Best budget usb soundcard for recording in 2022 ?

[Hink]

my M4 installed very quickly, so far it seems to be just what I needed, for now. I have a usb C on my laptop so all is well

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

This seems really nice interface,real 12ax7 tube drive - if the sound was little bit more convincing will be insta buy,but to my taste suond is bit thin and and not so honest as bla revolution:

[Hink]

I see a single tube and my first concern is marketing as was the case for so long using plate starved tubes just to have a tube and say it's tube. In this case I checked and it seems that this is 200v, which is good for you

[BertKoor]

Firstly there's the AD-DA converters. You want these to be neutral. That means you cannot tell the difference between the original and a recording. This can be measured [...]
(to be continued)

Does that make sense? Do you agree or not? Questions? Objections?
[...]
Does the quality of the preamp matter? Yes and no, because (as usual) it depends. Yes if you use them and have no choice, but no if you do have another.
[...]
the best choice is (again) to get something.... neutral and transparent!
[...]
(to be continued)

So far I have established that cheap AD-DA converters are generally good (even excellent) and as long as your interface has line inputs, it's OK if the mic preamp leaves to be desired - since you can always plug in another one.

You want to record an electrical guitar, and you want it to sound great or even professional.Well, here are some contributing factors:

• The performance itself
• The guitar & effects
• The amp, speaker, microphone, mic placement, room acoustics
• or when not using a mic: the DI
• Further processing, mixing, production

I dare to say that if you have not so much experience with this all, whatever you buy, it won't sound professional. Because you are not a professional. Yet. You need to experiment, build experience, try things, etc.

[kritikon]

I fail to see the point of buying Audient Sono from what you've said all the way through this post (which is a weird one - which is the best budget interface? Followed by you slagging off every single one). Surely to god if you want quality above all else then using an amp sim (s/w) on the front end is insanity? Why imprint a s/w emulation on your recording - you can do that in your DAW and it's non-destructive. Once you've recorded the emulation you can't go back. And I'm pretty damn sure therre are some fantastic amp sim plugins that are likely cheaper than you're paying for in that Sono, and more flexibility, more choice, more control etc. You're seriously mad to want that on your interface - a pure waste of money.

So that leaves pre-amps. You bang on about quality, then it makes the same sense to buy some real quality preamps separately from the interface and just leave your interface to do the simple recording. Again, you'll get better and more choice.

Valve - exactly the same. You reckon that interface is going to have the acme best ever valve? Really? Dreaming my friend.

So the most important thing you can buy in an interface is not all that extraneous shite, but the ADDA converters. But you steadfastly refuse to listen to anyone here. I used to have an old Aardvark Q10 interface years ago. Cost me close on 1000 UK pounds. That was astronomical in those days. Got rid eventually as they went bust and no drivers for newer PC OS. And my Steinberg UR22 is every bit as good, likely better than that old highly expensive Aardvark. Its drivers are rock solid - yes, ASIO. Even Behringer make solid ASIO drivers now - they apparently had some issues initially but ironed them out. ASIO is rarely an issue nowadays with any card where the company writes their own. The ones that have issues seem to be generic ASIOforALL or whatever equivalent now. Generic drivers are untrustworthy. ASIO is not going to be your problem.

You seem to want to spend money on an interface where it makes no sense to do so. If you insist on fancy drivers and expensive interfaces then go for something like RME - by all accounts the best drivers out there (but everyone else's are too) and good reputation for converters etc. And they don't waste time giving you silly and useless emulation s/w on the front end - which you should be doing either in your DAW, or with proper real cabs/valves/preamps. But hey ho - waste your money, it's yours after all.

[vurt]

Firstly there's the AD-DA converters. You want these to be neutral. That means you cannot tell the difference between the original and a recording. This can be measured [...]
(to be continued)

Does that make sense? Do you agree or not? Questions? Objections?
[...]
Does the quality of the preamp matter? Yes and no, because (as usual) it depends. Yes if you use them and have no choice, but no if you do have another.
[...]
the best choice is (again) to get something.... neutral and transparent!
[...]
(to be continued)

So far I have established that cheap AD-DA converters are generally good (even excellent) and as long as your interface has line inputs, it's OK if the mic preamp leaves to be desired - since you can always plug in another one.

