WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN CHOOSING YOUR FIRST INTERFACE!! 

Loop back functionality might be handy for some people who’d want to share audio during online meetings.

Unfortunately, most manufacturer specs are... misleading at best. Regarding mic inputs, it seems these days most of them are just talking about the max gain, but as you mentioned, it's not all clean gain. On an Audient iD14, the rated EIN is -129 with only +58 dB of gain, but I can put an SM7B on there, crank it up to a usable level (which, yes, is nearly at max gain), and have a great time, whereas with the same gain but with -128 EIN on the EVO 8 (or -127 on the Focusrite), there is definitely audible noise. You wouldn't think it would matter so much looking at the specs, but spending a bit more on an interface might save you money in the long run if you don't need to buy a booster. A lot of preamps also tend to have more distortion and less flat frequency response at higher gain settings and you won't find that on their spec sheet. Definitely check independent reviews before buying and DO NOT just look at the manufacturer's page. Going above 48 kHz is really mathematically unnecessary when recording or rendering out (I say mathematically because the formula for reconstructing a smooth waveform from samples will construct identical waveforms beyond that), but it can be useful when mixing as certain digital effects (EQs, distortions) can have undesirable artifacts at lower sample rates. In that case, it might be useful to have an interface that can go to 96 kHz, but even then, many effects (or DAWs) just have super sampling built in now so you don't have to worry about it. Dan Worrall has a great video (or several) about the subject, so I highly suggest listening to him and not me as he is much smarter than I. I'll also say that loopback is primarily useful for getting Windows audio into the ASIO driver and vice versa. These are normally two separate drivers that don't talk to each other, but if you have loopback, you can get audio out of your DAW and into, say, OBS. I think people often miss that aspect of it.

Please do the video on more expensive interfaces🙏🙏🙏

In my opinion, Focusrite has always made great higher end interfaces, but they’re 2 channel Solo and Scarlett’s started out with some huge hardware revision problems that have finally been resolved in their later versions. because of this I moved to a different manufacturer that dedicated better quality controls in their R&D before releasing the products.

Great video editing.... bringing in the spec sheets while maintaining your dynamic personal presence on the screen. 🙂 Well done video with the right amount of information for us pre-prosumer users. There is a lot to commend your approach to beginner information. Explain without assuming, but select a subset of the info. You've found a way to strike a good balance there.

I didn't choose my interface. My interface chose me. A Behringer UM2. 😂😂

This video tutorial was very helpful. Thank you!

Great content and well laid out! Thanks for creating and sharing! 🤘

Good rundown. This is a great time to buy an interface. The Evo 4 has been a workhorse for me...just bought a 4th gen Scarlett 2i2. It is outstanding. On a side note, nice drawing....still don't understand why you got turned down at art school 😁

Oh no, you almost went stair step with resolution.... naughty. After nyquist sample rate is superfluous. A sine wave at 192k will null with a sine wave at 44.1k. More complex waveform may exhibit some "extra stuff" in the high end, but certainly nothing game changing. If you're recording things that fly way above 20k, (bats... see what i did there) then you need a higher sample rate for the fundamental to be captured, but for almost everything we do in studio and video... 48 is more than enough. Most professional studios are recording at 48K by default (I've worked out of many, Power Station in NYC for example, standard is 24bit/48k), as its the industry standard for video, which all audio winds up part of now a days, and processing oversampling has pretty much made the need for higher sample rates obsolete. Occasionally you will have labels that request sessions be done at higher sample rates (usually jazz or classical), which we abide by, but kind of snicker about after the call is over. We've been asked to run sessions at 192, which, we've obliged. Processor wise, its a little more taxing but certainly not a problem for most computers made this side of 2010. Its always been more of a data transfer issue in the past, with ram cache common and NVME drives and SSD's, not so much. Processing (plugins) becomes more of an issue when you have plugins that, by default, add oversampling on top of a 192 base rate (even worse when you can't turn it off). But a "standard"/small session of 24-48 tracks is fine and just a waste of space on the hard drive. Bottom line, perceptually, the audio "quality" doesn't get better at higher sample rates, and no one is going to be able to tell the difference between 44.1/48/88.2 etc. etc. on a final product. /rant But yeah, almost no one REALLY needs to go over 48k for most things and most platforms wont take audio at any higher than 44.1 or 48 for audio only for distribution. As far as the gain thing goes... the amount of gain specc'd on the sheet is not the whole story and should NOT be used as a determining factor on its own. You need to make sure you take the max input level (@ nominal) and subtract that from the total "gain". An interface or pre with a purported gain of 69db may be offering less "gain" than something spec'd at 65db. The 4th get Scarlett 2i2 has a max input level of 22dbu at min gain and 69db of range, this means the 2i2 is really only giving a usable gain of -47dbu = 0 dBfs. Just to show how crafty they are, the 3rd gen had a max input level of 9dbu and "gain" of 56db... the actual gain of the 3rd gen... yep, the same -47dbu = 0dBfs. So you're not getting anymore gain out of a 4th gen than you are out of the 3rd gen... they're playing games with the numbers to make it look that way. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S0sE5mpSLYM.html Julian does a way better job of explaining this than I ever could.

Ok got the SM7B and need an advice on what interface to go with. I am between the 2i2 4th gen and Audient iD14 MKII

My hairdresser has a phd in pure maths.

Hay Aden. Great vid. Agreed with all you said. I actually am surprised how good these interfaces sound. I've heard a Rode NT1-A into the older ones and woe almost Zoom F recorder sound. Like what? for only $100 and something they are that good? Oh and what recorders and interfaces are minus 130 noise floor? You mentioned this with the esential series of Zoom recorders too. But back to the topic at hand. I wander then what the noise floor of the Red Net interfaces is as Focus Rite says these new Scarlets have Red Net guts in them.

I Look for one that cab run an sm7b without a cloudlifter and it could be as cheap as 100 dollars

Thank you!

Great walkthrough of what to look for! Random quick update on the DLZ Creator - Mackie has fixed a few of the niggly things I complained about. I still can't set the time/date manually, but the unit is now synchronized to GMT. I also was able to get NDI up and running so I no longer have to rely on the SD/USB functionality. Those were two of my biggest complaints and they've been resolved. I ended selling the big one and replaced it with the much more manageable XS - and LOVING it!!

Well done! Next… FireWire interfaces!

So uhh does the rodecaster pro 2 beat out these? 😮

would the volt 1 be okay? because i'm hearing some background noise, and i'm not sure if my volt is causing it

Best buy would be Second hand rodecaster pro (1st version)

Oh no No timestamps 😢

Watching from india

Drivers drivers !!! Asio

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