Boring audio interface recommendation topic.

Alright, I need a new audio interface, as my old xp desktop shit the bed and my sound card was PCI which doesnt exist anymore (and even if it did I dont want another desktop)

My criteria is:

1u rackmount

At least 8x i/o line level.

Only really need one mic pre (probably could make do without altogether).

2x midi i/o

USB (type c would be good...although that's just cos i have an unused usb c port)

I don't really need any fancy shit on the front, nobs and lights etc. Although they all seem to have this.

As much of the inputs in the back as possible, I fucking hate seeing cables and want it all hidden.

Fanx for your recs in advance

How about the Scarlett 18i20?

Cheap, pretty good preamps etc etc.

Umc1820 if you want a lot of bang for your squid

  On 1/29/2021 at 6:19 PM, Squee said:

How about the Scarlett 18i20?

Cheap, pretty good preamps etc etc.

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Was gonna suggest a Scarlett too. Been hearing mixed things about the headphone amp side of things recently, but been enjoying the 8i6 for nearly 10 years now (though I've only been using <100ohm phones maybe it's fine for low impedance models)

When I was looking recently I settled on a newish motu 16a.  Which doesn't meet your criteria. And in the end I just got a second steinberg mr816 and daisy chained them.  So I can't really comment on the motu either.  But if I was in your position I would probably look at the motu 16a and fill missing features like midi separately.  Also not the cheapest option.  In fact this post has probably been next to useless.

well, for a start : what is your budget ?

I'm very very happy with my RME firefcae UC, since 7 years and counting.

but this will cost you around 800 €, wich is not cheap.

https://www.rme-audio.de/fireface-uc.html

8 analogue inputs (first 2 of them are either (good) mic preamps or jack TRS line level inputs

8 analogue outputs (6 balanced line level outs+ 1 stereo phone out, wich can be use as an extra (unbalanced) line level output with appropriate cable)

2 midi inputs + 2x midi ouptuts (tight and fast)

a bit of digital I/O (works perfectly for my D-two delaly, M3000 reverb, i.e.,  or as digital lossless input / feed from / to  other digital devices)

iirc you have option for USB version or firewire version, so usb ok for you (USB 2.0 iirc , not 3.0, but does ok)

very very low latency, and comes along with a dedicated in-the-box mixing / routing solution wich is very powerful while being quite simple to  setup.

been using for my music (studio and livesets) and fo some recordings of live shows at the venue where I'm working. (either for 2-track from desk, or for some 8-tracks stem busses)

I can tell you it's a workhorse, solid built, and the A/D    and D/A converters quality are really good. (not as pristine as top high end dedicated AD/DA converters, but still way ahead than a lot of soundcards in this range of price )

appart from this, for a lower budget, as some folks said above, the focusrite "scarlett" products line are really nice  too.

  On 1/29/2021 at 9:44 PM, neurone said:

well, for a start : what is your budget ?

I'm very very happy with my RME firefcae UC, since 7 years and counting.

but this will cost you around 800 €, wich is not cheap.

https://www.rme-audio.de/fireface-uc.html

8 analogue inputs (first 2 of them are either (good) mic preamps or jack TRS line level inputs

8 analogue outputs (6 balanced line level outs+ 1 stereo phone out, wich can be use as an extra (unbalanced) line level output with appropriate cable)

2 midi inputs + 2x midi ouptuts (tight and fast)

a bit of digital I/O (works perfectly for my D-two delaly, M3000 reverb, i.e.,  or as digital lossless input / feed from / to  other digital devices)

iirc you have option for USB version or firewire version, so usb ok for you (USB 2.0 iirc , not 3.0, but does ok)

very very low latency, and comes along with a dedicated in-the-box mixing / routing solution wich is very powerful while being quite simple to  setup.

been using for my music (studio and livesets) and fo some recordings of live shows at the venue where I'm working. (either for 2-track from desk, or for some 8-tracks stem busses)

I can tell you it's a workhorse, solid built, and the A/D    and D/A converters quality are really good. (not as pristine as top high end dedicated AD/DA converters, but still way ahead than a lot of soundcards in this range of price )

appart from this, for a lower budget, as some folks said above, the focusrite "scarlett" products line are really nice  too.

 

 

 

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This ticks all the boxes, might try and pick one up second hand.

The only reason I want 2x midi I/o is because I have an mks-70 with a busted display, so it's a complete fucking pain in the arse to select midi channels (it initialises on all). Just running a completely separate midi out to it would (I think) knock the problem on the head, but might be a bit of an over engineered solution- anyone think of a nifty way round this??

Is there such a thing as a midi filter...something I can stick in front of the mks-70 in the chain that will take in 16 midi channels and output just 1. Google suggests yeah this probably exists, but I have no knowlidj.

If that exists then fuck it, I'll just get one of them and the behringer

  On 1/29/2021 at 10:47 PM, Amen Warrior said:

This ticks all the boxes, might try and pick one up second hand.

The only reason I want 2x midi I/o is because I have an mks-70 with a busted display, so it's a complete fucking pain in the arse to select midi channels (it initialises on all). Just running a completely separate midi out to it would (I think) knock the problem on the head, but might be a bit of an over engineered solution- anyone think of a nifty way round this??

