$500 in what currency btw?

Anyways, Focusrite Clarett+ is on sale not a bad option and the UAD Volt lineup!

 

I did all the cheap interfaces for decades. Had to keep replacing them ever few years. It sucked.

Save and go with RME. It's worth it for drivers and the longevity alone. You can always add on later, even the "pristine" stuff if you want. Also, TotalMix kicks arse. Fact.

Shoot, Digiface went up like crazy. It used to be $499.00 Oh shoot, looks like they all went up.

Never mind, buy cheapo interface. Bow head in shame. Make shame music.

 

You have been using a $200 interface and want to tell people about what they should buy. It's silly. If you know so much about Cranesong or Antelope or UAD, why are you here telling us about a 200$ NI that "has travelled the world"? It's USB 2.0.

That is like going deep sea fishing and bringing this with you:

 

I can tell you that if you want to go cheap and low latency. ESI Uno and Duo it's hard to beat price wise.

 

I have lost a lot of respect for RME after all the lies from fanboys and the company. There has been an unwritten "agreement" in the industry that PCIe is better for latency, stability and performance than USB. Thunderbolt is basically PCIe in a cable. Why does RME make PCIe devices in the first place? Because it's better. And RME has always claimed it is better. And now all of a sudden USB is as good as thunderbolt and PCIe....that logic makes no sense. All this because RME could not afford to make thunderbolt interfaces anymore. Just because RME and fanboys suddenly says so does not make it true.

By the way I think that Babyface interface from RME has terrible design and look unfunctional. Many times when I do vocals I stretch the headphone cable. This unit looks way too light and would have been dragged of the table. I mean who the hell wants this on their desk:

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2023

USB3 is faster/better than older versions of USB,
and probably early Thunderbolt protocols too (besides of safety..) things progress..

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2023

To all involved, OP clearly stated what he is asking for: an audio interface under 500 bucks.
Not another brand war fight including arguments about more expensive audio interfaces.

So, if you want to compare brands, speaking about what ever interfaces, please create your own thread. Don't spoil OP's objective.

 

I always fancied the Roland Octa-capture..

It's got all the basic type of ins/outs including SPDIF, so it shall be future proof..

Can't talk about Playback/Recording quality, AD/DA converter quality, nor Driver quality,
but maybe someone can report/inform us?

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2023

Yes, Focusrite software is horrible. For the 1rst gen, it is stable, but program different mixes is a headache.

 

nahh USB3 is still through a bus not straight into motherboard.

If the thread starter have thunderbolt on his pc or can get it (header on motherboard) I would probably buy PreSonus Quantum 2626 from ebay to around $500:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3948224485...ObC0B28y50X509Y5dTkxRLHFFg==|tkp:BFBM9Je5pdRi

 

I posted earlier in the thread about the OP's problem also possibly being software related. He has his FL applications and all plugins installed on an external drive. He did not specify that it is a Live (boot) OS installation, and when switching his driver from Presonus to FL ASIO driver is when his problem began. Since it is not Live Boot OS, it is different than if the whole ISO image was being loaded into RAM upon boot/startup. Couldn't his FL and plugins being on an external drive be causing his problem, if the external drive is not connected in a way it is not causing bottleneck? He posted that is an SSD and did not give details of connection type (usb, thunderbolt, etc).

Everyone likes to go "virtual shopping" with other peoples' money, but does he even need to buy a new interface just to fix his current issue?

You see what I am asking about then. Can you see what you think? I know RME and Presonus both have great PC drivers and FL ASIO will not be as great performance, but that should still be a marginal difference.

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2023

Right.. sorry in reality i thought/meant FireWire, my mistake..

But yeah, aparently USB3 is as capable as the first version of Thunderbird..



So I donno, how many Audio tracks are you recording at once?
I don't think it will be easy to make it reach the limit even at 96/192Khz....

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2023

my personal experience is that the pc becomes laggish and sluggish when connection heavy devices to USB. So the more inputs/outputs on the audio interface the more chance for your pc to become laggish. Nobody in their right mind would for example connect a external GPU through USB. So it's not just a question of bandwidth and RTL latency (which is almost always better on PCIe/thunderbolt devices), but also how your pc feel. So like I said this is my personal experience; when I connect for example a external hard drive through USB or an heavy audio interface the pc feels less snappy. Everything I do on the pc has a little delay.

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2023

The i/o count really only matters when those channels are in use simultaneously, and sending data from the interface to the computer. My big racked Motu with all it's available I/O (but not recording anything on all the extra channels) does not lag the machine any more than a M2 did.

 

44 Audio channels X 96000 samples X 24 bit sample depth = 101,376,000 bits/sec.

USB3.1 goes to 10Gbps, so that's a lot of headroom.

Another thing is the implementation of the bus drivers, the way chipset and mobo handle it, etc..

 

daw and plugins not on the main drive? i see...

 

You can get a Zoom F3 for about $380 brand new. Two channels, 32bit recording with outstanding preamps and a great headphone preamp too.
I have one - not used as a audio interface but for field recordings - and it´s really something.

Alternative -already mentioned - a used RME Babyface Pro...... great audio interface.

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2023

I might be wrong but I think RME is still making Thunderbolt / USB interfaces. The unit has both ports on it.
I agree with you USB is not where near thunderbolt.
I wish it were I could have saved a lot of money getting one.

 

USB would be faster if it was not for all of the crc junk in the data stream. 400 mbps Fire wire was actually faster than USB because it
only had the data.

 

I tried to buy it yesterday. None of the resellers ships to the EU. what is going on in the world?!