Today’s recording interfaces continue to evolve, with more features, better audio, and increased portability, all while making it easier for even the newbiest of newbies to join the home-recording community. We’ve rounded up 10 interfaces that’ll get your music to tape (so to speak) in style.
UNIVERSAL AUDIO
Arrow
This Thunderbolt 3-powered interface boasts near-zero latency tracking with classic UAD plug-ins, and features the company’s Unison technology for preamp emulations.
$499 street
ROLAND
Rubix24
Engineered to have extremely low noise from input to output, this Rubix model includes a hardware compressor/limiter for controlling highly dynamic sources.
$199 street
TASCAM
US-1x2
This compact interface can record from virtually any source thanks to its selection of inputs, and it delivers high-quality, 96 kHz/24-bit recording for less than a hundred bucks.
$99 street
PRESONUS
Studio 1810
With four class A XMAX preamps intended to give instruments and mics big and open sound, this interface also allows wireless control via the company’s UC Surface software.
$399 street
STEINBERG
UR-RT4
Featuring switchable Rupert Neve Designs transformers on the front inputs, this interface is also equipped with Yamaha D-Pre preamps for detailed and transparent sound.
$599 street
FOCUSRITE
Clarett 4Pre
This interface houses ultra-low-noise Clarett mic preamps, which include an “Air” feature to switch in an analog model of the classic transformer-based Focusrite ISA mic pre.
$599 street
AUDIENT
iD44
Four class-A mic pres delivering 60 dB of gain, two ADAT inputs/outputs, and the option to add up to 16 additional channels of mic pres are just a few features of this packed interface.
$699 street
IK MULTIMEDIA
iRig Pro I/O
It’s small enough to fit in a pocket, but rack-quality recording and monitoring can be had thanks to this interface’s 24-bit A/D and D/A converters with a 96 kHz sample rate.
$149 street
JOECO LIMITED
Cello
With features like a built-in talkback mic and onboard monitor controls, this interface has a true-analog front end and boasts operation up to a whopping 384k.
$1,125 street
CENTRANCE
MixerFace R4
For songwriters on the go, this interface can run up to 8 hours on batter power, works with most smart-phone and tablet recording apps, and features a durable aluminum chassis.
$349 street
