MAYBE NOT SO CHEAP usb multi input audio interface options?

[behndy]

yeah. i mean. i've had good luck with the M stuff i've had over the years. from reviews they don't seem shit converters? and the form factor is the only way i want to roll, all the ins and outs i'm going to use on the back.

[rustywire]

The converters aren't shit so much as they are meh. They're decent yet unremarkable, you can get good sound but if you A/B with other boxes their shortcomings can be glaring. Tracking one or 2 sources at a time is fine, but I had little luck with 4 or more... it's the less than stellar drivers and poor use of resources which were the source of my headaches. Granted, my experience is with their stuff up til about 2012. But I had an 1814 firewire which was a regrettable acquisition, way more trouble than it was worth.

[behndy]

i'm open to other jangers, just super important to me to have as much of the ins and outs on the back as possible. don't mind going a bit higher in funds for way better results. like was said, silly to skimp on the end point that gets all the audio into a track.

but beyond wanting to send a pair of outs to be processed by external effects then record the results, my needs are minimal. recording 3 or 4 or 5 tracks at the same time at most.

[rfurtkamp]

It's the "on the back" that's holding you out of a lot of stuff to be honest.

You're the first person I've seen who ever wanted that in an interface!

[behndy]

lol. but.... but why WOULDN'T one? i mean. i guess i could loop cables under an empty rack space but.... ew.

cleanest layout is sorta important to me. if i'm going to go to a multi input interface with a patchbay, just makes aesthetic and cleanliness sense to me to do as much of the wiring as i can where it's hidden in the rack.

.........right?

[rfurtkamp]

Just run them to the side of the rack, or to the top.

I have the problem solved by having the interface top of the rack, all cables go up and over for the front adjusts.

Why not is a measure of practicality - the controls for the preamps or phantom or whatnot are front-loaded, and it allows easy add/subtract for folks without patchbays.

Most folks also aren't rackmounting these things either, so it's 'inputs on front, outs on back' plus switches and usb/power on back.

[rustywire]

As a general rule with pres/converters, expect to (smartly) spend at least $200 per channel, for the money to go farthest/make life easier.
There are exceptions, and you don't need top-shelf solutions to get good sounding results. If you do a lot of lofi stuff then lol np.

FWIW Zoom R16 is much more capable than one might think, although prob better suited for field work.
When I borrowed one for a week in 2011, results at its highest setting 24bit/44khz were better than M boxes I'd used at 24/48, even 96khz.
I only used it to track 4 sources and it did that well, writing 4 wav files to the sd card, which I could then edit in a DAW.
They apparently have decent built-in fx but I didn't use any. I just used it like a tape machine/field recorder.

[actual]

As a general rule with pres/converters, expect to (smartly) spend at least $200 per channel

I've never heard this before. I mean, it makes sense, but I haven't seen it anywhere. Care to back it up with a link or two?

[rfurtkamp]

Pres are a whole different animal IMO.

There you're going to get pricey, but all I've ever cared about in digital land were decent enough converters.

[rustywire]

Should've added an IMO
It's an observation I've made in the past decade, with different product lines. Take Apogee, for example.

[actual]

Aight

[behndy]

sorta tangent'y - with spinning platter hdds i've always used one for the system install and any apps i'm running, then a second drive for all samples and projects. does one still need to do that for faster access on ssds? or neh?

or a sdd for system/apps install drive, a big butts spinny hdd for samples and projects?

[behndy]

i'm leaning more towards ssd for apps and os, and hdd for samples and projects. seems to need a HUGE amount of tracks for audio streaming to be noticeably faster on ssd. and i have a few TB or more hdds laying around.

[rustywire]

That's a good way to do it. SSD primary HDD secondary, OS+apps on primary, sound library & exports on hdd.
Get in the habit of backing up everything, then backup your backups.

[behndy]

oh man. i have been so SHIT with backing up and good file management structure. so many Dbbajeh 12 named half ideas. just went through like 2 hundy folders, saved the 20 or so worth keeping, put them in IDEAS and WORKING folders, have one concise folder with presets and projects and SHIT IS LABELED CORRECTLY.

so. yeah. trying to be WAY better about backups.