Audio interface buying guide for me

[T-CM11]

Vignesh, can you do a simple test? Load the Synth1 plugin (known to be light weight) in an empty project. How do you experience latency as you play now?

I find latency a hard subject to talk about (especially online, to strangers). People seem to have different sensitivities. e.g. I find it hard to believe that someone finds 10 ms "unusable"... yet, that's what some people say/experience

[BertKoor]

23 years ago my setup was two SoundBlasters, which turned my PC into a 4-track recorder. Each had a RTL of 12ms. Comparable a buffer size of 200 samples. I find it's a bit too long, you get away with it for vocals, not with percussion. Unless you compensate. Drummers with electronic kits need to do that anyway.

Point is, anything with ASIO should do 64 or 32 samples, making latency totally moot.

[zerocrossing]

I would like a lower latency

The lowest stable latency I’ve ever had was when I had a RME FireFace. Great and stable drivers too.

…and able to load more instruments/plugins. What specs do I need to look when buying an audio interface?

The amount of instruments/plugins are not a function of your audio interface, unless you’re talking about physical instruments, and then it’s good to have an interface with as many analog inputs as possible. Plugins, otoh, no real effect by the interface. That said, UAD makes interfaces that actually have on board DSP that run their own plugins. I have one, and it works great, especially for low latency live recording. They’re not VSTs, or anything, but they do have VST “versions” that just channel audio data to and from your instrument tracks. This does have a bit of a latency hit, so doing it this way is something I only do during mix-down.

[morelia]

Just on the latency. I have used a Focusrite 6i6 for several years now. I thought it was fine for audio input latency. But when I connected to the device with stable low latency it was like a revelation. Suddenly it became like playing an acoustic guitar. The sound was coming straight from my fingertips.

[vignesh.vijay]

Vignesh, can you do a simple test? Load the Synth1 plugin (known to be light weight) in an empty project. How do you experience latency as you play now?

No I do not with low buffer sizes .. But when I hit 524 or 1028 samples, I notice some latency.

[rod_zero]

Most brand have crappy drivers on windows, even expensive brands.

RME and Steinberg provide good drivers for windows computers, stable and able to achieve low latency. The drivers are the real difference between audio interfaces, no matter how goo components are if they don't have goo drivers the performance will be poor.

[vignesh.vijay]

Which one on Steinberg?

[rod_zero]

Which one on Steinberg?

Any, they use the same drivers, just pick one form the UR lane that fits your budget.

[BertKoor]

when I hit 524 or 1028 samples, I notice some latency.

Even then, it depends... on your chosen sampling rate. I asked yours some pages back.
If your sampling rate is 192kHz, then the theoretical minimum latency of 512 samples is 5ms.
If your sampling rate is 44.1kHz, then the theoretical minimum latency of 1024 samples is 23ms.

Around 10ms seems indeed to be the threshold of what people find tolerable.

Again, the major contributor in what buffer size you need to let a project play without issues, is CPU usage. So my message is (again) that in your case switching audio interface is not likely to make the latency situation considerable better. It might shave off 1ms, so you go from 15ms to 14ms. That is the realistic difference I expect it makes.

[vignesh.vijay]

Again, the major contributor in what buffer size you need to let a project play without issues, is CPU usage. So my message is (again) that in your case switching audio interface is not likely to make the latency situation considerable better. It might shave off 1ms, so you go from 15ms to 14ms. That is the realistic difference I expect it makes.

Got it. Thanks for the clear explanation.
So if audio interface does not account much for latency, why do audio interfaces vary so much in price?
Is it the mic-preamp and audio quality?
What is the basic difference between (steinberg UR 22C or Apogee Boom) and (Apogee duet or RME Baby face)?
I see duet and babyface priced so much higher. For my type of user, would it be worth spending so much?

