First Time getting Monitors, need advice on an audio card

[ThisIsSovereign]

Easy fellas. So I'm going to be getting my first set of monitors: KRK Rokit 8's and the KRK 10S sub. I've been reading around online and have noticed that I'll probably need some sort of sound card or audio interface.

Never had a sound card on my computer so I'm not sure what to get, can't really spend more than $150-200 on this though.

Does anyone have any recommendations for me that would perhaps go well with what I am getting? Would greatly appreciate some input.

[legend4ry]

Saffire 6, for that price range. Though I don't know if its the same price in America (>130 < 150)

[Genevieve]

I have a TC Electornic Dekstop Konnekt 6. It's really basic, but high quality with good pre amps, a little headphone amp and easy control.. but it only has 2 inputs and no outs other than the monitor and headphone out. No MIDI either.

So not feature packed, but good shit.

[Crimsonghost]

Unless you have a treated room the Rokit 8s will be overkill and might end up sounding shitty. Same yourself some money and get the 6s instead. Your already getting te sub, so bass won't be an issue.

[Crimsonghost]

Also, I'm using the presonus firestudio mobile and love it. But I hear really good things about the sapphire also.

[SunkLo]

Sweetwater has Tascam US 1800s on sale right now for 200. Not as nice conversion as the saffire but you get 8 analog in and 8 pres in one rack unit so if you see yourself recording a band in the future, that might be a good option. I've heard the pres and converters aren't too shabby considering the price. Overall not too bad of a budget interface for recording purposes and also fulfills your monitoring output needs.

[sidi]

i would recommend the focusrite 2i2/2i4. the 2i4 is great sounding with my rokit 5s and its not too expensive!

[ehbes]

i would recommend the focusrite 2i2/2i4. the 2i4 is great sounding with my rokit 5s and its not too expensive!

Yeah but a 2i2 even a 2i4 is pretty limiting In what you can do with it

[Genevieve]

Haven't interfaces gotten worse? Or less feature packed? You either have huge ones with dozens of i/os that cost a fortune or one of those minimal ones like mine.

If I'm ever getting a new one, it'll be second hand.

[SunkLo]

Haven't interfaces gotten worse? Or less feature packed? You either have huge ones with dozens of i/os that cost a fortune or one of those minimal ones like mine.

If I'm ever getting a new one, it'll be second hand.

Yep, it's really hard to find middle of the road ones. It's either little 2i2o ones catering to singer/songwriter types recording in their bedrooms, or racks with mostly digital in and a few analog in with no pres for engineers who already have their own pres and converters and just need a usb pipe basically. There are a few out there, the Scarlett range has a couple good interfaces, basically the usb parallel to the Saffire range. I do wish there was more competition at that feature point though. Buying used seems to be the way to go a lot of the time, as long as you do your research and don't run into driver update issues.

[ThisIsSovereign]

Saffire 6, for that price range. Though I don't know if its the same price in America (>130 < 150)

Thanks, I think I'm gonna go with this one, it's at $150 at a local store over here.

[Sharmaji]

having owned interfaces from m-audio, tascam, MOTU, and metric halo--

if $s are a concern,get an apogee one or one of the NI boxes.

personally i'd say spend more $ on your interface and less on the speakers. even just getting a used motu ultralite will blow any of the cheapies out of the water in terms of sound quality.

tascam/m-audio/focusrite/all the other low-end USB interfaces are, to a T, poorly built and sound bad.

[SunkLo]

Really? You think the quality of a Motu will be apparent on a sub-rokit monitor? Are you one of those DAC fanatics? I'm not convinced compromising on monitors and room in favor of conversion will show improvement in sound quality. I can kind of understand when it comes to ADC but I always figured as long as the DAC was competent, you'd be better off investing in the rest of your chain.

NI's interfaces stack up to Apogee? Haven't really looked into them much.

[Sharmaji]

Really? You think the quality of a Motu will be apparent on a sub-rokit monitor?

yep. shit in, shit out. would much rather mix on something like alesis monitor one's via a dependable MOTU than some extremely high-end speaker w/.. whatever. at least that way i know what's going IN to the speaker is what i'm supposed to be hearing, and i'm not losing transients/high end/harmonics to bad conversion.

