These easy-plug-and-play boxes from Focusrite, PreSonus, IK Multimedia, TASCAM, and Audient offer a lot of recording power—and a variety of options—at affordable prices.
From a guitarist’s perspective, an audio interface is the box that lets you easily record studio-like tones on your laptop or desktop computer. Essentially, interfaces provide the inputs and outputs you need to do this efficiently, help you record at a higher bit rate to achieve a richer sound, and allow you to adjust gain to achieve the tones you desire.
There are a lot of guitar-friendly audio interfaces out there, so let’s take a look at five of the friendliest and most affordable. All offer high-quality preamps and come with software that includes recording and mixing capabilities. They all sound good, but a few have special sauce—more flexibility, more functions, a more solid build. They’re all easy to set up, have headphone outs, and are bus-powered, which means they get juice from the USB port they’re plugged into—although a power adapter may be required when using an iPad. All of these interfaces provide easy, album-quality recording ability for low dough.
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Generation.
This fourth generation version of the company’s tried and true interface has been beefed up for guitar, with Auto Gain to optimize recording levels, and Clip Safe, which adjusts gain levels (the overall gain range is a whopping 69 dB) in danger of clipping, plus dynamic gain halos that make it easy to see if you’re overloading the signal. Otherwise, this popular, low-latency device in an anodized aluminum enclosure still has two inputs and outputs, and two mic preamps. It also comes with a free expansion bundle that provides amp plugins (including a killer Silver Jubilee), a reverb plugin modeled on the Hit Factory’s ’verb, plus compression, a synth, a console, and other handy virtual devices. But my favorite feature is the new Air button. Without the Air feature engaged, the preamps sound clean and clear, with loads of headroom. Push the Air button once and you get more high frequencies—it sounds like recording through a high-fidelity console. Push the Air button again and the midrange frequencies are boosted for thick, muscular electric guitar sounds. The 2i2 bundle also includes a three-month Pro Tools Artist subscription and Ableton Live Lite, to get you started.
$199 street, focusrite.com
PreSonus AudioBox USB96 25th Anniversary
PreSonus AudioBox USB96 25th Anniversary.
The latest iteration of the company’s popular AudioBox interface has two ins and outs, and mic preamps—with a 35 dB range—that have an excellent reputation for delivering pristine audio signal. Low latency means you can listen without a hitch as you layer over tracks you’ve already recorded. The steel-chassis box comes with Studio One DAW software, used by a lot of pro recording engineers. The software bundle also includes an extensive collection of plugins, along with the Capture Duo iPad App, which allows easier recording and mixing on an iPad.
$99 street, presonus.com
IK Multimedia iRig HD X
IK Multimedia iRig HD X.
If you’re looking for extreme portability, the pocket-sized HD X might be your jam. It has the same 24-bit/96kHz A/D conversion rate as all these units, and seems designed for quick-and-dirty tracking with an iPhone or iPad. The preamp is instrument-only—no microphones—and it’s got amp and headphone outs, all mono-only. AmpliTube 5SE is included for amp emulations, and TONEX SE, with lots of outboard-gear-modeling options, is also part of the package. Plus, the Loopback+ virtual effects loop brings even more value to this tiny titan.
$129 street, ikmultimedia.com
TASCAM US-2x2HR
TASCAM US-2x2HR.
The big difference with this two-in/two-out interface is its MIDI ins and outs for studio controllers. And while it has a solid build and sturdy controls for gain, ins, and outs, it also comes with Steinberg’s Cubase SE to get you up and tracking, plus the SampleTrack sound and groove workstation.
$129 street, tascam.com
Audient iD4 MkII
Audient iD4 MkII.
This device uses the same discrete class-A preamp that’s in the company’s recording consoles on its channel 1—good for any mics. A separate JFET input handles guitars and other high impedance instruments. The all-metal box has quarter-inch and eighth-inch headphone outs, and you can pan playback and recording tracks, to better hear what you’re cutting. The software bundle is the ARC suite, which provides virtual instruments, cab sims, plugin effects, and Steinberg’s Cubase/Cubasis LE3 for desktop and mobile DAWs.
