| The Best Audio Interface For Your DAW Home Recording Studio | | Print | |
|
An audio interface is another essential part of the DAW home recording studio. It's purpose is to get music from an outside analog source (microphone or a line in) and to convert it to digital information that is recorded onto the computer hard drive. It also does the reverse, converts digital music information from the computer into an analog signal so that it can be played on speakers. A standard computer soundcard does the same, but you can't plug a mic or an instrument cable into a standard computer soundcard, and the overall quality of a standard computer sound card is sub par. Note: Most audio interfaces are also a midi interface, they have phantom mic power and a mic pre-amp, which are all adequate for a home studio. No separate mic pre-amp purchase should be necessary. When choosing an audio interface, you must take two factors into consideration. 1.Your computer type: Mac or PC (Windows). 2.Your DAW software. Choosing an audio interface that is compatible with your computer type is pretty straight forward. But there's one major exception when dealing with your DAW software. If you plan on using Pro tools, you must use a compatible Digidesign audio interface. Pro tools packages this audio interface together with their software. The Pro tools software won't even load unless compatible Digidesign hardware is connected to your computer at the time you start it up. Pro tools is the industry standard in DAW (digital audio workstation) software. I'd have to say at least 65% of all recording studios, and EVERY major recording studio uses Pro tools. The advantage of using Pro tools is you could easily put your entire Pro tools session on a DVD and take it to another studio for mixing. The disadvantage is Pro tools is more of a hard disk recording system, where other DAW software programs, like Cubase SX 5, are better for midi music creation (in addition to recording). Note: Whatever DAW software you choose, your music can be transferred to other DAW systems. You'll have to export each track to a .wav file, which might take you an hour, then mabe 30 minutes to upload them onto another DAW system. But it can be done. Before getting into our recommendations, I would like to say that I've worked with high-end Apogee, RME, Pro tools and discount M-Audio audio interfaces. I've found that recorded material from higher end interfaces sounds somewhat better, BUT after a good mixing and mastering process is complete, I guarantee you the average person could NEVER tell if a high priced or medium priced audio interface was used during recording. I honestly doubt most pro sound engineers could either. PRO TOOLS AUDIO INTERFACES Here are our audio interface recommendations if you choose Pro tools as your DAW software:
OTHER AUDIO INTERFACES Here is our non-Pro tools audio interface recommendation:
Related Articles
|