Audio Interface Question

[jwebbinspired]

Hopefully someone can answer my stupid question.I have never owned an audio interface. My board goes directly into my audio card in my PC. What is an audio interface for and should I be using one?Andy

[tinozigzag]

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[mojobone]

If it ain't broke, dept.Unless you need to record simultaneously with other musicians, a small format mixer connected to a two input sound card should be sufficient. If you have a bunch of MIDI-driven outboard synths you might wish to maintain control of the levels of each synth separately, but you can do that as easily with your MIDI sequencer as with separate audio tracks.

[mazz]

An audio interface is what you're already using: a fancy name for an audio card.The thing is, that an audio interface can be an outboard device, like the Firewire one mentioned in tino's post or it can be a PCI card like the sound card you already have.Audio interfaces typically have a range of quality but for the most part will have much better quality than a stock garden variety sound card that comes with your computer. They also will have other features such as headphone jacks, digital I/O, clock I/O, mixing functions, MIDI and so on.So why do you need an audio interface?1. If you want higher quality A/D and D/A converters than your current sound card.2. If you want to record more than 1 stereo or two mono tracks at a time.3. If you want to get rid of your board (I'd think twice about this, personally).There may be more reasons but those are the top three I can think of given what I know about your current setup. Any one of these might be a reason to upgrade.This was just the basics but hopefully it will help answer your question.MazzEDIT: I posted at the same time as mojo and I totally agree with him, particularly regarding the connection of synths and outboard. I've got one word for you: Latency!! With a mixer, you can monitor your inputs "live" with zero latency. Unless your soundcard offers some kind of "hardware direct monitoring", you're going to have latency. That's why I said I'd think twice about getting rid of your board.

[jwebbinspired]

Thank you very much for your educational posts. Thank you especially to Mazz and Mojo for your elementary-level explainations. It sounds like I'm set up, I don't do a lot of midi at all, and I almost never record more than one track at a time.