You want to record an electrical guitar, and you want it to sound great or even professional.Well, here are some contributing factors:

• The performance itself
• The guitar & effects
• The amp, speaker, microphone, mic placement, room acoustics
• or when not using a mic: the DI
• Further processing, mixing, production

I dare to say that if you have not so much experience with this all, whatever you buy, it won't sound professional. Because you are not a professional. Yet. You need to experiment, build experience, try things, etc.

this is exactly why i suggested the guerilla recording studio manual book.
takes away the need for "insert dream equipment here" and helps you learn to get the best out of "what you have or can easily afford"

not the deepest book on mixing you will find, more of an encouraging people to just make some effing noise instead of faffing around with details that don't matter.
people are still listening to robert johnson recordings, not because of the professional sound, but because of the music.
were driven to create, but we can block this by searching for the shiny shiny that will make everything as great as possible, till the next thing....

[Unaspected]

encouraging people to just make some effing noise instead of faffing around with details that don't matter.

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

you steadfastly refuse to listen to anyone ...

People often tell me that,but in fact i am listening very carefully everybody,just trust my ears mostly,cuz everybody have opinion and experience,which could help or mislead you,if you don't know what are you looking for....
I start to hesitate...about the mic,the guitar is plug and play,but i didn't consider noise levels using dynamic mic vs condenser...
This Black lion revolution seems interesting - not a single owner complain or share bad experience,negative reviews are from people who read and measure,but conclusion based on the data isn't quite right - like less noisy preamp,the better...that's not entirely true in musical aspect,especially if you gonna play noisy rock guitar,but have to admit that this Julian Krause give me something to think about the noise of dynamic mics.
The recording room isn't ready as isolation and i wanna do raw records with dynamic mic - Metallica used dynmics if remember correctly,the one i've got have very nice sound.
I am not in a hurry could save more money and to buy two - one for 150eu and bla revolution to compare ...
Honestly my opinion based on what i hear is that no serious musician use 100-150 euro card to record an album...
Point me at least one serious record made with some of these entry level interfaces and i'm gonna buy it immediately...
All i saw is statements 'best in the class' so on...why no single demo record in real time,done by professional musician with one of these card...isn't strange?
Two guys owners say that revolution is better than apollo twin,which is enough to give it a try,despite this review:

[Hink]

you steadfastly refuse to listen to anyone ...

People often tell me that,but in fact i am listening very carefully everybody,just trust my ears mostly,cuz everybody have opinion and experience,which could help or mislead you,if you don't know what are you looking for....
I start to hesitate...about the mic,the guitar is plug and play,but i didn't consider noise levels using dynamic mic vs condenser...
This Black lion revolution seems interesting - not a single owner complain or share bad experience,negative reviews are from people who read and measure,but conclusion based on the data isn't quite right - like less noisy preamp,the better...that's not entirely true in musical aspect,especially if you gonna play noisy rock guitar,but have to admit that this Julian Krause give me something to think about the noise of dynamic mics.
The recording room isn't ready as isolation and i wanna do raw records with dynamic mic - Metallica used dynmics if remember correctly,the one i've got have very nice sound.
I am not in a hurry could save more money and to buy two - one for 150eu and bla revolution to compare ...
Honestly my opinion based on what i hear is that no serious musician use 100-150 euro card to record an album...
Point me at least one serious record made with some of these entry level interfaces and i'm gonna buy it immediately...
All i saw is statements 'best in the class' so on...why no single demo record in real time,done by professional musician with one of these card...isn't strange?
Two guys owners say that revolution is better than apollo twin,which is enough to give it a try,despite this review:

I dont even like his music tbh, but I'll take that challenge

Nebraska is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on September 30, 1982, by Columbia Records. Springsteen recorded the songs as demos on a 4-track recorder, intending to rerecord them with the E Street Band, but decided to release them as they were.[3] Nebraska remains one of the most highly regarded albums in his catalogue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_(album)

edit: the obvious conclusion to that would be many people saying it isnt the equipment and while that is really true it's getting old I am not trying be a jerk ok, I am not that young and have been through a lot of stuff like this. These people here are indeed trying to help and in fact you might be your biggest problem, we tend to focus on what we think is important and bias confirmation to prove to ourselves we are correct.

My point is your focus may just be extremely misplaced, it might be kinda like repainting your entire car because you scratched the paint on the floor of the trunk/boot. You're delaying your progress in the meantime and tbh this may not be your last interface, in fact I would suggest it might be far from your last. And for what? Something 99.99% of the listeners likely will never hear.

I am not going to say you are wrong about the M4 or anything for that matter, but I would like to suggest you take a step back and look at the bigger picture as it were, it could very well be in your best interest

[kritikon]

Might just be better if you do some extensive research to find the most expensive interface on the market and just buy it. Your head will be pleased even if your ears and wallet won't. Though to a degree your brain can fool your ears into submission...

