# New desktop, new audio interface



## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Picked up a new desktop yesterday. My old interfaces won't work with it, so it's time for a new one.

There are lots of great options if you're looking for a handful of channels. But I have some older gear that I want to keep in my setup. Here's what I'm looking for:

At least four line inputs for external preamps. (For two stereo preamps.)
Optical input for ADAT lightpipe. Bonus points for S/MUX, which allows for 8 channels at 96kHz. (For an 8 channel pre.)
BNC output for wordclock.
S/PDIF RCA input (for digital output from Kemper)
Oh, and less than a grand please. 😆

Believe it or not, such a rare unicorn exists. The PreSonus 1824c might do the trick. I have an old Focusrite Octopre that needs BNC wordclock to keep the jitters away. If not for that, I'd have more options.

My other option is to screw the ADAT and just go analog out on the Octopre. But that means more analog inputs on an interface. One weird option I found was this Mackie DL16s. It actually sounds like fun. Hook it up a laptop or USB hard drive and go record on location. You can control stuff wirelessly using a tablet. But it only records at 48kHz, which isn't a dealbreaker, but with a new computer, I do want to explore recording at 96kHz.

Anything else out there in recording land that I've missed?

Update: I found there's also the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20. I'm a bit reluctant to go with Focusrite for audio interfaces, though. I had a Sapphire 8 channel years ago that was just awful. It was glitchy, with noticable latency and noise.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

I really wish I understood all that! My desktop died, I have it at my IT friends right now, it needs a hard drive and a power supply. I would like to add some inputs to go to Daw. I am using USB would like to increase to 4or8 tracks in the future. 

Any suggestions?


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

MarkM said:


> I really wish I understood all that! My desktop died, I have it at my IT friends right now, it needs a hard drive and a power supply. I would like to add some inputs to go to Daw. I am using USB would like to increase to 4or8 tracks in the future.
> 
> Any suggestions?


The PreSonus 1824c is probably the one I'm going for and probably the one I'd recommend if you need extra preamps. Just be aware, your computer needs to have USB C ports (like new Android cellphones).

Otherwise, close runner up is the Focusrite 18i20. I think it uses a regular USB port. I'd recommend buying from L&M and testing thoroughly first. Like anything, return it if it's glitchy.

Both of these solutions are all-in-one, which is handy.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

How do you connect this to the desktop?


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

MarkM said:


> How do you connect this to the desktop?


Through a single USB cable. Any interface you buy should come with one. The nice thing about these all-in-one interfaces is that you can hook up your recording monitors (speakers) and control level as well.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

Appreciate that @Grab n Go , it looks like USB-C is the future connection. I seen quite a few adapters from different connections, wonder if they work as well as direct connections.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

RME Babyface. Been up & down this road for over a year. Bit the bullet yesterday. $1206.32 at Studio Economik.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

I considered the Presonus you mentioned and bought the Scarlett 18i20 3gen instead. It's nice and I like it. Not glitchy at all. Comes with USB C port and a C to A cable or use with your own C to C cable. 

I'm not a fan of the bundled software. Focusrite Control is OK but the Ableton and ProTools versions included aren't great for what I do. Reaper is far more useable which means I would have been well off considering the Mackie just for simple bulk inputs and conversion with no bells and whistles. 

MOTU also has some good new stuff that came out after I bought mine that would have been in the running if I had waited a few more months. 

I don't regret my purchase it works well and does what it should. There are others too. I don't find an interface is a piece of gear I bond with or feel strongly about like an amp or instrument. It does its thing so I can do mine that's all.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

KapnKrunch said:


> RME Babyface. Been up & down this road for over a year. Bit the bullet yesterday. $1206.32 at Studio Economik.


Thanks, I've thought about the Babyface. I'm not keen on the breakout cable, though. It would be kind of awkward with my setup.

