USB sound cards, what are you using?

[miha]

I'm in the market for a USB sound card, looking to spend about 100€ and since a lot of people here have experience with recording I'm interested in what gear you are using and what to look out for. I know there must be a million forum threads all around the interwebz, but I'd like to get some input from people on here. The one that really caught my eye was a Behringer umc-404hd, it has 4 preamps and a lot of other goodies for 110€.
Any input on this would be great!

[jimilee]

I'm using the Scarlett solo. Behringer preamps aren't quite as useful.


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[Willybomb]

Focusrite 18i8

The Behringer ADAwhatever ADAT preamp thing for expanding the number of channels is actually pretty good...

[Aleph Null]

I'm using an M-Audio Fast Track Ultra. They aren't in production anymore, but you can get NOS and refurbished ones at good prices. The Fast Track Pro would be even more cost effective if you don't need the extra mic preamps.

[drolo]

I am also on the market for a sound card so I will be monitoring thread :-)
My old M-Audio 410 keeps causing the bsod on my PC ...

I would gladly have 2 instrument inputs and midi
At the moment I am undecided between a Focusrite scarlett and this https://www.thomann.de/fr/steinberg_ur22_mk2.htm

[raulduke]

I use the Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6.

They were on sale for a while (still might be).

Nice and compact and has what I need.

Look for something with Hi Z buffered inputs so you can plug your guitar straight into the sound card.

[midwayfair]

Near that price the new generation of Scarletts are pretty much the clear winner, though the Steinberg stuff is worth a look used. The previous generation is okay (I mean, I made an album with one, so I can't complain much), and you might be able to get one for substantially less but the preamps in the new ones are much better in terms of noise performance. I'd personally recommend saving just a little more and getting one of the ones that can be powered by a wall adapter -- I think the 6i6 can do both USB power and wall wart. It's just a more stable setup, and the pres in that have more gain if you need it.

Focurite's drivers can be lousy, but they are pretty stable on a mac.

[drolo]

Near that price the new generation of Scarletts are pretty much the clear winner, though the Steinberg stuff is worth a look used. The previous generation is okay (I mean, I made an album with one, so I can't complain much), and you might be able to get one for substantially less but the preamps in the new ones are much better in terms of noise performance. I'd personally recommend saving just a little more and getting one of the ones that can be powered by a wall adapter -- I think the 6i6 can do both USB power and wall wart. It's just a more stable setup, and the pres in that have more gain if you need it.

Focurite's drivers can be lousy, but they are pretty stable on a mac.

I was thinking of getting a scarlett 2i4 mainly because they are supposed to have good preamps but keep reading complaints about their drivers.
As I am on a Windows PC these days it's a bit concerning

Is it a lack of updates? stability? crashes ?

[AllenM]

I have the UMC-404HD and have been very happy with it so far. As you said for the price and features it is a very good value and the MIDAS preamps sound clean and quiet in my setup. I upgraded mainly so I could have 4 Inputs and 4 Outputs and wanted the option of having Instrument level inputs for direct Guitar and Bass input so I can reamp or use amp plugins, my previous interface only had line level/Mic inputs (my DI tracks to not sound right) and only stereo out. Now I am able to have my monitors running all the time and still have outputs to run signals to outboard gear like my Xamp to reamp my guitar DI tracks thru my amps. It also has inserts for the 4 inputs but at this point I am not using those.

AllenM

[Aleph Null]

I was thinking of getting a scarlett 2i4 mainly because they are supposed to have good preamps but keep reading complaints about their drivers.

If you are concerned about drivers, you might consider looking for a USB-standards compliant device. They are few and far between, but being compliant means they should be plug-and-play on any system. I use my M-Audio with a Linux system. I plug it in and it works without installing any additional packages.

This is the best list of compliant devices I have found...not sure how frequently it's updated: http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/hardware_support

[miha]

I have the UMC-404HD and have been very happy with it so far. As you said for the price and features it is a very good value and the MIDAS preamps sound clean and quiet in my setup. I upgraded mainly so I could have 4 Inputs and 4 Outputs and wanted the option of having Instrument level inputs for direct Guitar and Bass input so I can reamp or use amp plugins, my previous interface only had line level/Mic inputs (my DI tracks to not sound right) and only stereo out. Now I am able to have my monitors running all the time and still have outputs to run signals to outboard gear like my Xamp to reamp my guitar DI tracks thru my amps. It also has inserts for the 4 inputs but at this point I am not using those.

AllenM

What OS are you running? I got a warning from a guy at the local store that there were some driver stability problems etc. but didn't find much about that online, just that you need ASIO4ALL. I'll probably go for it and if won't play nice with my computer I'll make a return and look for something else.

I really wasn't looking at Focusrite stuff because it's more expensive than most stuff, but might reconsider.

[jkokura]

I'm still using my Presonus Audiobox VSL 44. I bought it used, with a copy of Studio One Pro, which is by far the best DAW software I've used. I'd recommend.

At some point I'd like to step up to Presonus' rack unit, but for now the 44 does me fine.

Jacob

[AllenM]

I have the UMC-404HD and have been very happy with it so far. As you said for the price and features it is a very good value and the MIDAS preamps sound clean and quiet in my setup. I upgraded mainly so I could have 4 Inputs and 4 Outputs and wanted the option of having Instrument level inputs for direct Guitar and Bass input so I can reamp or use amp plugins, my previous interface only had line level/Mic inputs (my DI tracks to not sound right) and only stereo out. Now I am able to have my monitors running all the time and still have outputs to run signals to outboard gear like my Xamp to reamp my guitar DI tracks thru my amps. It also has inserts for the 4 inputs but at this point I am not using those.

AllenM

What OS are you running? I got a warning from a guy at the local store that there were some driver stability problems etc. but didn't find much about that online, just that you need ASIO4ALL. I'll probably go for it and if won't play nice with my computer I'll make a return and look for something else.

I really wasn't looking at Focusrite stuff because it's more expensive than most stuff, but might reconsider.

I am running Windows 7 Pro, no driver issue so far and I am using the one that I downloaded from Behringer.

AllenM

[stecykmi]

i recently picked up a scarlette 6i6 mk2 and it's working pretty well so far even though it doesn't really have 6 analog i/o's (2 preamp ins, 2 line ins, 4 line outs, with spdif and headphones making up the difference). i had some issues getting the software to work which is used to configure it, but tech support advised me to only install to the default directory which worked.

i had a motu ultralite mk1 which i would say is a better interface (at roughly twice the cost), however i could not get my new pc to work with firewire. i had a lot of compatibility issues with my last computer (frequent bluescreens when turning it on or off), however i liked the more i/o and programmability of it (for example, all the on-board amps had digital gain controls). motu stuff all seems pretty quality and i would consider using more of it however they seem to be leaning towards favouring mac support recently. many of their newest interfaces are controllable with an app, which is mac os only.

i also had a maudio fast track ultra that was pretty good but i sold it when i got the ultralite.

my advice is to figure out how much i/o you need and see what's on the market, then narrow it down by price range. i wouldn't worry about getting usb 3.0 or thunderbolt support yet unless you specifically want a high-end interface. usb 2.0 in my experience seems to be adequate for most applications (not a pro or anything here).