24 Bit Audio Interface

[Trisha Quercioli]

Modernaudio interfaces connect to your desktop or laptop computer via a USB or Thunderbolt port (some older ones use different ports, such as PCI, PCIe or Ethernet). Most interfaces work with both Mac and Windows systems; many are also compatible with Apple iOS devices, although that usually requires an additional adapter.

Steinberg audio interfaces use the USB 2.0 connectivity format, which is supported by virtually all computers. Note that you can use a USB 2.0 interface on computers equipped with the newer USB 3.0 format because USB is backward compatible.

Some basic interfaces provide this feature via a simple switch that allows you to choose between the direct signal and the output of your host application, but in more sophisticated interfaces, such as the Steinberg UR22C, direct monitoring is implemented with a mix control knob that lets you adjust the ratio of the direct sound to the sound returning from the computer. Advanced models like the Steinberg UR-RT series even have digital processing (DSP) built in; all Steinberg interfaces offering this feature come with an app called DSPMixFx for controlling monitoring and adding effects from your computer, iPhone or iPad.

The Steinberg UR-RT2 and UR-RT4 interfaces take things up a notch thanks to the addition of Rupert Neve Designs transformers that can be switched into the signal path on every mic channel. A major designer of mixing consoles for more than half a century, Rupert Neve products are renowned throughout the recording industry. With these interfaces, you can add the legendary Neve sound to your home recordings.

At its most basic, a USB audio interface transforms analog signals (like those coming from a microphone or an instrument) into digital signals (the 1s and 0s your computer uses) and vice versa, so you can record audio into a digital audio workstation (DAW) and play it back through speakers or headphones.

You can get started with a USB interface for less than $50, with products like the Behringer U-phoria UM2 USB audio interface and the M-Audio M-Track Solo USB audio interface, which both feature a single microphone preamp and an instrument input for directly recording an electric guitar or bass.

Thankfully, there are many affordable options, such as the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 3rd Gen USB audio interface, which boasts four microphone preamps and four line-level inputs for things like keyboards, drum machines, and external hardware.

Affordable options for ADAT-equipped microphone preamps include the Behringer ADA8200 8-channel microphone preamp, the Focusrite Scarlett OctoPre 8-channel microphone preamp, and the Audient ASP800 8-channel microphone preamp.

Higher-priced interfaces will often boast top-tier converters, which deliver detailed and transparent audio. But converter technology has come a long way, and even the most affordable USB audio interfaces feature converters that will yield a high-quality result.

Project studios tend to have more demanding needs, so they will typically require USB audio interfaces with a lot of I/O (inputs and outputs), higher quality converters, built-in DSP acceleration for plugins, and additional connections for MIDI, networked audio, and more.

Some examples of popular USB interfaces for project studios are the Universal Audio Apollo Twin USB DUO desktop audio interface, PreSonus Studio 1824c USB-C audio interface, and the Arturia AudioFuse Studio USB audio interface. But there are many options available to fit your workflow.

A USB audio interface connects to your computer via a USB cable, which can also be used to power some interfaces right from your computer. Currently, most USB audio interfaces are equipped with USB 2.0 ports. However, there is a handful of USB 3.0 interfaces from Audient, RME, Steinberg, and MOTU.

Right now is focus is going to get the desktop app up to speed, as that helps to get more eyes on the project and more easily and directly involve the community.

Once that works well we want to come back to 1.14 release development again, we will for sure at least try to get the USB Audio stuff working for it.

PS: The audio-bridge project includes a plugin variant too, for being able to use USB Audio cards through a MOD unit. At least there the audio packet interval is steady, the only issue remains the USB driver quality on Dwarf which also includes the higher-than-desirable CPU usage.

Very interesting. Stable USB audio/midi could be really great for integrating with DAW, web streaming, backing tracks, recording with less noise. That could be really useful. I am still using that experimental audio even if it is unstable.