I've seen a couple of good deals on a used Fireface. It's something I'm considering.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> I considered the Presonus you mentioned and bought the Scarlett 18i20 3gen instead. It's nice and I like it. Not glitchy at all. Comes with USB C port and a C to A cable or use with your own C to C cable.
> 
> I'm not a fan of the bundled software. Focusrite Control is OK but the Ableton and ProTools versions included aren't great for what I do. Reaper is far more useable which means I would have been well off considering the Mackie just for simple bulk inputs and conversion with no bells and whistles.
> 
> ...


Exactly, it's a tool that does the job. Glad to hear that the Scarlett isn't glitchy. Looks like they stepped up their game.

I do like MOTU as well, but I find their price point and features aren't as attractive as some of the other options.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

My decision was based on advice from full-time professionals. 

Whatever deficiencies the BabyFace may have there are three main arguments: 

1) lowest possible latency
2) highest audio quality
3) best compatibility with Windows, Mac and iOs

The BF provides the same professional level as RME's big boys. 

I make amateur demo's, so maybe a pro-sumer unit would be fine. But for the difference in price I took their advice and went for a smaller portion of top quality rather than quantity. It helps that I have good outboard gear to feed the BF. It will be set up for routing to recording and PA, and then forgotten.

If I needed more than the BF, I would save for the UFX.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

KapnKrunch said:


> My decision was based on advice from full-time professionals.
> 
> Whatever deficiencies the BabyFace may have there are three main arguments:
> 
> ...


Years ago, a friend of mine was running an RME Fireface (RME's first USB interface, I believe.) I think Apogee was the gold standard for AD/DA conversion at the time and RME was considered on par with Apogee.

I hear you about going for a smaller portion of top quality. There's an old recording cliche about your signal only being as good as the weakest link in your chain. So if you have great outboard gear to begin with, then it makes sense to go with something like RME.

My whole signal chain (mics, preamps and monitors) is at the same pro-sumer level. It's sort of a hold-over from when I used to record full bands. All that stuff is discontinued and probably worthless now. But they're solid tools that do the job. As long as I can track clean and hear everything well, then I'm a happy camper.


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Grab n Go said:


> track clean and hear everything well,


Not hard today with the quality of gear at all levels. Even a phone on a voice & acoustic performance can be good.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

I made my choice yesterday and decided to go with... the Focusrite 18i20. I was set to get the PreSonus 1824c, but I realized it would only allow 4 channels of ADAT at 96kHz rather than a full 8. The Focusrite has two ADAT inputs, allowing for a full 8 channels at 96kHz.

I rearranged things a bit, took out the old Octopre and set everything up. Installing the drivers and software was quick and painless. I did a quick check of all the inputs. The ADAT connection seems to be working nicely. 

It took me a while to figure out the S/PDIF input. It wasn't seeing the digital output from the Kemper. I finally tried switching the wordclock sync to the Kemper. Bingo. That did the trick. ADAT still seems okay with that too.

I'm using the Focusrite for monitoring too. Playback tests sound clean and smooth. I hate to admit it, but I think people were right about the Mackie Big Knob that I was using up until now. I think it was adding some colouration.

The basics seem to be working fine. The real test will be with a DAW once I install all my software. But so far, so good.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

KapnKrunch said:


> Not hard today with the quality of gear at all levels. Even a phone on a voice & acoustic performance can be good.


Very true. I never fuss about audio during a video shoot. I know that any preamp I use, whether on camera, or on a Zoom field recorder, will be more than up to the task.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

MarkM said:


> Appreciate that @Grab n Go , it looks like USB-C is the future connection. I seen quite a few adapters from different connections, wonder if they work as well as direct connections.


By the way, the USB C is on the device itself. The other end of the cable that connects to your computer is regular rectangular USB A. I'm not sure why I thought a USB C port was required.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

I figured that out, until this thread I did not know how USB works. I have a 8 channel Mackie USB board that has 2 interface channels. I did not know how to multi track, the 18i8 is all I need and reaper. 8 tracks is what I learnt on, some small mixers is in the cards for me. It's just right for me.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

@Grab n Go please give us an update on how this is working?


