do you have thunderbolt? Antilope Discrete 4 also has a thunderbolt port, if so I recommend Presonus Quatum or Presonus Quatum 2. Super fast and stable drivers for Windows.
If you only have USB and a Windows pc you should consecrate on stable drivers over everything else. RME is known for good stable drivers for Windows, maybe take a look at RME Babyface

 

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Do you know if his on Mac or Windows? I would be skeptical to buy that if he uses Windows

 

First of all, active EMG pickups, like the 81/85 you have, are low impedance.

 

I would say go for the UAD, they put great pre amp even on their "cheapest" product, and you can still upgrade in few year and keep the old interface in the system, so you have more power for their plugin.

Inconveniant is that you have to use their plugin with the interface to be able to fully enjoy the 0 latency tracking, which is kind of lilmiting but not that much as they have really good plugin (specially for guitar or voice) and you can still use other plugin directly in your daw if you really need something from outside (which can cause latency, same as with any other interface). So in a way, it's not different from an other brand, but you have great pre amp and great plugin that can be use directly when recording without adding any latency.

 

I'd choose the Quantum, too, but he didn't include that in his purchase options. What is clear is that he's looking for a new interface and not one from fifteen years ago. That's a wise choice, because converters that would cost a fortune fifteen years ago are now ten a penny. That's why when I got my Presonus 192 and loaded it onto my old rig alongside an RME 9632, I didn't bother keeping the RME, because the Presonus was markedly better. I have a modern motherboard with a Thnderbolt. The times they are a changing.

 

I'm on Windows, but w8... I've made a research and everywhere I checked everyone said that passive or active pickups doesn't matter, plug it in hi-z. .. Is this what I'm doing wrong? Sure emgs need batteries but just to comprehence the low signal ... So I plug it to instrument? Or line? I'm confused to be honest, also thinking of investing in uad for plugins... On the other hand I'd love to hear the conversion of antelope ... I'll lock in a choice really soon! Just some more opinions won't harm anyone! I m very grateful to each one of you for your time and effort !

 

I've no experience with UAD plugins but if you choose the Apollo Twin with only 2 Sharc processors you will load 4 or 6 plugins instances and not much more.It's ridiculous.If you wish to play with UAD toys you need at least 8 Sharc processors.And with that still don't hope to mix your entire song with UAD...
Btw that's what some users told me.UAD is cool if you are rich or professional.But not essential.Todays you can find many others plugin developpers who are also good and it will cost much less than UAD.

Personnally I would go with the Antelope,more features,inputs/outputs,Adat I/O,word clock and very good quality.So in the future if you plan to buy new external gear you won't have any problem.

Think forward.

 

That's only true for the very largest and most demanding UA plugs such as the MAnleys and the big Neves. Everything in the free bundle he'll get, he can run lots of.

UA 1176 (all variants) at least 5 per core sometimes 6.

https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/215262223

I use an OCTO and that'll cost around 1000 semolians. You can add together mutiple installs of hardware.

 

Then the most important thing is to find a interface with stable driver for Windows. Everything else is secondary.
Antelope, UA, Zoom and other companies are "new" to Windows especially when it comes to Thunderbolt. But also USB devises can have problems from those companies. Nothing is worse than trying to make music on a unstable ASIO driver.
My experience is the more fancy-schmancy a audio interface is the more chance for it to be unstable especially on Windows. DSP, complicated mixer sofware and stuff like that add to the risk.
By the way since your on Windows 8 you can not have Thunderbolt since that is exclusive to Windows 10. And since your on Windows 8 I would be especially concerned about good working drivers. Like I said since your on USB/windows you should take a hard look at something from RME
For example read about Antelope issues here:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1212136-antelope-audio-constant-issues.html

 

Last edited: Aug 9, 2019

Sorry for the misunderstanding but I'm in windows 10 , when I said "w8" I meant "wait". .. But really nice advice anyway !!!

