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Upgrading Computer Audio Interface for Guitar

justintech16

Hello.

I am an aspiring guitar player and am thinking about upgrading the audio interface for my guitar and computer. I plan to use my guitar to play and record with Garageband. (Relax people! I dual boot! My daily driver is windows and recently installed OSX to test out :-P).

I tried a 1/4" to USB cable, but the audio quality kinda sucked, and there was a lot of latency.

Then I looked into the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OZE9SA/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=145DTM06XBMKHQ86R2BJ&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=1976649162&pf_rd_i=desktop

 

Does anyone have this? I have many questions.

Is this the best route for getting into recording? Is this a DAC too? I have Beyerdynamic DT 880s and a Fiio E10 DAC. Would this new interface replace my DAC? Is it better than the E10?

 

Any advice or suggestions are much appreciated. I don't know much about the recording area of computers/instruments/etc. And would like to learn.

Thanks!

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Steinberg Cl1 audio interface or the one you just said would work.

Computing enthusiast. 
I use to be able to input a cheat code now I've got to input a credit card - Total Biscuit
 

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I have the 2i2. It has been pretty great so far, though getting everything tweaked to work perfectly took a little time. Latency wasn't too bad to start out, but I got it down to pretty much nothing. I finally got it worked out so I could even get the audio from amplitube working at the same time as the rest of the audio, so it's possible to play and watch a movie at the same time. Get a good quality cable for your guitar though, you'll pick up some noise.

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Ok. Cool guys. Thanks. 

 

 

I have the 2i2. It has been pretty great so far, though getting everything tweaked to work perfectly took a little time. Latency wasn't too bad to start out, but I got it down to pretty much nothing. I finally got it worked out so I could even get the audio from amplitube working at the same time as the rest of the audio, so it's possible to play and watch a movie at the same time. Get a good quality cable for your guitar though, you'll pick up some noise.

What did you end up having to do? 

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I have the 2i2, but haven't used it for recording, just as a volume knob. It's a good piece of kit though, well built and no interference or anything. (Using Livewire TRS jacks)

From the reviews I've read the hardware is great, the drivers abit iffy though. . . but as I say I haven't used it for recording so can't comment on that.

 

I don't think it's a DAC, as DACs are more geared towards the output of sound, this would be counted as a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) where latency is important.

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Ok. Cool guys. Thanks. 

 

 

What did you end up having to do? 

 

It was a lot of messing with playback and recording devices. I had a bit of an audio mess, still kinda do. ASIO is great for audio, but is difficult to manage sometimes because of it taking exclusive control through one application. I got an essence stx a while ago for my sennheiser hd650, then used coax out on the stx to A schiit bifrost. Jriver media center runs well with ASIO, so I put it in. Then the 2i2 had it's own ASIO diver. So it was a lot of trial and error with drivers between hardware, and selecting default devices and disabling others in the sound panel. It was a pain, but well worth it. I can watch anything from movies to YouTube while a guitar is running cranked through amplitube, all into headphones so there are zero noise complaints. 

 

Once you get it dialed in, it's well worth owning.

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