HIGH END vs AFFORDABLE Audio Interface! A 9000$ difference! (including multitracks) 

Which audio interfaces (and mic pres) are you guys using to record drums?

A well known producer once said, "If I have to listen to something more than three times in order to hear a difference, then I'm no longer interested in what that difference is." Some wisdom in there somewhere, I think.

Wow! Kristian the detail you go to here is superb! Thanks ever so much for sharing!

I can’t believe you do all of this work just for these comparisons. Comparisons that are so well done that most people wouldn’t be able to wrap their minds around, and skip over. Yet you do it anyways. Thanks!!!!

What a fair comparison, it’s incredible how accurate you were giving fair conditions for both, RU-vid needs more people like you man 🔥🔥🔥

Amazing video and tbh pretty much the result I was hoping for (and expecting). What awesome times we are living in - spend 1000 bucks for a killer sounding 24 channel setup. Unbelievable. Thanks a lot for all the effort that went into making this video!

Thank you for taking the time, and putting in the work to do such a comprehensive test. Enlightening.

Love this shootout!!! I listened with headphones and found the API just had this slight weight on the lower end, super subtle though and the cost difference is pretty huge for a small difference! well done

Love these types of tests. The stock quality of preamps and converters nowadays is great

Mmm....It took me a while to realize that you were already switching between setups! That's just WOW! Thank you for this comparision!

I have been researching the EVO as an affordable ADDA/preamp rig for exactly this purpose and this is exactly the kind of comparison I wanted to see! Thanks so much for taking the time to do a proper like-for-like test man. Subscribed!

Great video, thanks for putting so much effort into setting this up and sharing

Just did my first session with my Evo 16 into a MacBookPro and was really impressed! Five channels for drums, one for bass, one for guitar, and one for vocals. Considering how easy it was to get levels with the Smartgain feature and how affordable it was, I think it’s a game changer!

Thanks Kohle for this! Both setups sound great.

great test! I'm not surprised and glad it confirms what I already thought. On some super cheap interfaces, there can be issues with noisy preamps, but that's about it. Latency is another consideration, but most are pretty close there too. I've only upgraded for a few reasons: more channels, one developed super scratchy preamps that I couldn't fix that rendered it mostly useless, one had bad issues with drivers and crashing all the time, and my current Scarlett 18i20 has been flawless and I love it.

Great video idea, nice to see you playing drums! :D

Great video as always! Thank you very much!

Amazing job!!! Insane comparison!👏👏👏

Amazing! Technology has come so far anyone can do professional recordings with the right gear and knowledge, and save a lot of money in the process!

Not surprised this video showed up for me, the search algorithm being what it is these days.... but this is exactly what I'm researching right now, and you laid it out beautifully. Thanks for doing this.

Thanks for this vid, Kristian! BTW, cool grooves :)

Hugely helpful comparison 🤘

Love the comparison! Both sound amazing. I can only hear a tiny difference, and definitely not $9,000 worth of difference. Thanks again!

Man -- this is excellent. I've been looking at all the ways I could expand my setup for tracking by leveraging the ADAT/Optical ins I have with my Apollos (Cranborne 500ADAT, UA 4-710), and now this looks like it may have become the frontrunner. I used a good set of headphones to listen and the only thing I heard as even a slight difference was a bit more topend on the Audient. Thanks for doing this Kohle!

Great as always!🤘

This makes me feel quite proud of my little EVO 4. Thanks!

Great, awesome video Kris

thats awesome, tx for the great a/b test

Awesome! My favourite as the API/SSL combo. But what if you use the API's into the line inputs of the evo and compare that to the SSL AD ? Cheers for your lessons.

Thank you for this. I’m amazed!

Love it man. This is amazing.

Havent followed long but my favorite part was seeing you on drums for the first time. Like it. Also. Great video like usual. Cheers for your inspiration and wisdom brotha.

Great comparison Kristian! Now I got my eyes on that Audient EVO preamp 😎

Very informative! Looking forward to acoustic recordings/.

Very slight difference, thanks a lot!