$199 street, audient.com
Killer clarity and vintage comp tones from a tiny squish machine.
Bryan Clark shares pearls about deploying multiband compressors as sonic superglue—a sequel to last month's pointers for dynamic EQs.
Welcome back, everyone. Last time, I shed some light on using a dynamic EQ rather than a multiband compressor. There are many similarities on the surface, but people use them interchangeably with brazen ignorance of what they're designed to do. If you ever have to replace a bolt (say, from your amp chassis or a rackmounted piece of gear), you measure the diameter and length of the bolt, head down to your local hardware store, buy a replacement, and drive home. Only, after several failed attempts to replace the bolt, you might discover that you didn't get the right thread count and it will not screw in under any circumstances. What I'm saying is: Attention to detail matters. Especially in audio, where the difference between a good mix and a great one lies in your choosing the right tool for the job. The Dojo is now open, so let's begin.
If you missed last month's Dojo, I encourage you to read it first. Let me briefly recap the difference: A dynamic EQ is a robust EQ with some limited built-in compressor capabilities, and a multiband compressor is a full-fledged compressor with the generic ability to EQ areas of the audio spectrum. If you keep that distinction in your mind, you make better mixing choices.
In audio, the difference between a good mix and a great one lies in your choosing the right tool for the job.
While a dynamic EQ shines on individual tracks for its ability to isolate problem frequencies and tame them, a multiband compressor is really at its best when used on summed groups of tracks (like sub mixes, an aux bus, and routed track folders) in your DAW or console.
Have a look a Fig. 1. These are the drum tracks I recorded at Blackbird, the Nashville studio where I work. I've got the three kick mics routed to BC KICK (five slots from left), then routed to +KIT (the light blue slot, far left). The rest of the 10 drum tracks are routed to BC KIT and then to +KIT to merge with the kick drum tracks mentioned before. I do this because I like to process the kick drum independent from the other parts of the drum kit. Low-end information (kick drums, bass, low-tuned guitars, bass synths, etc.) are full of energy and trigger compressors to overreact at the expense of high frequencies. Once all the drums are merged together in +KIT, I use the FabFilter MB multiband compressor.
Fig. 2
Take a close look at Fig. 2. The three colored compression areas I've set allow me to control the fundamental of the kick drum (green), the rattle of the snare (purple), and the cymbal splashy-ness (blue). I can set the compression parameters of each of the areas independently and really take advantage of having three compressors working on large areas of the frequency spectrum with as much transparency as I want. I'm not squashing things, just gluing the drums together.
I've also added .7 dB boost to the purple area just to bring the snare out a bit more. This boost is acting just like an EQ, but I have the benefit of adding very detailed compression parameters that a dynamic EQ isn't really designed to deliver.
You can use these same principles for groups of rhythm guitar tracks (electric or acoustic) to help make room for your shredding solos and licks by summing multiple rhythm parts, carving out some space by gently reducing 1.6 kHz to 5.6 kHz (use your ears: this is a very general starting point), and then gently using a multiband compressor on the area that you choose. You may find that the vocals also start to sit better in the mix.
Finally, look at Fig. 3. I've put the iZotope Ozone multiband compressor on the main stereo mix (aka the 2 bus). Here, I'm focusing on the low-mids-to-high-mids range. This is gluing the bass guitars, electric and acoustic guitars, B3 organ, and a bit of the vocals gently together. Notice that the audio spectrum is divided into four parts with crossover points at 100 Hz, 2.8 kHz, and 10.6 kHz. (Marked by the capsule shapes on the spectrum visualizer.) I can also solo these areas and really listen to them and adjust the crossover points as needed to serve the mix and the song better.
Now you know the differences between a dynamic EQ and a multiband compressor and have some techniques to try on your own mixes and recordings. Go for it! Until next time. Namaste.