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Get familiar with the reaction system: Introducing the Reaction System
need good quality stereo ADC
Having tested the quality of my laptop's DAC and found it wanting,
and needing a good quality ADC to digitize some precious R2R tapes,
I started looking on Amazon. Another nice capability would be to provide phantom power
so I could use a mike with ARTA or REW.
Looks like it comes down to 2 solutions: Focusrite or Presonus.
Any experience with either?
But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
Comments
I wasn't a big fan of Focusrite's driver support back when I had a gen1 2i2. That was a few years back, they seemed to support mac development a lot more than Windows at that time. I'm sure the Presonus is fine, the layout of the front of it I'm not a big fan of, with all the knobs crammed together at the right side, input adjustment arranged vertically though the physical wiring is horizontal, not great. I can certainly vouch for Steinberg, great hardware for the price and a solid driver too, they did develop the ASIO driver specification after all.
If you want to step up from that, Motu is the best bang/buck there, a step up from the Steinberg I use both in the electronic internals and cost.
Steinberg:
https://www.amazon.com/Steinberg-UR22C-Interface-Cubase-Cubasis/dp/B07YFH671V/ref=sr_1_3?crid=15VH5FW3CYSCV&keywords=steinberg+ur22&qid=1660166359&sprefix=steinberg+ur22,aps,141&sr=8-3
Motu:
https://www.amazon.com/MOTU-M2-USB-C-Audio-Interface/dp/B0812B26TN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3P14M92EJPDSC&keywords=motu+m2&qid=1660166398&sprefix=motu+m2,aps,148&sr=8-1
I use a Focusrite 18i8 V2 for recording music. Seems nice enough, but I'd be the last to say it's specs are everything you'll ever want. From what I've read the V2 stuff is a big step above the V1, with the V3 Abit better than V2. The Scarlett Solo is pretty affordable.
Apple USB-C to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter https://a.co/d/38jZ2yC
Could be all you need. Worth the $8.
Nice device, but I need to record analog, not a headphone output.
Thanks bruh!
Coming from a (real old school) music recording background, I love the MOTU input and output meters. ALWAYS helpful to be able to see your gain structure. MOTU for the win!
Yeah, the Motu is a nice unit, if I was buying today I would definitely go that route. You'd be suprised how often this type of device comes in handy just as a portable DAC to get quality audio out of a laptop, or maybe one day you'll want to have a video call or make a recording with better quality audio than your laptop mic...just plug in any vocal mic and have at 'er. One benefit the Steinberg has in this regard is the mixing knob, to mix the audio from your PC with the input for monitoring in your headphones or whatever. Motu has this if you move up to the M4.
Steinberg has very functional peak indicator LEDs, but no level indication. Mind you, both REW and ARTA have level indication in the software as well.
The usb adapter does have an ADC for the inline microphones. Unfortunately, it is mono. Stereo jumps up to $18 for 2