[kritikon]

Yeah, and above - Hink gave you a prime example. There were also plenty of records over the last several decades where inexpensive gear has been used to make records. Plenty of punk etc records, the 80s/early 90s dance scene had plenty of them. I vaguely remember some Orbital hit being recorded on a 4 track or something equally cheap.
Everything cheap is shit - you've decided already. Just buy something expensive. (I actually agree that in quite a few areas, you get what you pay for, but honestly, ADDA converters isn't one of them, mostly). You can buy a wooden HiFi volume knob for hundreds, did you know? Makes the HiFi a proper good one because...stuff. Possibly you're the target customer for that sort of thing...?

[Unaspected]

Might just be better if you do some extensive research to find the most expensive interface on the market and just buy it. Your head will be pleased even if your ears and wallet won't. Though to a degree your brain can fool your ears into submission...

Here you go: https://www.ams-neve.com/88m/

Not the most expensive - far from the cheapest - but great pedigree.

you steadfastly refuse to listen to anyone ...

...like less noisy preamp,the better...that's not entirely true in musical aspect,especially if you gonna play noisy rock guitar,...

Noise doesn't mean loud in this context. Noise as in reduced headroom when recording because of hiss and other unwanted artefacts: The exact opposite of a professional recording. Harmonic distortion in preamps will increase a sense of loudness; The key word here being "harmonics" generated based on the input signal - as this is naturally perceived as being musical and part of the sound.

However: For the core of any studio I set up, I favour clean and clear preamps that offer plenty of gain. I want any signal colouration to be a conscious choice.

If you do want to make an informed decision then spend a day learning how to read spec sheets. Put a little work in and you'll get more out. Education will give you more confidence.

[BertKoor]

I start to hesitate...about the mic,the guitar is plug and play,but i didn't consider noise levels using dynamic mic vs condenser...
This Black lion revolution seems interesting - not a single owner complain or share bad experience,negative reviews are from people who read and measure,but conclusion based on the data isn't quite right - like less noisy preamp,the better...that's not entirely true in musical aspect,especially if you gonna play noisy rock guitar,but have to admit that this Julian Krause give me something to think about the noise of dynamic mics.
The recording room isn't ready as isolation and i wanna do raw records with dynamic mic - Metallica used dynmics if remember correctly,the one i've got have very nice sound.

Especially when recording a guitar: noise (background hiss) is bad. Really bad.

And here's why. Suppose you record your guitar totally clean and you later put a distortion effect or HighGain amp sim on it in your DAW. These things amplify the signal to a crazy amount, and basically cut off the heads of the signal. So any background noise in the signal will get amplified to that crazy amount as well.

When I want to record a guitar speaker cabinet, my go-to mic is a Sennheiser e609. That is a dynamic mic. Suspend it directly in front of the speaker, and you're done. Dynamic mics can take extreme loud signals, such as come from guitar amps. Condenser mics have a max SPL (sound pressure level) you have to respect, otherwise it sounds badly distorted.

If you have a guitar amp and you like the sound of that amp and you want to record that, then you need to figure out a way of doing that. You can buy microphones and all that shizzle, but I know there are easier ways.

This subject is far beyond your question of a basic simple interface. But if you do have hardware such as effect pedals and want your DAW audio to pass through that and record it again, you need an interface with 4 (mono) outputs. Otherwise you cannot monitor and hear what the effect (connected to outputs already) is doing to the sound. So if that's the way you are planning to go, consider such an interface with 4 outputs.

[BONES]

(I actually agree that in quite a few areas, you get what you pay for...)

I've never really found that to be true. Yes, if you pay $4k you'll get a Core i9 and for $2k you'll only get a Core i5 machine, but sometimes the cheap stuff works really, really well. All my interfaces would qualify as "cheap and nasty" but they all do what I bought them to do really well. Everyone raves about RME's stuff but I honestly can't see what I'd get for paying all that money. OK, I might get lower latency but I'm perfectly happy with the latency I am getting now, so why would I bother paying that massive premium?

I think that what this thread ultimately shows is that we all over-think everything these days because the internet makes it easy to do. 25 years ago, you'd get to play around with something in a shop for an hour and then you'd have to decide if it was worth the multi-thousand dollar asking price or not. Now we go through this analysis paralysis, trying to make sure every penny we spend is a perfect investment. I'm pretty sure we were all much happier when we made a decision and lived with the consequences.

[FapFilter]

RME are great, but by no means a requirement for kick ass results.
their strongest points are on the "professional" side as you pretty much don't have to worry that your new investment might be a dud, it will be one of the most stable interfaces on the market, it will have one of the lowest latencies available, and that it will be fully supported for "decades"
that's it mostly. of course you pay a good bit for these features, which are important of course too, but it's not because of some magically superior sounding results compared to decent products of the competition. unless you need to record at 16 samples buffer size (which of course will easily kill your CPU, but hey)