expensive, but general feedback online is that side by side is looses out in preamp quality to the the RME (I'd assume that meant the RME Babyface would beat the Apogee Duet 2 if you could A/B them side by side).

I'd have loved an RME unit, but couldn't justify the price of the UCX. The Babyface's breakout cable-only set up really bothers me so I'll be going for the Audient Unit (only set back being it doesn't have MIDI I/O) and intend to place my order this weekend. Given this is still new to the market I'm excited to see what future firmware brings. I have to be honest and say that I am still tempted by the MOTU Mk3 (or Track 16) for the extra in/outs and MIDI even though I know it's not quite as nice sounding. I'm 80/20 in favour of the Audient.

But I digress - if I was on a budget I would get a Mackie Onyx Blackjack and be very happy.

Shep

Edited September 27, 2013 by pantherairsoft

[51m0n]

The Audient ID22 has a pair of the same Audient mic-pres that are in its big flagship console, and the ASP-008. They are excelletn mic pres, however expect it to run pretty warm, since they are true class A design, unlike pretty much all the other mic pres in interfaces out there. They recommend leaving one or two spaces above an ASP008 in a rack to keep it cool!