Which professional sound interface to use?
I recommend a good USB-powered dynamic microphone, such as the Samson Q2U or Samson Q9U. If you're going to buy an interface (maybe to drive some monitors as well as a microphone) and an XLR microphone for exclusively spoken-word stuff, the "buy a dynamic" advice still applies--I like the sE Dynacaster but I'm also the type to spend $300 on a microphone, you don't need to be--but you really don't need more than something like a Behringer UMC22 for an interface. Not a UM22, that's different and a bit below-the-bar, but you don't need to spend more than $60-$70 for an interface that will do everything you need.
I wrote this near the start of COVID when at a previous company and my advice still holds.
> If you plan to use your USB mic with its own headphone jack, then most of what is written here does not apply to you, and you can regard the microphone as a small, not particularly good, simple audio interface just like one of the boxes you might otherwise connect to you computer.
Yup. This is true. I recommended the Samson Q2U or Q9U in no small part because of this. It is a single-purpose audio interface and it's fine for people who want a good-sounding Zoom presence. They are also both microphones that provide some nontrivial improvement when they are used over XLR, which can rationalize later buying an interface once you've decided that you want to do so.
> If you're making a podcast, or working with some audio where the highest possible fidelity to the original sound isn't particularly important, you're probably going to be just fine with this resampling taking place. You can use your USB mic, the operating system will resample one or both audio streams, things will seem to just work, and you'll probably be happy with the results.
As it happens, I agree with the general thrust of what they're saying--for music. This is a reason why I have a very large and moderately expensive digital mixer. But they themselves are not intending to cover general-purpose, spoken-word uses, like podcasts (which I think one can reasonably expand to "teleconferences"), with their criticism.
So can you enlighten me as to your point?
I think the document speaks for itself. USB mics are a mistake, in general. If they do duplex (record & playback), they are sufficiently less of a mistake to maybe warrant no concern. Manufacturer's took the easy path ("easy! just plug it in!") when they should have been encouraging people to stick to the existing path ("not that easy, but not hard either!")
semi-pro/more serious: MOTU 828
pro/studio level: PRISM Sound Lyra or Titan
Because they seem to have great performance and stability on Windows.
Note that, while the BabyFace Pro doesn't have native Linux or BSD drivers, it does have a USB class-compliant mode that, while feature-limited compared to the proprietary drivers, may be sufficient for DAW use — AFAIK, the primary limitation is limited control over the hardware mixer, so problematic if you need low-latency monitoring of multiple input channels simultaneously, but possibly irrelevant otherwise.
There's also a full-featured iPad mixer app that works in class-compliant mode, so full control is at least theoretically possible, lack of published details notwithstanding, and there appears to be at least some support for this in the Linux kernel,
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/2eb29d59ddf02e39774ab...
Software is atrocious though. Their spyware DRM crashes any windows VM I try to install it on.
- I had a consumer M-Audio interface that was always a bit weird. One day well outside the warranty period I popped the lid off and discovered a tombstoned resistor and two bodge wires on the PCB. I reached out to M-Audio on Twitter and the best they could do was offer me a $20 discount on another interface. Very unimpressed.
- I replaced it with a Behringer UMC404HD and the very first thing I did when it arrived was pop the cover off. I'm an EE by trade and I was very impressed by the design. The board layout etc was nice, but the part that really surprised me was the pre-amps for the mic inputs. Maybe I'm weird for feeling this way, but the folks who designed it have taste. The pre-amps are designed around some NJR op-amps; NJR parts are notorious for being slew-rate-limited for a lot of applications, but to my ears they sound absolutely buttery smooth. The fact that the designers used those parts instead of some jelly-bean "flat" op-amps really made me appreciate the consideration that went into the design.
Edit: and yes, I know Behringer has a bit of a reputation for being "kinda cheap and kinda crappy" but I have zero complaints and I've had this unit for a few years now.
Behringer has gotten a lot better, their early days (20 year ago) they made cheap junk clones. Now they have some good gear as well.
Though the company itself has other operating practices people don't like. You should for sure do your research on them. I have some of their gear, but I'm not sure I'll buy more.
Universal Audio recently released some really nice made-in-taiwan desktop interfaces in the same price range as the Scarletts. I have scarletts on my rackmount setup, UA Volt on my desk.
UA's software is atrocious though. Their spyware DRM crashes any windows VM I try to install it on.
Scarlett's software is relatively good by comparison, although you have to start their server by hand from the terminal if you don't want it running all the time.
Without going into tons of nitty-gritty details, the major ones are the number of inputs/channels, size, and price.
Scarlett 2i2 is more than enough for most people, with its 2 channels (both with independently controllable headphone and monitor outputs).
Motu 828, the one listed as semi-pro tier, has 20 input channels.
I suggest reading reviews of each of them, but basically the rule of thumb is that if the review is listing bajillion things that you have no understanding of at all, you don't need that tier and can safely move to the tier below.
No shame in that at all. Even the home/hobby level of audio equipment today is functionally crazy, and priced insanely cheap compared to just a couple decades ago.
I went with the Scarlett because A) it was relatively cheap and B) it had quite good reviews, but I'm curious what I'm losing on a technical basis by going for the $500 option over the $1000 option.