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

MarkM said:


> @Grab n Go please give us an update on how this is working?


I still haven't had a chance to properly test it yet. But either this weekend or next weekend, I'm planning on setting up some mics on my daughter's drum kit. Just for fun. (Once I can find my mic stands. I'm pretty sure I have more than one boom stand...)


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

Keep us updated, I enjoy learning from others experiences!


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

I finally got around to setting up mics on the kit yesterday. 

I spent the better part of the day digging out old recording gear, which led to a general cleanup of some storage space.

Since I'm a bit rusty, I also spent a bit of time researching different ways of setting up drum overhead mics. I'm really glad I did. I found this great site that teaches a method offering a lot of flexibility, while staying phase coherent. In other words, it takes the guesswork out of the mic placement and improves the sound.

I ended up going with overhead mics set up similar to the Recorderman style, but according to the new setup technique that I learned. It basically involves taking a 92" string and taping it to the centre of the snare and kick drum. When you pick up the string and pull the slack out of it, you end up with a moveable triangle. You can basically set up any two mics along a flat plane as long as they are within reach of that triangle. Pretty cool! I wish I had learned this years ago.

I used seven mics: two for overheads, one for kick, one for snare, one for each rack tom, one for the floor tom. I should mention, this whole experiment is kinda nerfed because this drum kit is set up for low volume practice. It currently has mesh heads and low volume cymbals. It gets useable tone, but it's not ideal. Cymbals sound great, though. Someday I'll get the real heads back on it.

I ran everything into the Octopre, back into the Scarlett 18i20 (via ADAT lightpipe). I set up everything in Reaper and I was getting signal. That's good. The inputs are labelled strangely in Reaper. It's basically Analog input 1-8 and Digital input 1-10. It took me a while to figure out that the ADAT inputs start at 3. Digital input 1-2 is reserved for the S/PDIF.

Monitoring check. I was getting sound from my monitors, but not the headphones. Hmmm. I opened up the Focusrite mix control program. After some fussing about, I figured out that there's this weird option that links all the monitoring controls (including headphones) together via the main monitor control. Unchecking that for my headphones outputs allowed me to control them separately from the mains.

After that, I had to set levels by myself by playing a bit on the kit. I'm a crappy drummer and my daughter was already in bed by this point. Playing it back, I was impressed by how well the new mic technique worked. Clear stereo image on the overheads. When I panned the tom mics to match, they blended in nicely. It sounds true to life. It really makes me want to get the real drum heads on there.

It also inspired me to loop a few sections and write a new bass line. I haven't done anything like that in a while. Looking forward to testing the setup out with my daughter today. I might find a way to have this set up semi-permanently because it's a much more fun way to write.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

The thing with the 18i20 is the crazy amount of configurable outs
I didn't realize in advance to set aside some resources for bigger video monitors so two windows of DAW and Focusrite Control can all be visible at once without overlap clutter. Maybe your brain can flip back and forth between windows and remember what all is running in the background more effectively than mine can but I need to see it all at the same time which ends up as a lot of screen in addition to a lot of audio
j


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> The thing with the 18i20 is the crazy amount of configurable outs
> I didn't realize in advance to set aside some resources for bigger video monitors so two windows of DAW and Focusrite Control can all be visible at once without overlap clutter. Maybe your brain can flip back and forth between windows and remember what all is running in the background more effectively than mine can but I need to see it all at the same time which ends up as a lot of screen in addition to a lot of audio
> j


I didn't find it too bad. First four outputs I let the DAW handle (for my main monitors and my Avantones). Only the headphones outputs are handled differently. I'll probably save a preset on the Focusrite control. That should make it a bit easier. Just set and forget. Same with a Reaper template for drum inputs.

I suppose I could have used my old Mackie Big Knob to keep the monitoring all analog, but it's nice to have one less thing in the signal path.


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