2. Audio Interface Hardware

The next step in choosing the right hardware is finding an audio interface that suits your needs. Do you think you can make do with the speakers and sound card your computer came with? Think again. A relatively small investment in an audio interface will improve your recording and playback quality by leaps and bounds.

Input and output is handled by analog-to-digital converters (A/D converters) for input, and digital-to-analog converters (D/A converters) for output. There are numerous external interfaces on the market that have decent A/D and D/A conversion, generous I/O, and added perks like monitoring functions and built-in effects. The hardware itself with I/O is usually referred to as an "interface." The term "sound card" is in declining use because professionals no longer use raw circuit boards or PCI cards for sound. In fact, the PCI slot is being phased out of motherboards, so sound cards will become increasingly irrelevant. What you want is not a sound card, but a USB or FireWire interface.

USB and FireWire have become popular not just for their superior fidelity, but because of their portability and convenience when used with a laptop. Before making a choice as to which USB or FireWire standard to go with, make sure you know what ports your computer already has, and what port cards you will have to buy, if any. FireWire transfers at 400 Mbits/s and can transfer audio data faster than USB 1.1 at 12 Mbits/s. FireWire 800, at 800 Mbits/s, is a relatively new standard that is twice the speed of normal FireWire, but the technology has not been fully adopted yet. Similarly, at 480 Mbits/s, USB 2 is faster than USB 1.1, but it is still not as popular.

Of all the choices, FireWire will provide the best balance of transfer speed and popular compatibility. You can expect a new Mac to have both FireWire and USB 1.1; some newer models have USB 2. A late model PC will have USB 1.1 and possibly USB 2. You can add a FireWire port with a PCI card or PCMCIA card.

Make sure to examine the specs carefully when reading about the number of inputs and outputs of your interface. They can be mic level, line level, instrument (guitar) level, or digital. You want to know what inputs and outputs you'll be able to use, and what inputs and outputs will be there just for future expandability - or for no reason at all. You will find that the price of the interface will generally correspond to the number of inputs and outputs, the bit rate and sample quality, plus any added bells and whistles.

At the more economical end of the spectrum, adequate interfaces can be found made by Edirol (a consumer division of Roland,) M-Audio, Yamaha, Behringer, and Tascam. A mid-sized budget gets you better gear from M-Audio, Aardvark, Rolls, Emu, Lexicon, Audiotrak, and Presonus. For those willing to spend more for feature-laden and crisp sounding options, interfaces from Digidesign, Mackie, Alesis, Focusrite, ST Audio, Hercules, Lucid, M-Audio, Lynx Studio Technology, and Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) will fit the bill.

One major disadvantage of digital audio and the virtual studio revolution is that it means increasing dependence on the mouse. Using a mouse to control audio software is the equivalent of having an expansive mixing console in front of you with endless knobs and faders to tweak, but only being able to use one finger at a time. The way around this dilemma is with a control surface, which is essentially a console-like hardware unit with knobs and faders that can be assigned to the knobs and faders within the software. This effectively provides you with tactile control of the software, giving you many of the advantages associated with a hardware mixer. Some popular and less expensive options here would include control surfaces from Evolution, Peavey, Tascam, and Edirol. Mid-ranged possibilities include JL Cooper, Doepfer, and Event Electronics. At the high end are companies like Mackie, Radikal, CM Labs, Digidesign (see picture below), and also JL Cooper.