Dude thank you!!! This is the review I was looking for! The Evo line doesn’t get enough attention imho

You're content is consistently fire,Hombre. Big thanks,but I'm saying this video is almost exhausting -- every minute is solid good-to-know info and no doubts you put in the work so we didn't have to. I wish we all had big SSL boards,except....why? Amazing options nowadayz

Now, this is what a test should be like! Perfect!

I came here for a shootout and you delivered. Thanks for doing this! So few people do a proper comparison. Well done. Da kannst du Gift drauf nehmen.

Great content, and thank you for the detail! Would love to see a labeled diagram of the various setups you're discussing, with you doing voiceover. Like, PowerPoint art of the instruments showing the mics, the splitters, the different interfaces, etc.

audient makes great stuff! i own an id4 mkii, previously owned the first id4, and wouldn't change for nothing else in that budget range. pretty awesome stuff!

Great video Kristian, thanks danke.

I've been looking to upgrade as well. I"m considering the Evo 16 as well so this was a nice video to watch to get some more info. I love Audient gear. Learned on a ASP 8024 HE. Love that console. It has a lot of character.

interesting contribution. Was not aware of you guys have special kick mic over there. However the comparison you make seems fascinating and helps me at my decision. thx

Really nice test! Listening to the recordings from my top-quality mastering room tells me that, sure, I absolutely prefer the API/SSL without a doubt since those recordings got some of the details you would expect from high-quality preamps, but the Audient is really not that far behind. It would be interesting to hear a comparison with the API preamps going into the Audient converters ;)

I bought an EVO16 just a few months ago and its auto gain feature is realy handy for recording drums on your own. Altho I found myself adjusting the gain again sometimes, but most of the time it's fine.

Interesting! I'm using an older Audient interface for drums - ASP 880. Big fan of theirs. I might have missed this in the video but what sample rate did you use? It could be interesting to test the interfaces at different sample rates and see if a bigger difference shows up there. Awesome video, as we've come to expect!

Amazing video!!!! Thank you so much

I bought the Evo 16 last august as a birthday present for myself, as an upgrade from my focusrite 2i4. The Evo 16 is awesome, i`m very happy with it!! This video confirms i made a good choice, haha ;-). Great video, cheers!!

They were so close in sound, it’s crazy but if I was to dig that deep, the audient sounded great on the snare n overheads, but I liked the API/SSL setup on the kick n toms. Great video!

Thanks for the video, it is very self-explaining, I think it will be very interesting to see an extension about how the audio from both sources behave in a mixing scenario with the same plug-ins, I believe there must be some sort of curiosity in that matter.

Fascinating to hear the difference, thanks for the comparison! I have a hugely complicated drum recording set up atm but now Evo has sent me the 16 & SP8, I think I'll just track through them and mix analog as I've been doing! 🔥

I ordered the EVO16 right away when it was available last summer. Great interface, great features, and I never had any sound issues with it although there are reviews out there that say otherwise. Only feature that I am missing is an option to start smart gain from the mixer app or remote - or with a pre set delay start.

I bought the EVO4 and I absolutely love it. Only reason I want the 8 is because on the 4 the headphone Jack stops the output jacks from working. So you can’t listen out loud and on the headphones.

Thanks for doing this comparison. I'm always interested in the differences between high end gear and budget friendly gear and to my 60 year old ears, I really could not tell the difference in this case.

Amazing work, Thank you so much for your effort and transparency! Audient products are a blessing for the whole industry. I use an iD4 for my mobile vocal setup and it sounds fantastic. the preamp can handle a sm7b without any noise. the evo line would definitely be my choice if i would build a drumroom. mindblowing how that could significantly lift the budget for acoustic treatment, drumkit, mics, cables etc you name it without a sacrifice in audio quality. love your stuff man! Grüße aus Österreich!

I don't think it's possible to recognize the difference in a RU-vid video, but I see that the Evo 16 sounds amazing. Thanks for the comparison

I just stumbled upon your channel. Nice work dude!

