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Post by bossanova on Nov 12, 2023 11:53:46 GMT -6
I started making long form music lessons online a couple months ago and I’ve been using my spare, ancient 1st Gen Scarlett 2i2 to live record 1 channel of vocal and mono piano respectively while on camera. Unfortunately the noise floor is terrible (confirmed by recording the input with a switched off SM58 plugged in), and the pres have a tendency to randomly distort.
I have an SSL2 that I use as my main front end and after doing some digging I was thinking about getting another one of those (the original stays in one place for workflow reasons, whereas this one would be mobile). It’s quiet, the quality is good, and it can run sans computer as a stand-alone preamp in a pinch.
The other alternative would be something like a Behringer UM2HD…but I’ve heard mixed things about the drivers and Pres. Any alternate suggestions?
TL;DR - 2 channel interface that doesn’t have an audible noise floor with quiet/dynamic sources on dynamic mics. Preferably not a Scarlett because they can’t mix direct and USB audio, and the newer line seems to have abandoned direct monitoring altogether.
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Post by drumsound on Nov 12, 2023 12:49:13 GMT -6
I've used the Steinberg 2 and 4 channel units for location chamber music and was quite impressed by the fidelity and quietness. I've considered buying one so I can do more things like that, or recording grand pianos on projects I'm working on.
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Post by notneeson on Nov 12, 2023 13:01:17 GMT -6
Man, if the SSL is working for you I would stick with the familiar.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2023 19:05:45 GMT -6
Apogee Duet 3
RME Babyface Pro with the ac adaptor if you want to monitor through plugins
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Post by phdamage on Nov 12, 2023 19:39:37 GMT -6
Sound devices mixpre3. Portable as well. Rock solid
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Post by nnajar on Nov 13, 2023 9:10:00 GMT -6
I use a sound devices USBpre2 for portable work all the time for years now. It works fabulously, seamlessly and sounds terrific.
I like the mix pre series a lot and have both a 3 and a 10 for different uses, and do and have used them with the daw but they’re a little more finicky to setup as you have to do sample rate on the unit in the project and also setup your I/o on the unit depending on your session. And while the A/D is excellent and the d/a fine, the usbpre2 is literally plug-in and play and the d/a is spectacular.
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Post by svart on Nov 13, 2023 12:20:09 GMT -6
I use a MOTU M4 for when I need to do location recording or VO work somewhere outside of the studio. Seems to work great.
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Post by bossanova on Jan 4, 2024 13:42:39 GMT -6
I use a MOTU M4 for when I need to do location recording or VO work somewhere outside of the studio. Seems to work great. I ended up going with a "like new", used Motu M4. It looks spiffy, knobs feel great, meters are quite helpful. I haven't used it for recording yet, but I used it as front-end for playing synth (Pro 800) through my monitors (i.e., just the direct input without conversion), and I was surprised how different it sounded from the SSL-2 that usually occupies that role. It's like there was less bottom end, or less of a warm/full low-mid sound. I don't know if it's more "accurate" or if that's a MOTU signature or what. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 4, 2024 14:54:52 GMT -6
I use a MOTU M4 for when I need to do location recording or VO work somewhere outside of the studio. Seems to work great. I ended up going with a "like new", used Motu M4. It looks spiffy, knobs feel great, meters are quite helpful. I haven't used it for recording yet, but I used it as front-end for playing synth (Pro 800) through my monitors (i.e., just the direct input without conversion), and I was surprised how different it sounded from the SSL-2 that usually occupies that role. It's like there was less bottom end, or less of a warm/full low-mid sound. I don't know if it's more "accurate" or if that's a MOTU signature or what. Less warmth on the MOTU? That's probably either your gain staging or something else but I doubt it's a "signature" in terms of conversion or something. The MOTU pres are very neutral and and the converters are a touch warm if anything. Two other guesses... 1) I don't know what the SSL 4k button does but it says something about subtle distortion giving a smoothing saturation. Could be as simple as that. Distortion in the right range will make a nice warm sound. Easily replicated though, I'd rather start clean personally. 2) Most likely? Most likely is that the headhpone amp in the MOTU is higher quality than the one in the SSL and you're getting a clearer headphone signal. I don't know about the quality of the SSL headphone amps in their low end units, but I do know that the MOTU headphone amp in my 828es was better than my Apollo x4 to my ears but couldn't touch the Cranborne 500ADAT (which has the best headphone amps I've personally owned). So I would wager that you've probably upgraded from "cheap" to "midgrade" heaphone amp, that's my guess. |
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Post by bossanova on Jan 4, 2024 15:03:59 GMT -6
