How important is an audio interface (mobile studio)

[DavyNix]

Hi Guys,

Putting together a mobile rig based around my shiny new laptop.

How important is an audio interface really? Does it take that much stress of the PC? I want the setup to be a simple and as wire free as possible.

If you feel its a must then can anybody recommend a midi controller with the interface built in?
Spotted a product called the irig but I'm not sure I like the look of it. Got my eye on Alesis VI25 or something similar from Akai as a small all-in-one controller.


thanks All - Dave.

[thecontrolcentre]

MAC or PC? Do you have monitors?

[mgw38]

On a Mac not important at all since the internal DAC is quite good. On a PC, however, I noticed that an external DAC makes a huge difference. But that might differ from laptop to laptop.

I recently switched from Mac to PC. On the Macbook I always only plugged the monitors into the line out. On the Razer Blade laptop I am currently using, I use an external DAC because the internal one simply does not provide the same audio quality.

[roman.i]

It's about the sound quality and connectivity, not the stress.
Even a basic setup requires a small pro level sound interface, because most monitors don't have volume control, and you'll probably need monitors and headphones connected at the same time.

[kvotchin]

If everything if going to be “ItB” (i.e., no external instruments or voice), then all you will need is a Midi interface, not so much a full audio interface.

edit: And that’s only if playing things “live”, like with a keyboard, say, is a part of your creative process.

[DavyNix]

Hi all ...thanks for replies.

Will be using headphones. kit-wise I currently have some on off NI's stuff like Maschine and one of their midi keyboards along with an ai and monitors. This post is a more a getting started on mobile production than all-out starting from scratch.
Basically live in a busy home with 4 kids...my current kit is all nicely cabled in but that area of the house is shared and so I just want to be able to grab my laptop and find a quiet spot!

So just need the minimum fuss for a fairly decent setup that can be easily picked up and moved about. I've only been into production for a year or so, so still very limited knowledge really.

[mgw38]

If you

1) do not record anything externally
2) do not use any midi devices that require a midi interface
3) do not hear a difference in audio quality with or without the audio interface
4) only use headphones

then an audio interface is absolutely not needed.

[echosystm]

The sound card your computer uses actually does affect performance ("stress"). Audio functionality can be either implemented in hardware or software ("drivers"). If more is implemented in hardware, then your CPU has less work to do. The quality of the drivers also matters; many companies have really poorly optimized code and this unnecessarily taxes your CPU. You start to see the effects of these factors increase rapidly at lower buffer sizes. Things are much better these days than they were 10 years ago though. Windows didn't even have a low latency audio system until Vista or thereabouts, which is why ASIO existed and you needed specific hardware. CPUs are also so fast now that you don't really need to offload as much work to the hardware.

Back to the original issue. Macs always have (comparatively) good audio hardware and drivers, so you would probably be OK on a Mac. On a PC, it would really depend on what hardware you have; the DAC, drivers and amp could all be terrible. The amp is usually the weakest link though. You would have to do some research, but I'm not sure you'll find the answers you need. If you're on a PC, I would just buy a compact interface and not worry about it.

[dekaed]

thanks OP and respondees! you have answered a question i have had for some time myself as i have a similar situation going on myself!

[roman.i]

The sound card your computer uses actually does affect performance ("stress"). Audio functionality can be either implemented in hardware or software ("drivers"). If more is implemented in hardware, then your CPU has less work to do.

How much less? Like 0.5% of the total CPU performance?
Most of the computation consumers when working with DAW are plugins, not the driver.

[chk071]

I actually had quite a performance plus when I switched from a internal sound card with ASIO4ALL driver to a audio interface.

[Cinebient]

For me not at all. I never use one and do not think it would improve anything. Cannot speak for PC since i only use mac and iOS devices (here it might benefit more as on a macbook, mac).
I mainly use headphones (my favorite choice are my Beyerdynamic DT-990 pro 250 Ohm) which are driven well on my mac intern dac and even on my iPhone. I have a mediocre windows laptop and here it is unusable.
So it really depends on what you computer/os comes with.
I repeat, no need of it for me on mac/iOS for a small mobile set-up.
I wonder indeed myself how that is with windows laptops, surface etc. since there is not much talk about these things.
But with the latest mac devices i´m not sure how the T2 chip handles/disturb this stuff.

[rod_zero]

The audio interface is very important to improve performance in windows systens, on a budget go for a Steinberg UR line unit.

Windows is not designed for real time audio, so drivers have to force giving the DAW priority for audio work, thta's why good drivers are very important.

[Choega]

If you experience latency, want to record vocals or a instrument, then you can look into getting a audio interface. I recommend not going overboard at first if you do not need the extra slots, just get the cheapest one possible.