Suggestions for a portable interface.

[itsjustmeee123]

I just got a new M2 MacBook Air that I’d like to use to record an occasional guitar or vocal track. I wouldn’t be traveling with it and I’d be using it sparingly so I don’t need anything over the top. I would like for it to have a USB C connection and I love the option of mixing the direct signal with the playback. I’d be recording to a stereo track and the only plugins I’d be using is something like Guitar Rig 7 or a compressor and EQ.

My question is will latency be much of an issue with this type of scenario and is a blend direct/DAW knob really necessary? And what interface would everyone recommend. I’d like to keep the price around $150.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Bill0287]

Originally Posted by itsjustmeee123

I just got a new M2 MacBook Air that I’d like to use to record an occasional guitar or vocal track. I wouldn’t be traveling with it and I’d be using it sparingly so I don’t need anything over the top. I would like for it to have a USB C connection and I love the option of mixing the direct signal with the playback. I’d be recording to a stereo track and the only plugins I’d be using is something like Guitar Rig 7 or a compressor and EQ.

My question is will latency be much of an issue with this type of scenario and is a blend direct/DAW knob really necessary? And what interface would everyone recommend. I’d like to keep the price around $150.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

This is basically what I do (more or less). Take a look at Presonus Audiobox USB 96 devices. I don't know about Mac compatibility, so check on that. I only want to hear the processed signal, so I am turned up all the way on the mix.

[its2loud]

Audient Evo 4

https://evo.audio/products/audio-int...vo-4/overview/

[Darryl Ramm]

[QUOTE=itsjustmeee123;2692266]I just got a new M2 MacBook Air that I’d like to use to record an occasional guitar or vocal track. I wouldn’t be traveling with it and I’d be using it sparingly so I don’t need anything over the top. I would like for it to have a USB C connection and I love the option of mixing the direct signal with the playback.

Originally Posted by itsjustmeee123

I’d be recording to a stereo track

Uh probably no... Assuming you are producing some standard vocal/electric guitar recording you likely should be recording to *mono* tracks, you will mix to stereo but why would you record to stereo? Are you singing into a pair of stereo mics? Trying to record to stereo is only likely to create a mess for you/not be as efficient/flexible as recording to mono and mixing to stereo. Start by finding some introductory tutorials on recording vocals and electric guitar (using amp sim software) with Pro Tools, on YouTube or Groove3 (paid videos and very good).

...and the only plugins I’d be using is something like Guitar Rig 7 or a compressor and EQ.

It depends on what you are doing with Guitar Rig 7, but if it's a usual distorted/crunch/rock/metal electric guitar you'll need to monitor though the plugin, and the hardware monitoring in the interface likely won't help you with electric guitar, you'll likely disable it while tracking guitar. And you'll want to run at small HW buffer sizes to reduce latency.

It may be useful to hardware monitor while singing but depends on how sensitive you are to latency. And if you are tying to say track electric guitar and sing at the same time you may have problems configuring a mix of hardware and software monitoring without a slightly more complex interface that includes per-input/output control of the hardware mixer in the interface.

My question is will latency be much of an issue with this type of scenario and is a blend direct/DAW knob really necessary? And what interface would everyone recommend. I’d like to keep the price around $150.

Software monitoring latency is largely dominated by the H/W buffer size. If software monitoring the dominant factor is what H/W buffer size can you get the DAW to run at reliably without crashing. The lower-end/cost interfaces won't have record setting latency specs, they typically use USB-Audio Class compliant drivers on Mac and so are not heavily optimized for latency but you might well never need this fancy performance. They also don't have the more advanced hardware mixer capabilities. If you want a lowest latency USB interface the RME BabyFace Pro FX is about as good as it gets in a compact interface, but it's $1k. At the $150 price point you can basically look around and pick an interface from any decent vendor (in no specific order: Focusrite, Presonus, RME, UAD, Motu, Audient) they'll be largely the same, and spend time using it learning how stuff works.

[itsjustmeee123]

[QUOTE=Darryl Ramm;2692328]

Originally Posted by itsjustmeee123

I just got a new M2 MacBook Air that I’d like to use to record an occasional guitar or vocal track. I wouldn’t be traveling with it and I’d be using it sparingly so I don’t need anything over the top. I would like for it to have a USB C connection and I love the option of mixing the direct signal with the playback.



Uh probably no... Assuming you are producing some standard vocal/electric guitar recording you likely should be recording to *mono* tracks, you will mix to stereo but why would you record to stereo? Are you singing into a pair of stereo mics? Trying to record to stereo is only likely to create a mess for you/not be as efficient/flexible as recording to mono and mixing to stereo. Start by finding some introductory tutorials on recording vocals and electric guitar (using amp sim software) with Pro Tools, on YouTube or Groove3 (paid videos and very good).
.

Thanks Darryl. I meant that I'd only be using a stereo backing track to add some additional vocals and/or guitar with as opposed to a full on session with multiple tracks.

I ended up going with the Audient iD4 MKII. It checked all of the right boxes for what I needed.

[Darryl Ramm]

[QUOTE=itsjustmeee123;2692413]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Thanks Darryl. I meant that I'd only be using a stereo backing track to add some additional vocals and/or guitar with as opposed to a full on session with multiple tracks.

I ended up going with the Audient iD4 MKII. It checked all of the right boxes for what I needed.

Great stuff, just use the heck out of that Audient and it may last you a long long time, and you'll know all you need to make the next decision if you ever want/need to upgrade.