I ended up going with a "like new", used Motu M4. It looks spiffy, knobs feel great, meters are quite helpful. I haven't used it for recording yet, but I used it as front-end for playing synth (Pro 800) through my monitors (i.e., just the direct input without conversion), and I was surprised how different it sounded from the SSL-2 that usually occupies that role. It's like there was less bottom end, or less of a warm/full low-mid sound. I don't know if it's more "accurate" or if that's a MOTU signature or what. Less warmth on the MOTU? That's probably either your gain staging or something else but I doubt it's a "signature" in terms of conversion or something. The MOTU pres are very neutral and and the converters are a touch warm if anything. Two guesses... 1) I don't know what the SSL 4k button does but it says something about subtle distortion giving a smoothing saturation. Could be as simple as that. Distortion in the right range will make a nice warm sound. Easily replicated though, I'd rather start clean personally. 2) Most likely? Most likely is that the headhpone amp in the MOTU is higher quality than the one in the SSL and you're getting a clearer headphone signal. I don't know about the quality of the SSL headphone amps in their low end units, but I do know that the MOTU headphone amp in my 828es was better than my Apollo x4 to my ears but couldn't touch the Cranborne 500ADAT (which has the best headphone amps I've personally owned). So I would wager that you've probably upgraded from "cheap" to "midgrade" heaphone amp, that's my guess. I’m guessing that neither one of those are the case because I don’t use the 4k button on the SSL-2, and my usual monitors were running out of line outputs 1 and 2 in both cases rather than the headphone amp. It is my experience that different interface inputs/pres have different if subtle sound signatures. One of my main reasons for switching to my SSL-2 from the 1st Gen 2i2 was that the Focusrite pre’s tended to have less midrange and could sound a bit scooped, even with a bit of extra perceived low and high extension. The SSL pre’s sounded smoother up top with noticeably more solid mids. This is based on recording through them and then listening back through both the internal DAC and other playback systems. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 4, 2024 15:18:54 GMT -6
Less warmth on the MOTU? That's probably either your gain staging or something else but I doubt it's a "signature" in terms of conversion or something. The MOTU pres are very neutral and and the converters are a touch warm if anything. Two guesses... 1) I don't know what the SSL 4k button does but it says something about subtle distortion giving a smoothing saturation. Could be as simple as that. Distortion in the right range will make a nice warm sound. Easily replicated though, I'd rather start clean personally. 2) Most likely? Most likely is that the headhpone amp in the MOTU is higher quality than the one in the SSL and you're getting a clearer headphone signal. I don't know about the quality of the SSL headphone amps in their low end units, but I do know that the MOTU headphone amp in my 828es was better than my Apollo x4 to my ears but couldn't touch the Cranborne 500ADAT (which has the best headphone amps I've personally owned). So I would wager that you've probably upgraded from "cheap" to "midgrade" heaphone amp, that's my guess. I’m guessing that neither one of those are the case because I don’t use the 4k button on the SSL-2, and my usual monitors were running out of line outputs 1 and 2 in both cases rather than the headphone amp. It is my experience that different interface inputs/pres have different if subtle sound signatures. One of my main reasons for switching to my SSL-2 from the 1st Gen 2i2 was that the Focusrite pre’s tended to have less midrange and could sound a bit scooped, even with a bit of extra perceived low and high extension. The SSL pre’s sounded smoother up top with noticeably more solid mids. This is based on recording through them and then listening back through both the internal DAC and other playback systems. Haha, well it's definitely not the headphone amp then! |
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Post by bossanova on Jan 4, 2024 15:36:12 GMT -6
I’m guessing that neither one of those are the case because I don’t use the 4k button on the SSL-2, and my usual monitors were running out of line outputs 1 and 2 in both cases rather than the headphone amp. It is my experience that different interface inputs/pres have different if subtle sound signatures. One of my main reasons for switching to my SSL-2 from the 1st Gen 2i2 was that the Focusrite pre’s tended to have less midrange and could sound a bit scooped, even with a bit of extra perceived low and high extension. The SSL pre’s sounded smoother up top with noticeably more solid mids. This is based on recording through them and then listening back through both the internal DAC and other playback systems. Haha, well it's definitely not the headphone amp then! I took another crack at it. From what I can tell the MOTU is more sensitive to the gainstaging. The Pro 800 has a fairly high output from its line out, and I initially turned down the pre knob on the MOTU to compensate. Just to 10:30-11:00 or so. When I turned down the level on the synth and turned the pre back up to unity, the low end came back. I repeated the experiment a couple times, same result. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jan 4, 2024 15:41:26 GMT -6
Haha, well it's definitely not the headphone amp then! I took another crack at it. From what I can tell the MOTU is more sensitive to the gainstaging. The Pro 800 has a fairly high output from its line out, and I initially turned down the pre knob on the MOTU to compensate. Just to 10:30-11:00 or so. When I turned down the level on the synth and turned the pre back up to unity, the low end came back. I repeated the experiment a couple times, same result. Fantastic! Those are great units for the price. I'm not sure if M4 can do this, but on many of the MOTU's the line-in level can be adjusted in the MOTU control app (can't remember what it's called). Might be helpful if you've got a hot synth and you want a little more travel on your input. |
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