Quote:
Originally Posted by
dcoughlan
➡️
If you're really serious about this -- is the room where you plan to record acoustically treated? Will you be there for a few years? If the room isn't treated, I would prioritize budget in the following order:
(1) Room treatment
(2) Monitors
(3) Interface
This is a very unsexy way to do things, so it doesn't get much play here, but the truth is you will eventually outgrow your interface and your monitors. You will never outgrow a flat, well-treated room. The nicest interface / monitors in the world will be completely wasted if your room isn't up to snuff, so I'd start by studying up on that if you haven't, yet.
Assuming the room is treated, then moving to the two interfaces, where it's time for another unsexy suggestion: forget them, and look at cheaper, entry-level ones like a Scarlett 2i2 ($150). The reason being that the converters are completely acceptable for producing your desired end product (songwriting demos), and you will learn just as much about the art of recording using one of these as you will with the others (minus learning UAD's specific workflow were you to get the Apollo).
I know the specs don't light a candle to the other interfaces, but I promise you that the quality of the components in this interface will not hinder your development in any way. Yes, you probably won't be recording/mixing a major record on this thing. But that's less because of the unit itself (incredible albums have been made with less), and more because your personal ability to do that is years away. So there's very little point in paying for an interface that's beyond your abilities now. There will come a time when you know enough to realize that you've outgrown the unit, but it probably won't be for a year or two, at which point you'll also likely want more than 2 mic/line/inst ins, may even want to use external converters, you'll have a taste in pres, etc., and you can put the money you saved now toward those things.
As far as monitors go, you will be slower to outgrow those, and there's more to be gained from moving up the price scale, so I'd try to spend as much as you can and get a solid monitoring solution that will last you a while.
If you choose not to take the above advice, I'd get the Apollo for the extra line-outs, the DSP, and cross-platform compatibility. (Songwriters often collaborate.) I wouldn't worry about learning curves on either device. (Once you start doing this, you'll realize technical difficulty is minimal.)
dcoughlan - this is one of the best responses I've ever received in any thread. Thank you so much for taking the time to write!
My room is not good but I'm mapping out a solution. If you know of any great threads here or other resources, well, I appreciate that also. The importance of room treatment is not lost on me.
Re: Monitors. What should my budget be? I've auditioned a few... I'm always looking for value no matter the price point. I actually believe Yamaha HS8's are a good value that I could be happy with but they aren't magnetically shielded. Past research led me to Focal.
Interface-wise...Your advice makes sense but this is my perspective- I want to make a good decision based on a long-term commitment with the manufacturer. You mentioned workflow and that is something I don't want to change/overhaul two years down the road. I really don't even want to learn another company's device control software. Your point about paying significantly more for converter and pre quality is valid, however, there are products that bring value in other ways. Apogee is making a real effort to make using their Element with Logic as simple as possible- that's worth something. Through exclusive, high-quality plug-ins and DSP's to support them, UA provides creative tools that I don't have with other products. That has value to me.
Who to partner with...
I like
Apogee because they are Mac-only which means they can focus on Mac software.
Although many of their plug-ins are third party,
UA is the strongest software developer of the group I've investigated. When you realize that a big part of UA's business model is selling plug-ins, you soon realize that UA has even more incentive to develop reliable drivers for their devices. UA will sell more plug-ins if their installed base is happy with the reliability, quality and overall functionality of their hardware.
I have found far too many documented issues with
Focusrite and Mac. On two occasions, Focusrite tech support left many questions unanswered when I inquired about the issues I had found. That eliminated Focusrite for me.
RME (Babyface Pro) is very respectable but RME is really s-l-o-w in product development. They are still marketing firewire interfaces.
MOTU (624) - my biggest concern is that MOTU is more focused on their own DAW.
Audient - I don't get a great impression about their software development but believe the ID14 is the best interface value under $300.
Antelope (Zen Tour) - is awesome but priced way out of my range and they don't provide that value add of Apogee Element or Apollo Twin Duo Mkii.