Wow. Couldn't hear a diff on my Apple airpod pro. Will listen n studio on my Eve Sc408 tomorrow. Usually I find that I hear a difference when actually start working with the files, rather than just listening. Another good video. Thanks!

I love it! Not surprised

Hey Kristian , greeeeaaat video, I've downloaded the multitracks and I'm listening it with my Amphion two15, the same beasts as you 've got in your studio !!!

If you still have the Audient kit setup it would be interesting to hear how it sounds with an external preamp set up in front of it. For example with the API pre, does that sound still come across or does the Audient colour it significantly?

Interesting timing with this video, as I'm in the same boat! I bought an Audient ID14 not so long ago that I love as a desktop unit, but I'm looking to eventually sell my 1st gen rack mount Apollo and all my external mic pres to buy something like the PreSonus StudioLive 24R and control all the preamp gain from their app. I just don't think the juice is worth the squeeze with high end preamps anymore (with this video confirming my bias), and with something like the PreSonus you get 24 mic pres in a 2U rack space.

This is a great review.

Those ssl converters are ancient and are anything but high end compared to what’s out there now. The evo stuff is good for budget stuff. Best for the price is the slate vrs8 - about $500 used and smokes everything until you get into prism or aurora stuff.

Thaaaaanks, man! ❤❤❤

I just bought this exact setup for my studio, which includes 13 mics on drums. So far, it's utterly amazing. I came from FocusWRONG Clarett 8 Pre and Octopre. The auto gain feature is beyond amazing. It sets it perfectly. As a solo musician/engineer this saves SO much time! It's not only super quick, it sounds legitimately amazing! Took mere minutes to setup. I'm officially a fan!

I was expecting the API to be an obvious choice, because it does a certain thing for drums, I've heard it time and time again. I'm positively shocked that in terms of what API does audient nailed. If it was sold as a 512 clone at 500/channel in 500 format, most folks would buy into it with blind listening. It seriously sounds more like the 512 than half the clones do. It's a great time to be alive

Great video! some of my thoughts: API/SSL is more punchy in the mid range on the kick and snare (as you mentioned), which is what API is known for (as you may know being an owner) and why people buy it. It is more pronounced when pushed a tad too (not done here as you mentioned). You may not use this feature, but I definitely do. I tried pushing my Audient ID14 and it clips BAD without a way to fix that. Good thing I don't use the mic pres on it and just the ADAT. That's the reason to spend a ton of money on preamps is for that color and texture. At the end of the day, Audient isn't competing with API/SSL and the fact that it gets as close as it does, is super impressive! This is major competition for focusrite who's downside is their pres (though not as bad as it used to be). I'll be recommending this interface to a LOT of people looking for mutlichannel interfaces in the future! thanks for the video! I also want to add that the real context of the clarity of pres/converters is how it sits in a mix with transient response, not just tone. Cheap preamps will need to be worked harder to sit in the mix while a good pre just fits right in. I got a feeling these will do just fine though. Great job Audient! It continues to amaze me how great low end gear is getting these days. Also why did you opt for the splitters over a patchbay with mults? I feel like it could have been cheaper? Well if you already own a patchbay.

Pretty awesome. As you mentioned late in the video, there is probably a fair bit more difference once you drive stuff. All my high end pres pretty much sound the same when you leave headroom, but when you start driving them or even compressing them downstream and their detail comes up in level it changes thing. Still super impressive though.

Very good work!!! :)

This video couldn't have come at a better time, I'm in the market for something to get 16 inputs. I'd love to see a video of you doing a mix using the converters in each of those setups!!! I'm wondering how good the converters are, to mix through, compared to the SSL. 🤘🏻🤘🏻

Nice video thanks man. Would be interesting to hear this same comparison across a number of interfaces at the same time, RME/UAD/Apogee. I have just bought an Apogee desktop symphony and have already been thinking about how I might expand that unit via ADAT without sacrificing conversion quality too much. Seems like I won’t have to go too crazy as even the cheaper products out there put out good sound

Thank you!!

