Depending on the characteristics and settings of your PC and audio interface, not having direct monitoring could mean anything from mildly annoying to totally unusable latency. Direct monitoringĭirect monitoring lets you listen to what you play or sing into a microphone connected to your audio interface without going through the computer first. So, while extras are nice to have, it’s probably not a good idea to fixate on them without having an explicit reason to. Having said that, requiring more than the base speakers + headphones set of outputs would limit your audio interface choices and increase the price. Also, if you plan to record a vocalist other than yourself, you may want to have one set of headphones for them and one for you. Why would you need more outputs? It’s a good idea to test your mixes on different speakers so if you can plug in your main studio monitors and some other control set at the same time, it could be really helpful. For those working alone and mostly on headphones or mostly on speakers this could be less important than some other things, but as a rule of thumb this is not a great area to compromise on.
It is also important that you can adjust the volume on speakers and headphones independently. Number of outputsĪt the very least you want your interface to have outputs for a set of studio monitors and a pair of headphones.
In other words, an interface may have two inputs (one XLR, one line) and you will only be able to plug one microphone into it, or it can have two combo inputs and you can plug two mics or two keyboards into it.įor microphones (more on this later) it may be important that your interface provides 48V phantom power but almost all of them do nowadays. One aspect to lookout for is whether the interface has combo inputs accepting both XLR (microphone) and jack (instrument) inputs, or dedicated inputs for each. We are focusing on computer musicians here, so 1 or 2 should likely be enough for most of us. But if you plan to record a whole band live then even 16 may not be enough. If you plan to record your own vocals and maybe an electric guitar, then one input could be enough (unless you plan to record both at the same time). There are some audio interfaces that don’t have any inputs but those are rare. Number of inputsĮnvision how many audio sources you plan to record simultaneously (key point) and that’s the number of inputs you want to have. Let’s talk about some things that you don’t want to miss in your first interface.
Luckily, plenty of entry-level audio interfaces are solid enough even for professionals and should get you quite far for a $100–200 investment.įocusrite Scarlett 2i2 - one of the most popular entry-level audio interfaces. Things to look for in an entry-level audio interfaceĪs with everything we are covering in this book, I suggest you start with good but modest equipment, figure out what you are missing (if anything) and only then spend extra on the higher-grade gear. The next couple of sections are for those who after going through the flow chart above concluded that they need an audio interface after all. Note that it’s likely that you can get the same DAW with a controller.
In the second case, you may want to get that interface even if it doesn’t provide any direct value to you at this point in time. In the first case, getting an audio interface won’t improve anything in terms of recording through your microphone. Some borderline situations are when you have a fairly decent USB microphone or, on the opposite side of the fence, if you are looking to get a DAW that is bundled with an interface. The essential questions here are whether you plan to record any audio into your computer and whether you have speakers or headphones your average computer can’t handle? If the answer to either question is yes, then you will need an audio interface or at the very least benefit from having one. Should you buy an audio interface right away?