THE AUDIO
With NAMM 2020 revealing a whole new range of Audio Interfaces, choosing one that’s right for you is becoming even more daunting and confusing. Especially for beginners, the choices are immense and the exact advantages are not very clear of one over the other.
First and foremost, when planning to buy a new Audio Interface, the buyer must take into consideration one major factor, what platform are you working on? (Mac or PC)
Considering how Apple changes its IO constantly with each new generation, investing heavily for a Mac platform is risky. For instance, in 2011, apple introduced Firewire which was much faster than USB 2.0 at the time, suddenly stopped equipping their machines with Firewire ports within two years. So anyone who made substantial investments in Firewire Audio Interfaces was now either stuck using their old Mac machines till they planned on purchasing a new Audio Interface or had to change out their Audio Interface when upgrading their Macs.
Having said that, it seems the unified integration of USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt 3 using the same USB C adapter is here to stay in Apple machines for the foreseeable future.
For PC users, USB 2, 3 and 3.1 along with Firewire 800 are the prevalent choices. With thunderbolt support still fickle on Windows, it is not a reliable option even though it is the fastest available connection right now.
For the Pros, Ethernet (Dante) is the most suitable choice for extensive simultaneous IO.
To conclude, USB 3.1 seems to be the safest choice right now for both Mac and PC users but if one is loyal towards Apple, nothing can surpass Thunderbolt’s high speed and solidity.
After you have reduced your options to USB or Thunderbolt, the next thing to consider is the number of simultaneous inputs required. That means up to how many channels of audio one needs to record at the same time. For most small to mid level studios 4 to 8 inputs is enough, but for more extensive setups or drummers in particular, up to 16 channels is a must.
Interfaces with 2 or 4 Preamps are ample. Some even boast up to 8 preamps but that is the maximum number of built in Preamps any interface offers right now. To exceed 8 channels an external ADDA or dedicated external Pre- Amps are required.