I just noticed your headphone mixerin the live room. Is that the Behringer system? I'm looking at getting something like that for my studio. Have you done any videos on setting up monitoring via Pro Tools/UAD console or similar setup?

Great test.

Surprisingly I thought the API setup sounded a bit darker on the high frequencies. I think the Audient has a more open and clear high end. What RTL can you achieve with the Audient?

Thanks so much!!!

Very interesting comparison. Thanks for the video. I certainly didn't hear a difference on either speakers or headphones.

Thanks for all this effort. I hear a difference in the clapy mids of the ssl/api, they’re more pronounced there in a saturated way maybe, sounds nice. Maybe it’s psychoacoustic. Sounds nice both ways

I can hear the differences when the kit is completely summed together and I can hear it clearly. The EVO definitely has more high end details (good, bad and indifferent) where the API/SSL has a tighter less washy sound. I believe that the differences are more in the mic pre than in the conversion itself. The Audient conversion is amazing as is the SSL, I have an Orion 32+ GEN 3 and it has shown me that with gr8 conversion you will hear the mic and pre amp differences more accurately. what would be more interesting to hear is what does the API sounds like when using conversion only with the EVO? Thanks for a gr8 video as always.

There is clearly a difference, even to my tinnitus trashed hearing. I so didn't want there to be. Your kit makes those drums sound like an expensive recording straight away, the detail is gorgeous. The less expensive system simply didn't have the same detail, well that's just to my old, severely bashed, hearing anyway! Thanks!

REALLY interesting video. One Question: you are using the mic splitters, which means one goes directly, the other over the transformer. Did you sense any difference?

awesome video! to me api-ssl combo was behaving a touch more 3d. It felt like it would blend better with other instruments in the mix. Audient sounded like typical modern interface - very upfront, but as a 10 years user of affordable interfaces I've found this upfrontness to be a little hard to push back in the mix - not to make it quieter but to make it farer away from the listener. And your api/ssl did had that musical pushback immediately. is it worth the money? well... if I had the money I wouldn't consider and pick the high-end setup

Amazing. The difference if any is so small. Incredible what the quality of converters now can do for such a reduced cost. The lines are totally blurred.

Wow thank you for this serious test! What would be interesting too is to test the USB driver latency ; would it be possible to feed headphones with "no" latency ?

Very good thank you! the first comparison of the whole kit seemed to sound favourably toward the high end gear to me - but the snare/kick comparisons seemed fairly identical 😎 Just as well as I got the evo 16... Cheers.

I wonder how adding some saturation or preamp emulations would affect the Audient tracks. To me the main difference is that the API setup has more harmonic overtones (but subtly), and it sounds just a tad more "like a record" - bigger and deeper. But only a SLIGHT amount! Could you compare other instruments and vocals next? Thanks!

I feel like on any given track the difference is subtle, but when they add up over the whole kit there’s a sense of weight and focus in the midrange on the SSL/API that I just don’t get on the Audients. Whether that’s “better” or not is a matter of taste though.

great video 👍

I got a USB96 and having problems, and I was thinking about buying a new interface so good timing on this vid.

Thx now i'm more in to the audient

I would have liked to hear full mix comparison with all effects and instruments.

Sounds extremely close! Great comparison! I'd bet if you pushed the APIs into distortion a bit they will win for sure, but its a great time to get into audio engineering. Also I'd bet the SSL / API will last a bit longer, but you can use that extra $9k to buy another haha.

I just bought this Audient Evo 16 and it is wonderful! I love the monitor mix ability also the sub-mixes ability! For myself and for my home-studio is wonderful, and the pres... oh my gosh they sound a lot better than those from the Focusrite Scarllet 18i20 that I had before. Love to see you using this one!

I have the focusrite 18i8, allowing me to have 4 mics, on the market for a 8 preamp one, might consider this one

I love this video! Can u please do Audient ASP 880 vs API or Neve?

Super Test. Danke und liebe Grüße ✌🏻

Evo sounds a touch more muffled in comparison but the difference is tiny and surely does not match the price difference. Awesome job and video Kristian!

Great video. Im on the hunt as well