# Which of these audio interfaces is better?



## ms54321 (Jul 11, 2021)

Within my budget are:
M-Audio M-Track Duo
Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD

I have a seaboard49 and a roland digital piano plugged into my windows laptop via usb and I want to reduce latency in Waveform which I believe an audio interface will help with, so which of the above is better.

Thanks!


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## janila (Jul 11, 2021)

Neither of those manufacturers are known for the quality of their drivers. ESI U22 XT doesn't cost that much more but ESI drivers are solid in low latency.


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## Henu (Jul 11, 2021)

If you could stretch your budget a couple of tens upwards, you could get this one which is a night and day difference. Very stable and reasonably fast drivers too.









Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen


2-Channel USB2.0 Audio Interface with USB-C Connection 24 bit / 192 kHz, 1x Scarlett microphone preamp, +48 V phantom power, Switchable air function, 1 Mic input: XLR, 1 Line/instrument input: 6.3 mm jack, 2 Line outputs: 6.3 mm jack balanced,...




www.thomann.de





However, it's only one input while your examples had two, so I don't know if that's a dealbreaker for you.


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## Brasart (Jul 11, 2021)

I would avoid the M-Audio interfaces, I had a pretty terrible experience with the M-Audio M-Track 2X2M which only lasted a couple years before dying on me and was plagued with issues all the way until it failed — I recently got the SSL2+ to replace it and it's working like a charm so far.

In your case I think the safer bet is the Behringer interface, while I don't have first hand experience on them, the recent M-Audio interfaces don't have my trust


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## SlHarder (Jul 11, 2021)

And do take a look at Motu M2, fwiw.


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## Brasart (Jul 11, 2021)

SlHarder said:


> And do take a look at Motu M2, fwiw.


This is ~140€ over OP's budget


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## SlHarder (Jul 11, 2021)

Brasart said:


> This is ~140€ over OP's budget


Sorry, I didn’t take the time to google actual prices of mentioned. I'll do better research next time.


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## ms54321 (Jul 11, 2021)

Henu said:


> If you could stretch your budget a couple of tens upwards, you could get this one which is a night and day difference. Very stable and reasonably fast drivers too.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Actually I'm not really sure - so if I have the fp30 and the seaboard going direct to the laptop via USB then do I only need 1 input for the audio interface? Or do the fp30/seaboard connect direct to the audio interface?


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## Henu (Jul 11, 2021)

If both of those are used only with USB and no audio signal is coming out of them at any point, you don't technically need _any_ audio inputs!


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## ms54321 (Jul 11, 2021)

Henu said:


> If both of those are used only with USB and no audio signal is coming out of them at any point, you don't technically need _any_ audio inputs!


So you mean I need an audio interface without inputs?


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## Henu (Jul 11, 2021)

To be honest, I'm not sure if they sell those generally (RME comes to mind but it's rather heavy-priced compared to your budget) but nevertheless you should buy a soundcard with at least one input if you ask me. You never know if you want to record your voice for example, and without that input you'd be screwed unless using an USB mike.

But yeah, technically, if you are 100% sure you will never need any audio to be recorded, you don't need a single audio input in that situation.


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## CeDur (Jul 11, 2021)

ms54321 said:


> Within my budget are:
> M-Audio M-Track Duo
> Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD
> 
> ...


I have UMC202HD. It's a simple but solid device, nothing like old cheap Behringer stuff, but if you are JUST after reducing latency I'm not sure you will see any difference, really. You would have to pay 10x more and get RME or Apollo.

If you want to see some proper tests/reviews of audio interfaces, I recommend this guy. He does proper measurements and his videos are devoided of unnecessary marketing hype:


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## puremusic (Jul 11, 2021)

I know some of the cheaper Behringer audio interfaces use the freely downloadable by anyone ASIO4ALL driver instead of proprietary ones, or at least that was the case not long ago. Not sure about the UMC202HD, it might be a step up enough. Still I wouldn't go to Behringer or M-Audio if you can afford just a bit of a step up.

ASIO4ALL can work well for people with no budget whatsoever in some use cases.

