Beginner's guide to audio interfaces

When considering which audio interface to buy, you should think about what you want to record and therefore identify the amount of inputs you’ll need to do so! For example, if you’re an acoustic singer/songwriter, then you might only need an interface with two inputs. You might want to use a couple of microphones to capture the sound of your guitar, and then track your vocals separately. However, if you’re a drummer and you want to record your entire kit, you should consider buying an interface with up to eight inputs, as it will let you close-mic each element of your setup. The preamps that are built into audio interfaces are also quite important to think about. There are many different types of preamp that people desire, as they can produce distinctive tones that ultimately affect the sound of a recording. This was perhaps more critical a few years ago, though, as most modern audio interfaces are equipped with high-quality preamps. Just go with the interface that you believe sounds the best!

AD/DA converters are often the unsung heroes when it comes to digital recording. They can have a large impact on the quality of your sounds. That's because they affect how accurately the sound you are capturing is transformed into digital, and then turned back into analogue. For example, if you spend ages mic’ing up your guitar amplifier in order to capture your perfect tone, you’ll want your audio interface to have an AD/DA converter that can translate that tone as convincingly as possible into your DAW.

If you see the term ‘I/O’ a lot when browsing for audio interfaces, it stands for inputs/outputs. And when looking at audio interfaces, you may also notice that these inputs and outputs come in two mediums; analogue and digital. Analogue I/Os can have different connection types that are compatible with microphones or instruments. The two typical inputs you’ll come across are ‘XLR’ (balanced) and ‘line/instrument’ inputs (unbalanced). When it comes to outputs, though, they can take a few different forms. ‘TRS’ jack outputs (balanced) are the most conventional, although some interfaces also have XLR outputs. Smaller interfaces can also have ‘RCA’ outputs too. The digital I/Os that you’ll find on some audio interfaces are either ‘S/PDIF’ or ‘optical’. These can be used for plugging in external units that also support these systems, such as additional preamp expanders or other forms of studio outboard. It’s important to bare in mind that I/Os do not directly correlate with the amount of things that you can record with that interface alone. For example, a sophisticated audio interface may have 18 inputs and 20 outputs, but this does not necessarily mean that you can plug 18 microphones in. In this instance, you may have 8 microphone preamps available on the interface, while the other connections are made up of line/instrument inputs and digital inputs. The same applies for the amount of outputs available. You can’t plug in 10 pairs of monitors!

As we established earlier in this guide, DAW stands for ‘digital audio workstation’. The DAW that you choose can have a large impact on your workflow and thus affect the way that you create music. A lot of audio interfaces that we stock typically come with a free version of a popular title, such as Ableton Intro or Steinberg's Cubase Elements. If you don’t already have a DAW installed on your computer, we’d recommend looking into which brand of software (and any other goodies!) comes with the interfaces that you’re interested in. And there are plenty of places where you can find out about the intricacies of one software over another.

There is no one "best" option, but they are far more convenient. Audio interfaces rose to prominence when the recording industry transitioned from analogue tape mediums to digital software platforms at the turn of the millennia. Instead of relying purely on expensive analogue systems, there was a need to employ computers that could digitally capture sounds; easing the recording process. So instead of being limited to a strict amount of channels with traditional mixing desks and tape, with just a single-input audio interface you can create as many channels on your DAW as you’d like!