[vurt]

you'd need to test them side by side in a shop
only you can decide if the difference you perceive is worth the expense.

are you hoping to make money or is it just a hobby?
do you feel your vocal recordings are not up to par?
aside from the latency issue, you hadn't mentioned any sonic deficiency?

[2DaT]

Around 10ms seems indeed to be the threshold of what people find tolerable.

And 5ms feels responsive even for tactile instruments.

Luckily it is around 64@44.1K which all modern computers and interfaces should handle no problem.

Also make sure it's using ASIO drivers, as it's way better with small buffers.

Even 10 years ago 64@44.1K wasn't a problem. And it shouldn't be a problem with named hardware. If your CPU can't handle the high load at low buffer sizes, it's one thing. But the latency of the interface itself isn't that impactful.

[vignesh.vijay]

you'd need to test them side by side in a shop
only you can decide if the difference you perceive is worth the expense.

are you hoping to make money or is it just a hobby?
do you feel your vocal recordings are not up to par?
aside from the latency issue, you hadn't mentioned any sonic deficiency?

Music making is not my hobby. Although I dont make a ton of money right now. I'm looking to get a lot of high quality demos done and looking for a breakthrough.

So an audio interface with decent preamp and high quality playback will help me greatly.

Also, don't want to spend a ton of money because I'm looking to upgrade my computer next year which is gonna cost me a lot anyway.

I am not looking for many inputs/outputs. Just one Mic for vocals and one pair of monitors and a headphone is all I have.

[2DaT]

Music making is not my hobby. Although I dont make a ton of money right now. I'm looking to get a lot of high quality demos done and looking for a breakthrough.

So an audio interface with decent preamp and high quality playback will help me greatly.

It won't make a ton of difference quality wise.

You already have decent hardware to begin with. It is totally capable of low latency performance with moderate amount of FX.

5 Years ago that would be top of the line CPU and interface is okayish too.

If you can't run 64 samples @ 44.1K during the recording, there is something wrong with your setup or workflow. You aren't supposed to use lots of processing when recording.

Now depending on a definition of "quality", you might get better results by using a condenser mic and/or soundproofing the room itself. Interface itself has almost nothing to do with quality as long as it's not a terrible one.

[kritikon]

So if audio interface does not account much for latency, why do audio interfaces vary so much in price?
Is it the mic-preamp and audio quality?
What is the basic difference between (steinberg UR 22C or Apogee Boom) and (Apogee duet or RME Baby face)?
I see duet and babyface priced so much higher. For my type of user, would it be worth spending so much?

No, it's probably not worth you spending that much money. Definitely some difference in mic pre-amps but some mid-range ones have pretty good ones. Definitely good enough. RME are known for their drivers & stability. TBH as with any tech gear - quite a lot is down to marketing and perception. Is an RME worth 4 times another decent interface? Not to me. But I bet anyone who bought one is going to defend it strongly because they're never going to own up to wasting their money. I used to have a very expensive 10-out interface (they went belly up, so there were no more drivers for new OSs and eventually I had to bin it) and TBH my Yamaha-Steinberg interface is every bit as good in terms of DACs and drivers as that one ever was. It also apparently has quite good preamps (but I rarely if ever use them so I couldn't say for sure).

Build quality is likely a real thing. I doubt RMEs are flimsy, but then most mid-range ones aren't either. And really...how much abuse does an interface get with most people? It sits there in your studio and never gets touched mostly, so it absolutely does not have to be made of adamantium. The only time I ever touch mine is on the rare occasion I record vocals to plug in a mic, and to twiddle the DAW/input mix knob, so I guess you want sturdy knobs (oo-er missus).

For me (and I do like some expensive gear) the interface is one of those at the bottom of the list, with ever decreasing returns of quality for increasing spend. I like good monitors, fancy hw synths and have been known to go silly on amps, but I feel spending $1k on an interface is not for me. And I can afford it. Get a mid-range one and save your money for your next PC upgrade - that is way, way, way more important especially for sw, latency etc.