The amount of frustration from large latency and snap crackle and pop can prompt some people to drop a lot of $$$ even if it's a pain in the wallet, it's less painful than the alternative. Speaking from experience.


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## ms54321 (Jul 11, 2021)

puremusic said:


> I know some of the cheaper Behringer audio interfaces use the freely downloadable by anyone ASIO4ALL driver instead of proprietary ones, or at least that was the case not long ago. Not sure about the UMC202HD, it might be a step up enough. Still I wouldn't go to Behringer or M-Audio if you can afford just a bit of a step up.
> 
> ASIO4ALL can work well for people with no budget whatsoever in some use cases.
> 
> The amount of frustration from large latency and snap crackle and pop can prompt some people to drop a lot of $$$ even if it's a pain in the wallet, it's less painful than the alternative. Speaking from experience.


Yeah I can't seem to get adio4all to work with Waveform Free - you can choose it fine but then I get a loud screech when playing the midi instruments and then just silence. Any ideas?


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## puremusic (Jul 11, 2021)

None I'm afraid, besides doing what you're doing -- shopping for an audio interface. By the way how's that Seaboard 49 working out for you? I have one myself. And oddly enough a Roland digital piano too. What kind of music are you making?


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## ms54321 (Jul 12, 2021)

puremusic said:


> None I'm afraid, besides doing what you're doing -- shopping for an audio interface. By the way how's that Seaboard 49 working out for you? I have one myself. And oddly enough a Roland digital piano too. What kind of music are you making?


Absolutely love the seaboard! Only had it a few weeks, got the swam cello for it and sounds incredible. Loving all the equator1/2 sounds. I'm self taught by ear and have spent decades improvising and messing around, finally got around to a proper home studio and currently just messing with all the different sounds and playing the roland and seaboard together. With the left hand doing the accompaniment on the roland and the right hand doing the melodies with the seaboard its like nothing I've ever experienced creativity-wise. What kind of stuff you doing?


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## ms54321 (Jul 12, 2021)

Update: I tried Cakewalk Free instead of Waveform Free and can get the asio4all drivers to work with cakewalk fine. The latency is acceptable for both the roland fp30 and seaboard now. So my question would be - what advantages would a budget audio interface now give me (like the two I mentioned in the first post) - if taking latency out the equation would they give me a generally better "sound" with equator etc? Better sounding than the laptop's soundcard?


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## CeDur (Jul 12, 2021)

The answer is 'no'*. The only benefit of having audio interface would be having inputs (if you record mic/instrument signals) or need proper outputs (eg to connect to monitors).

*until you buy something really high end; low/mid budged audio interfaces latency differences are marginal


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## ms54321 (Jul 12, 2021)

CeDur said:


> The answer is 'no'*. The only benefit of having audio interface would be having inputs (if you record mic/instrument signals) or need proper outputs (eg to connect to monitors).
> 
> *until you buy something really high end; low/mid budged audio interfaces latency differences are marginal


Thanks I've now managed to sort the latency issue by using asio4all with cakewalk instead of waveform, but I was wondering would one of the audio interfaces I listed make the sounds of equator etc "sound better" than the laptop does? ie does an audio interface make things like equator sound better than using the laptop's built in soundcard?


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## CeDur (Jul 12, 2021)

There are people out there who believe USB cable used to connect devices affects 'sound', so.. 

If you are using external studio monitors/PA sound system, audio interface will give you better, clean audio signal on the output. If you are using only heapdhones, theoretically output impedance of headphone amp in your laptop vs audio interface headphone output might cause some subtle audible sound difference, but as long as you do not need inputs for recording instruments, I wouldn't care too much.


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## puremusic (Jul 12, 2021)

ms54321 said:


> Absolutely love the seaboard! Only had it a few weeks, got the swam cello for it and sounds incredible. Loving all the equator1/2 sounds. I'm self taught by ear and have spent decades improvising and messing around, finally got around to a proper home studio and currently just messing with all the different sounds and playing the roland and seaboard together. With the left hand doing the accompaniment on the roland and the right hand doing the melodies with the seaboard its like nothing I've ever experienced creativity-wise. What kind of stuff you doing?


