Is there a lot of quality difference between a, say, Asus RoG Strix motherboard soundcard vs a budget USB soundcard like for example a Behringer UMC22?
Thanks.

 

according to the soundquality only, not really imo.

 

The DACs are all more than sufficient nowadays. It's the ADCs (and general I/O) that make the difference. Additionally, the shielding on some onboard solutions can be problematic sometimes. But if you don't have any crackling, buzzing or whining noise, then most likely no other audio interface would improve the output quality any further.

 

I agree with the cats. However within "quality" i would also consider the way drivers work. If it's just for gaming, i don't think a cheap interface will offer any noticeable upgrade to your mobo's internal sound card. BUT if you're doing any audio processing, music production and whatnot, then an external audio interface will usually offer more stable drivers, which means way less glitching and just a better overall experience, even if the sound is more or less the same.

 

Why? Midi is no audio data and does not run thru an audio processor. or am i in error?

 

If you think about buying a good usb audiointerface for cheap i would recommend one of the focusrite scarlett 3rd gen!
https://www.thomann.de/at/focusrite_scarlett_solo_3rd_gen.htm

 

Artikel 2 Focusrite Scarlett SOLO 2nd Generation 2-in/2-out USB Audio/Midi Interface 2 -Focusrite Scarlett SOLO 2nd Generation 2-in/2-out USB Audio/Midi Interface
EUR 30,00

Artikel 1 Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen USB Audio Interface 1 -Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen USB Audio Interface
EUR 61,00

 

@OP: does the strix in question have optical out ? Do you have a receiver with an optical in and plan on doing no recording?

 

Hello. If you're going for a cheap interface I'm having a bad experience with my Presonus USB96 which was $99.00. I can't say for sure if its because it is junk (i'd previously borrowed a friend's Presonus Audiobox 44VSL and it was great...so Presonus is plenty capable of making good products) or if perhaps i'm doing something wrong. Maybe it's a driver issue...as in i might have my drivers incorrectly installed somehow?

I can't play more than 10 seconds without it sounding like i have blown speakers. Especially on lower frequencies. It's extremely frustrating! It almost sounds like it does when you have the buffer set too low (ie crackling), but i know that isn't the case because it still does it no matter how high i set the buffer and it is particularly on low frequencies like i said.

I'm sorry...i didn't mean to make this thread about my problems. I guess, in short, i am just saying don't go too cheap on your interface. It is a very important piece of your setup. I also don't mean to talk bad about Presonus because i know they make solid stuff.

I must go. I love you all...all of you!

 

Yes it has optical out. I don't plan on recording yet.

 

If you had it connected via Optical to some kind of receiver with speakers, the digital to analog conversion would get done by whatever you connect it to.

 

So, then you mean midi output, not input as mentioned before.

 

I personally wouldn't buy a used lower end interface (maybe that's just me), but I can say my Solo 3rd gen has been great. I do like Focusrite Scarlett line as a cheap option, and especially Solo for people that don't ever or rarely record instruments. I've had a couple Scarletts. My first one was a 1st gen 2i2 that lasted quite a while then went kinda flakey on me for a while (which I ended up resolving). They can be a bit finicky with USB ports, cables and drivers, but when they work, they work fairly well. I only really experienced that one problem for a brief time though.

 

it's primarily about convenience of having physical volume knobs and proper balanced outputs and big headphone jack,

often cheap audio interfaces (no matter if internal chips or external usb ones) may suffer from issues like clock drifting, sample rate inconsistency, poor stereo balance at varied volumes, flawed phase/frequency response, higher noise threshold ratio etc...

if you want to produce in the box on tight budget, without any recording of real instruments or vocals, and you will do lots of freezing/bouncing/rendering of individual tracks, then internal soundcard would do fine,
but obviously for more complex reliable production, something like PCIe interface RME HDSPe AIO Pro will prove well worth the price

 

well no, the audio driver reports its exact playback position to the host.

With all the latency's involved that can mean, that with a generic onboard sound-card
the DAW has to guess where playback tracker was when you recorded your midi. (in real-time all the time)

for this most daws (Protools is the exception), have "software" playback tracker.
(samplerate*bufferlenght-D/A latency. Or something like that?)
which is less precise and likely not so precise.

 

I only posted this because he spoke of 44 EUR ! And Behringer is just not so great, there remained only focusrite on ebay.

 

Yah, no worries... I wasn't trying to criticize your suggestion. I was just saying I personally find these lower end devices can be a bit sketchy to begin with to throw potential issues from someone else's use in the equation. But damn, I didn't realize those Behringer interfaces were so much cheaper!