That said, I definitely see a lot of threads mentioning problems with older audio interfaces / soundcards that are fixed by upgrading to newer gear (e.g. here) and issues with MOTU audio interfaces (which is also mentioned in the Overbridge FAQ), so if you have an older interface or a MOTU, maybe try to confirm that there is no conflict with your specific interface.

Enable ASIO lets you enable the selected device to be used as an ASIO audio interface. All devices can be used as WDM audio devices, but only one device can have the ASIO role. This option is only available if the device has not previously been enabled. (Only available in Windows.)

You can also use normal USB-MIDI while using Overbridge, but this is handled outside of Overbridge and will have the same latency as when not using Overbridge (and is not latency compensated via Overbridge). This can be good to know to get a better understanding of what Overbridge is.

When using the Line 6 POD HD 500X to record straight into your DAW, is an audio interface needed? Sorry this might sound like a stupid question but I recently watched Misha's video on how to record guitar. l saw he used a AxeFX2 for his tones and it seems like it was connected to his Focusrite 2i2 because he was testing it for clipping.

I'm new to audio production so I don't know how the connections really work. I just bought that same audio interface because thats what I thought was needed for guitar recording. I have seen a few studio recording blogs where people use it as well.

Currently I have my guitar plugged into the POD and my POD connected to my computer via USB. So far I don't have any latency and it actually records. Here is how I have it set up:

So my question is if I need to get the POD to the audio interface to the DAW. If not are audio interfaces mainly used to record with mics? I noticed you can [plug your guitar jack into them], so I'm guessing you can record directly into your DAW while having some kind of guitar tone/amp VST added or something like that.

So my question is if I need to get the POD to the audio interface to the DAW. If not are audio interfaces mainly used to record with mics? I noticed you can [plug your guitar jack into them], so I'm guessing you can record directly into your DAW while having some kind of guitar tone/amp VST added or something like that.

Most audio interfaces have input for low z (guitar/bass/etc...) and mic inputs. When they are used with a guitar typically you use a VST or other type of software solution for modeling the guitar amp/pedals etc.... so the POD covers those in one box. The stand alone audio usually also handle most any type of mic so you can mic a cab or vocal etc.... So they are more a bit more extensive for recording say an entire band in tracks but for just guitar the POD works fine. I have both for different purposes. Last time I did some recording with my band, I used my Tascam inteface for vocals and micing up a drum set but used a POD X3 for Bass guitar and my POD HD500x for guitars going straight from the POD to the DAW in both cases.

Even though the POD will work perfectly fine as an audio interface I choose to have a separate audio interface (MOTO UltraLite MK3) that I plug my POD into via XLR the same as I would any recording studio board or mixer. Typically stand alone audio interfaces have a few more features that allow for better control over both recording and playback, more appropriate connections for studio monitors, not to mention better support from the manufacturer since that's their main business. More importantly I don't have to worry if I take the POD somewhere for a gig or practice and it's out of the house for a few days. The sound system on the computer still works the same as always.

When using the POD as interface, it converts the analog guitar signal to digital (A/D) for processing before sending it to the DAW. It converts it back to analog when the signal is sent out the 1/4" or XLR sends (D/A). Something is lost in the conversion (A/D) and re-conversion (D/A). If this were not true enough for MANY people's ears, there would be no analog vs digital effects debate. So, it stands to reason that a further conversion (analog guitar to digital, digitally processed guitar to analog before out the 1/4"/XLR cable to another (not the POD) audio interface where it's converted back to digital for the DAW) would be one more generation of degradation of the original analog guitar signal.

My M-Audio Fast track Pro has a SPDIF input. When I took the POD's SPDIF Out to the interface that way, it removed that second generation of conversion, and SEEMED (to my ears) to be more "lively" than when using the XLR to the interface, Using the POD as interface has the same effect as using the SPDIF send (to my ears), thus (seemingly) confirming my thoughts about the second A/D-D/A conversion.

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