I doubt you'd notice much of a difference, unless yes, you went high end. Glad you got ASIO4ALL working for you! If you're happy with the latency now I think you're set.

The SWAM instruments were one of the first ones I latched ahold of. And the demos with them one of the things using ROLI's stuff were what attracted me to the Seaboard. There's really nothing like having both expression and vibrato on your fingertips of both hands.

I'm just a hobbyist at this for only a few years who has fun with music for recreation, composing my not for public quality pieces and playing orchestras on my fingertips. I guess I fit into the soundtrack/classical/BGM niche, mostly piano, orchestra and a bit of 80's style music and synths. I particularly like using expressive controllers and a breath controller for saxophone and flute.

Basically I seem to be filling up my hands with multiple keyboards and feet with pedals and then a breath controller try to do everything at once as live as possible. I really am doing this as a hobby.. I don't have to work hard like all the pros here.. which shows in my skill level but as I said I'm having fun.


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## ms54321 (Jul 12, 2021)

puremusic said:


> I doubt you'd notice much of a difference, unless yes, you went high end. Glad you got ASIO4ALL working for you! If you're happy with the latency now I think you're set.
> 
> The SWAM instruments were one of the first ones I latched ahold of. And the demos with them one of the things using ROLI's stuff were what attracted me to the Seaboard. There's really nothing like having both expression and vibrato on your fingertips of both hands.
> 
> ...


Yeah the seaboard is definitely fun for messing around with  I'm next looking for a good sax and electric guitar that would work well with the seaboard, have you come across any with yours?


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## codys (Jul 14, 2021)

Yeah i'd save a little more and grab a focusrite secondhand. Not much more and going to be a lot better in terms of sound quality.


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## vitocorleone123 (Jul 15, 2021)

I'd personally get the Presonus Studiobox anniversary edition etc or whatever for $99 rather than the other two, but I don't have direct experience with any of them. I doubt it's much different/better, but... that'd be my choice.


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## CATDAD (Jul 15, 2021)

Whatever you do, I would recommend _against_ a Behringer interface below the UMC202. They don't have their own drivers and just use the generic ASIO4ALL drivers, and you'll likely see little to no improvement. 

I agree with the idea of something like a Focusrite Solo or 2i2(or other similar-tiered interface) from the used market. There are a lot of them out there from people upgrading beyond them, and if you find it doesn't suit your needs down the line you'll be able to sell it for a similar amount if it's still in working order. 

Even if you don't need the inputs, something with an amp to control volume for your speakers/headphones would be nice if you don't already have such a device. And when messing about with sounds in a DAW, even if you're just playing around, being able to turn up your amp and turn your tracks down in-DAW to prevent digital clipping and distorting your tracks will make things sound nicer.


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## gsilbers (Jul 15, 2021)

ms54321 said:


> Thanks I've now managed to sort the latency issue by using asio4all with cakewalk instead of waveform, but I was wondering would one of the audio interfaces I listed make the sounds of equator etc "sound better" than the laptop does? ie does an audio interface make things like equator sound better than using the laptop's built in soundcard?



Not by much. what CeDur said is about right. 
It could also depend on what laptop. 

You could try the berhringer and return it jus tto try out the difference. 

Also, remeber that for behringer warranty to work you have to register your unit within 90 days. 
Which for these lower cost gear is a very good idea. 

Also... 

DO NOT BUY MAUDIO


Repeat. 

DO 

NOT


BUY

M-AUDIO. 

(except for midi keyboard. those are a crapshoot if they turn good or last long.. )

but for audio interfaces or speakers or mics etc:. 


DO 

NOT

BUY

M-Audio.


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## bill5 (Jul 16, 2021)

I'd go with the 202. Solid interface.


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## puremusic (Jul 16, 2021)

ms54321 said:


> Yeah the seaboard is definitely fun for messing around with  I'm next looking for a good sax and electric guitar that would work well with the seaboard, have you come across any with yours?


Aside from the AudioModeling stuff, I use antique hardware synths called PLG VL cards for Saxophones and Flutes. Electric guitar I haven't found one I've clicked with yet for it that'd be a nice find.


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## Zoot_Rollo (Dec 5, 2021)

Audient


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