Are you one of those DAC fanatics? I'm not convinced compromising on monitors and room in favor of conversion will show improvement in sound quality. I can kind of understand when it comes to ADC but I always figured as long as the DAC was competent, you'd be better off investing in the rest of your chain.

"competent" is a broad category in which the gradients are minimal. "shit" is even broader. The room is a huge part of your mix environment, absolutely, and masking via nodes and peak buildups, etc is way more troublesome than conversion errors. but if you're talking about a good-sounding room-- i'll take 2nd-rate monitors and better conversion.

if your room is shit, save your $, mix to stems and rent a studio for a day to sort out the bigger details.

NI's interfaces stack up to Apogee? Haven't really looked into them much.

i taught a workshop at dubspot a few years ago, and those were the output interfaces they were using. I was impressed for sure. they don't offer inputs, so if you need to record you need to look elsewhere, but their output was very nice.

w/ that said, in the sub-$500 category, there's apogee and there's everyone else. The duet is a brilliant bit of kit.

[Earjax]

I have a roland quad capture, cheap as fucking cheese, extremely reliable, really easy to use, easy to plug headphones into if needs be, and two inputs, would recommend

[sburton84]

Really? You think the quality of a Motu will be apparent on a sub-rokit monitor?

yep. shit in, shit out. would much rather mix on something like alesis monitor one's via a dependable MOTU than some extremely high-end speaker w/.. whatever. at least that way i know what's going IN to the speaker is what i'm supposed to be hearing, and i'm not losing transients/high end/harmonics to bad conversion.

What a weird thing to say. Shitty speakers will colour your sound an awful lot more than cheap converters.

[Sharmaji]

What a weird thing to say. Shitty speakers will colour your sound an awful lot more than cheap converters.

write more, mix more, mix other people's music--and have to make recalls, mix radically different styles of music-- and you'll change your mind.

[legend4ry]

Sorry for the late bump but since you're speaking so opening about this Sharm...

The MOTU UL-MK3 is a worth while upgrade or would you recommend getting the MOTU 828mk3 ? I really do feel the limitations of my Saffire 6 now, after a year of having it.

The wait is literally between this pay day or next so don't mind waiting out if the quality is THAT much better or its literally just an upgrade in size (the size of the 828 is pretty much as big as i'd ever go so thinking of just future proofing myself?)

[fragments]

Sorry for the late bump but since you're speaking so opening about this Sharm...

The MOTU UL-MK3 is a worth while upgrade or would you recommend getting the MOTU 828mk3 ? I really do feel the limitations of my Saffire 6 now, after a year of having it.

The wait is literally between this pay day or next so don't mind waiting out if the quality is THAT much better or its literally just an upgrade in size (the size of the 828 is pretty much as big as i'd ever go so thinking of just future proofing myself?)

I've had a MOTU 828 MKII for a long while now and absolutely love it. I feel no need to upgrade at the moment as far as quality of mic-pres and converters go, but I'll either crossgrade to a newer MOTU or upgrade to more I/Os. The 828 has 8 line level I/Os and I could easily make use of 16...I don't know how much outboard gear you are running...but you run out of I/Os way faster than you think you will. I thought I future proofed myself when I bought it...

I upgraded from a Mackie Onyx Blackjack to the MOTU...totally changed my mixing on Rokit 6s...then about six months ago I upgraded my monitors to Equator Audio D5s...again...massive upgrade.

I'd highly recommend a quality interface. MOTU is a good foray into quality, option loaded interfaces. There IS a difference in the converters and you WILL hear it. At least I did--that's all I'm basing my opinion on.

I had recently bought an ESX, DSI Mopho and Monomachine ...was looking for enough inputs to handle all this kit... and happened upon a MOTU 828MK2 for cheap on eBay (250USD). Quickly checked a few reviews and never looked back.

EDIT: I know you didn't ask me, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents since I own an 828

[legend4ry]

I'm only running a SP808, JV1080 and decks (though 3 decks) I plan to get a desktop virus TI2 soon though!!

I have a very complex system of hooks screwed on the underside of my desk which threads all the wires through linking to central extension wire which I unplug what I am using and plug in what I want to use - i would quite love to get rid of this system haha!