hi everyone!
i have to buy the first sound card "200 euro max"..
what do you think of these 3?

FOCUSRITE Scarlett 2i2 (3rd Gen)
UNIVERSAL AUDIO Volt 1
AUDIENT iD4 MKII
i appreciate any opinion, even on other sound cards!

 

Add the Motu M2/M4 to your list to check out. I would skip the Focusrite. What about the little SSL also?

 

I had a few Scarlett.. Two 2i2 (1st and 2nd Gen) and 1 Solo (3rd Gen). The 3rd Gen Scarlett are pretty good/stable now. There are better devices in that range though. For all ITB production, a Solo is pretty good choice.

Myself, I switched to an Arturia Minifuse 2 (from the Solo), but only cause I needed another input for a hardware synth I bought, they seemed to be decent for recording in that range, and it has a MIDI in and out (which I never had before).

 

Universal Audio Volt.

 

UAD's hardware is as good as their plugins are mediocre. Meaning it's extremely good.
However I have no experience with this particular model (meaning Volt series) but judging by the reviews, they didn't drop the ball.

3rd gen Scarlett is not half bad either. Some issues with Google Chrome and buffer sizes (you need 512 otherwise Chrome's sound gonna stutter), and that's about it. Clean, dynamic, responsive.

No experience with Audient, but iD4's layout weirds me out.

 

Last edited: Dec 30, 2022

Motu, if you use Windows , be careful. Their editors seems to be badly ported from Mac....

I had several problems with Motu with Windows.

I agree on this. Their low end products are treated like if it was the culvert.

 

Last edited: Dec 31, 2022

I like the H224 over any of those.



https://www.guitarcenter.com/Sterli...erface-With-192-KHz-Sample-Rate-Capability.gc

I tinkered around and recorded this using this interface @ my 'kitchen bar' studio
https://hearthis.at/nt6bkb2c/the-sunshine-minority-sexbionage-2022-320/

This thing is built like a tank, has 2 sets of 1/4" outputs, 1 set of XLR/1/4" combo jacks that can be switched to line/mic. 32 buffer, 2 DI inputs, midi i/o. SDOTD on Musicians Friend for $100 U.S. when it's offered. I had no hiccups or crashes with a huge project of VSTis and KONTAKTs and a project full of WAV clips.

 

I recommend you to buy the AUDIENT iD4 MKII.

 

A little more context? What are you going to use it for?

I personally would not choose anything with less than 2 inputs unless i was absolutely sure i will not be using more than one (i.e. gaming, voice overs, recording vocals only, etc.). So 2i2, Motu M2, SSL 2 look like good options, if you don't want to stray away too far from your budget.

 

This one seems very good for the price.
I went to Sterling website and read the specs, seems a very well done Audio interface.
Headphones output is ideally conceived for Max. 300 ohm so most headphones will work well with it. Only the higher end ones with high impedance will not work.
I love the direct output switch.
But it seems that it's only sold in the US.

How stable are the drivers? With which OS / DAW did you use it?

 

I used REAPER 6.xx for a fairly large project with WIN 10 Enterprise 21H1 on a sff 7700 i7, 32GB ram, and the drivers were extremely stable! There were no driver crashes, BSODs, etc throughout the entire project. The REAPER project got up to 100 plus tracks with no hiccups. Plugins used were multiple spire, sylenth, z3TA+, Dune, Diva, Kontakt instruments, WAVES, Fabfilter, Cableguys, ...and many others.

The software mixer interface is pretty simple and the GUI looks just like the physical interface. Anything button that can be pressed on the top of the interface has a 1:1 manipulation in the GUI mixer software. I was surprised that I could not change the buffer size in the mixer GUI, but that was accomplished within REAPER's options.

When I started the Reaper project, I didn't think that an interface that I paid $100 new for was going to perform so well! And that interface has 2 sets of line outputs I forced my good friend to buy one for his laptop, and he found one in mint condition on eBay for $40!
Highly recommended for the price!

Also, I'm giving a shout-out to WIN 10 Ent & the new version of LTSC. For me, it's as close to perfect you can get. Haven't messed with Win 11 yet.

 

For my part focursite did not convince me. limited buffer problem for the final masterings is not enough. at the risk of surprising the world Behringer 404HD does the job. I had a lot of sound card and I also currently Midas MR18. There is everything in the Behringer. 192k is not often used but, midi connectors,returns for hardware. 4 mixed XLR jack inputs. Also the latency is good and the coonectics is really complete.

no need to spend a lot of money for it.

 

Thank you very much for your detailed answer.
Hopefully, they will be distributed in Europe one day.

 

What about the Komplete Audio 6 by Native Instruments?
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/audio-interfaces/komplete-audio-6/

 

Steinberg UR series, I'd like to bring in. Very good IMO, also received that advice from an expert a while ago.

 

ESI Neva Uno or Duo. I´ve been very happy with Neva Uno. Very stable and low latency drivers. Small enough for travelling

 

thanks to all for your opinions..
i will probably focus on AUDIENT iD4 MKII.. for 139€ you get 2 inputs and loopback function!
i hope the drivers work well on windows 10/11.. I really don't like the lack of headphone volume control..
and here: https://t.ly/w0H_ there are many discussions that discourage a lot!

 

Same here. About to buy Audient iD4 MKII. I know someone who has been using this device for more than half a year. He says that the volume is good enough to spare. The company claims to be able to "overclock" the headphones up to 600 ohms, which is a very good indicator.

 

Last edited: Jan 14, 2023