Replace it with an OLED:

https://supersynthprojects.com/

  On 1/29/2021 at 11:30 PM, TubularCorporation said:

Replace it with an OLED:

https://supersynthprojects.com/

I did not know about this. Any chance youve done this, and is it easy? I'm not an expert solderer...I can do it but I've definitely fucked stuff up before (not any synths thank fuck, just a time I was trying integrate a wireless phone charger into the base of a lamp....)

I haven't but I've done comparable stuff and it hasn't been bad.  This looks very doable but not risk free. The hard part will be getting the old parts out.

https://supersynthprojects.com/super-jx-display-replacement/fitting/

As far as MIDI goes, I just use an external MIDI timepiece. The MOTU micro lite is like $150. Comes with a rack mount, I believe.

  On 1/29/2021 at 11:01 PM, Amen Warrior said:

Is there such a thing as a midi filter...something I can stick in front of the mks-70 in the chain that will take in 16 midi channels and output just 1. Google suggests yeah this probably exists, but I have no knowlidj.

If that exists then fuck it, I'll just get one of them and the behringer

yeah, if i understand correctly your issue, you cannot tell your mks-70 to react only to , i.e. , channel 1 from the 16-channles-midi-data-feed from a midi output port.

so, I guess, as you suggest, you could use a single dedicated usb-to-midi device (can find very cheap ones wich works ok), wich would be used ony  to feed midi to your mks-70. because even if your mks-70 reacts to every 16 midi channels from wich you could'nt choose a single midi channel, it won't be a probleme as far as there's no other midi data going thru another device after this one, so midi data received by mks-70 won't be shared or merged with something else down the path.

i.e. a midi out port from your soundcard would feed any of your devices (say, a midi dasy-chain feeding  multiple synth, with channel 1 going to synth 1, channel 2 going to synth 2 etc....up to 16 different synths or drum machines or whatever, as long as you have 16 midi channles per midi output ports )

and then another dedicated midi out port wich would only feed your mks-70, regardless of wich midi channel will be used from this port)

well, fair enough, ifyou have something that have at least 2 midi output ports (a soundcard or a multi-out usb to midi device, like the motu micro lite suggested by mr. Braintree in the post above) it would works, so you won't need 2 different midi-able devices but only one.

(I hope I'm clear

  On 1/30/2021 at 2:13 AM, Braintree said:

As far as MIDI goes, I just use an external MIDI timepiece. The MOTU micro lite is like $150. Comes with a rack mount, I believe.

Yeah, I use a really old (second version, bought used in like 2008) MOTU Midi Express XT for input and routing, and an Expert Sleepers Usamo for clock or anything else that needs solid timing, since I've never gotten very good timing from any USB interface on any OS or computer I've ever used. I don't know if I've ever actually used the Midi i/o on my audio interface.

could use a axoloti and build a midi filter and have mks70 end of chain

Everybody Needs an Axoloti

  On 1/30/2021 at 10:07 PM, neurone said:

yeah, if i understand correctly your issue, you cannot tell your mks-70 to react only to , i.e. , channel 1 from the 16-channles-midi-data-feed from a midi output port.

so, I guess, as you suggest, you could use a single dedicated usb-to-midi device (can find very cheap ones wich works ok), wich would be used ony  to feed midi to your mks-70. because even if your mks-70 reacts to every 16 midi channels from wich you could'nt choose a single midi channel, it won't be a probleme as far as there's no other midi data going thru another device after this one, so midi data received by mks-70 won't be shared or merged with something else down the path.

i.e. a midi out port from your soundcard would feed any of your devices (say, a midi dasy-chain feeding  multiple synth, with channel 1 going to synth 1, channel 2 going to synth 2 etc....up to 16 different synths or drum machines or whatever, as long as you have 16 midi channles per midi output ports )

and then another dedicated midi out port wich would only feed your mks-70, regardless of wich midi channel will be used from this port)

well, fair enough, ifyou have something that have at least 2 midi output ports (a soundcard or a multi-out usb to midi device, like the motu micro lite suggested by mr. Braintree in the post above) it would works, so you won't need 2 different midi-able devices but only one.

(I hope I'm clear

 

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This is a really good point, re usb to midi...I recently bought a bass station 2 which is my first piece of gear that takes midi over usb.

I think I could I do usb into BS2 and stick everything else after that using the midi thru of the BS2, then just have the mks-70 connecting to the midi out of audio interface?

I have a smaller 2i/o soundcard with midi for gigs I can test this out on and see if that works.

I should still get the mks-70 fixed but I have the pg800(300?) controller for it so it's still easy to use all the synth parameters, just can't do much menu diving.

What is this thread's opinion on class compliant interfaces (both audio and MIDI)?

Asking because the transition to M1 Macs and incompatible driver hell is looming for many macOS fans and I have had some questionable experiences recently with drivers and all.

Is having class compliant stuff an answer to that? Are there class compliant interfaces that let you chain other interfaces through optical link?

How about MIDI and gear like this? https://www.thomann.de/intl/miditech_midiface_8x8.htm

  On 1/29/2021 at 7:24 PM, Berk said:

Umc1820 if you want a lot of bang for your squid

Just wanted to say thanx, I went with this. It basically suits me right down to the ground, great suggestion. Ive ended up sending the midi out to my mks-70 via the interface and everything else is chained after the bass station 2 which is getting midi via USB from the lappy. Works perfectly woop!

A nice interface is a boring thing to get, but a great thing to have once you get it.

I would get an Apollo or RME  if I could. For now I just need a good ADA for my pro40. The Uli ada8200 is out of stock right now