 

Yeah people really misunderstand the DSP usage. On a DUO a unison preamp will cost you 20-27% of total DSP, but you just track with it then remove it. I just finished a mix with about 50 channels (excluding the beat which I stemmed out from Ableton and was already 95% mixed) and used a UAD plug on over half of them with just a Duo. The newer LA's and 76's cost like 5-10% at most, legacy ones are about half that or less. EQs generally even lighter and most are accompanied by extra DSP-lite versions for when you're running out of power.

They also have great sounding stuff that isn't circuit modeled too, and will take hardly any DSP. I can't say enough of how much better their "cheapo" De-Esser is than any other I've used. The basic Precision Channel strip sounds great too. People get hypnotized by the fancy UIs and "VINTAGE GEAR" marketing, but UA just straight up makes great sounding shit. After my thirty days of 50% off runs out tho, I'm not buying anything from them till like Black Friday tho lol. fuuuuck their stuff is outrageous at full price.

After mixing with this stuff for a week, and getting the Classics Pro bundle for free I sprung for an octo card. Man, it feels nice to load up some shit like Ocean Way Studios and see my DSP meter jump from 1% to like 5% or something lol

 

I voted other,
RME Fireface UCX, 802, UFX II or Babyface Pro are ways to go;
with TotalMix FX DSP you can do zero-latency monitoring with some basic onboard DSP EQ+Comp+Reverb - do note Babyface Pro has weaker internal DSP to meet usb power standards, so doesn't feature Dynamics/Compressors
UAD plugins are overrated imo, no need to waste money on that
thunderbolt and usb 3.0 is also waste of money, if you need less than 70 audio inputs+outputs, usb 2.0 is perfectly capable and also actually offers lower latency than usb 3.0 by design

 

may I ask what area specifically was Presonus better than RME? genuinely curious

 

The sound coming out of my Adams.

 

Thunderbolt is not waste of money period! I have used both so I know what I'm talking about. I don't see how lower latency, better more stable drivers and general better performance is waste of money.

 

ah indeed,
HDSP 9632 is from 2003, since then RME has evolved as well,
let's say fair competition of Quantum would be RME Fireface UFX II, which offers 118 dBA dynamic range, being literally same as Quantum, difference being RME capable of +24 dBu and THD: < -110 dB, < 0.00032 % compared to only +18 dBu and THD < 0.0035% (1 kHz, +4 dBu) of Quantum

(no hate, just personally I think literally all decent nowadays interfaces have fairly similar line output specs)

 

ah this depends on point of view,
I consider Thunderbolt an overpriced portable variant of PCIexpress - that said PCIexpress is cheaper, more reliable, lower latency, rock-solid drivers, being fed directly to CPU without additional controllers, offering no inferior performance - IF an audio workstation is a desktop with available PCIex slots and lanes;

Spoiler: some chart with numbers

fair to say though, recent changes in Thunderbolt "thinking" which should hopefully encourage manufacturers to use Thunderbolt now when Windows finally seems to support it and AMD, ARM and other CPU manufacturers being given possibility to incorporate Thunderbolt in their architecture DOES seem promising - but again, this all is nice primarily for portable sector, if I had available Thunderbolt 3 port, it would be more useful for something like portable NVME SSDs (Samsung SSD X5 for ex. is a BEAST!)

 

Last edited: Aug 9, 2019

The problem with PCIexpress is that it is very unpractical. You "must" have a lot extra stuff that cost money. Thunderbolt is basically PCIexpress through a cable and you get all in one box

 

hmm good point, slot' rear I/O doesn't offer much space for any connectivity, so it's useful for either stereo, or needs ADAT/MADI/AES etc.. with additional rack devices;

on the other hand usb-c/thunderbolt-3 physical connector feels really....quirky....
I have already heard handful of stories from friends about these connectors easily unplugging which is really unfortunate for various live/show situations, it would be really nice if there was some "optional standard" with some latch/screw - something Sonnet introduces on their own, branding it ThunderLok 3 retainer clip:


until that becomes standard, I will consider thunderbolt 3 usb-c a smartphone/tablet/toy cable