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Monitoring and sound cards

Hi guys

Hope you are all well!!

I have a question about sounds cards.

I am buying a new macbookpro 2013 and current I have a presonus firebox as my external sound card.

I'm thinking about upgrading to a better one with a controller for ease of use.

Anyone got any suggestions?

I was looking at this.,. I don't think you can record into it but that's ok I don't record at my home anyways.

http://www.presonus.com/products/Central-Station-PLUS

Is presonus still the brand I should be looking at? Is there better and more cost effective ?


Thanks
JC

Hey John - happy birthday, dude!

That Presonus Central Station isn't what you want because it's not a soundcard - it's a monitor and headphone distribution amp that you would run after your soundcard to have control over different monitoring setups. It's supposedly a beast, though. I almost bought one when my 4x headphone amp starting crapping out last year, but decided to go with the PreSonus HP60 (headphone distribution amp) instead.

If you just need something to run a pair of monitors and one pair of headphones from your MacBook, I'd go with an Apogee Duet if running USB. Or, check out the new UA Apollo Twin Solo if you want a Thunderbolt interface.

Re: Monitoring and sound cards

quote:

Originally posted by johncannons1 Is presonus still the brand I should be looking at? Is there better and more cost effective ?

All the current generation Presonus interfaces (AudioBox VSL) are crap. I wouldn't buy one. They took a REALLY long time to support new versions of OSX when they came out.

If you've got the budget, I don't think you can go past a Duet, as Cryo said. Echo Audio ECHO2 is a similar, but the company don't seem very active these days, so it could be a bit risky. If you're looking for something on the cheap, the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 has two knobs on the front for headphone and monitor volume. I can't really think of any other interfaces that I would buy in your position.

Keep in mind, you can always just add a passive attenuator, if all you want to do is control volume easily.

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik .

Thanks Dave!! Long time!


Thanks for your response also Echo. I dont mind whether I use USB or thunderbolt... Is there any benefit of using USB or thunder?

Budget is not an issue... well it is but looking at the price of these two im happy with either...

Suggestions?

What are you monitoring with?

If you don't record audio, you probably don't even need an audio interface with a MBP

quote:

Originally posted by johncannons1 I dont mind whether I use USB or thunderbolt... Is there any benefit of using USB or thunder?

I've never used a TB interface, so I'll leave that up to somebody smarter. But, given the shortage of peripheral ports that most MacBooks come with these days, a TB interface might make sense just to keep your USB ports open for other peripherals/controllers.

quote:

Originally posted by tehlord What are you monitoring with? If you don't record audio, you probably don't even need an audio interface with a MBP

By with what do you mean?

Right now I'm running a MacBook Pro with logic Into a firebox then the outputs are two emes monitors with a monitoring sub

I don't record because the acoustics aren't great for it

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik I've never used a TB interface, so I'll leave that up to somebody smarter. But, given the shortage of peripheral ports that most MacBooks come with these days, a TB interface might make sense just to keep your USB ports open for other peripherals/controllers.

I was reading somewhere about reduced latency but I don't know about this stuff.

I'll see if anyone has any opinions on it otherwise I might go with the UA one

UA for sure!!

I don't remember about the exact figures but Thunderbolt has much more speed and capacity than USB. It's on the UA website under FAQ. Plus you would have the ability to run UA plugins! Extra bonus.

Thanks for your help
Guys

On a related topic, I was in Guitar Center the other day and noticed a mint secondhand Apogee One in the display case for $140. I shoved an elderly woman out of the way to get to it and now it's mine. It works great with my MacBook Air - the headphone output has a shit ton of juice (drives my 600-ohm DT800s just fine) and the built-in condenser mic actually sounds pretty good. Dead simple to use, too.

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik On a related topic, I was in Guitar Center the other day and noticed a mint secondhand Apogee One in the display case for $140. I shoved an elderly woman out of the way to get to it and now it's mine. It works great with my MacBook Air - the headphone output has a shit ton of juice (drives my 600-ohm DT800s just fine) and the built-in condenser mic actually sounds pretty good. Dead simple to use, too.

That's a crazy deal. You got it for a good $100 less than it's lowest RRP. I need a new soundcard soon but just not sure what to get and I need to invest in Serato before I do that anyway....

The funny thing is, I've been debating between one of these portable Apogees, Focusrites, and MOTUs for a few months now because I couldn't decide if I wanted USB or Thunderbolt (since my MBA only has two USB ports and my TB port doesn't get used at all), or if I also wanted something that would work with my Dell laptop (it's got Sonar on it), etc. That price made my decision easy.

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