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Audient iD14 vs Focusrite 2i2 - your opinion ?

ManicMiner

in the Skylab landing bay
Looking to get a Focusrite 2i2 or Audient.

Anyone got any opinions on a comparison between these two?
Uses : voice narration, singing, and possibly sampling instruments like piano, guitar, home studio.

Also, I know Scarlett 2i2 comes down a lot on Black Friday sale, to about $110 I think, - does the Audient come down as well ?

I've seen a couple of YT videos on a comparison but there seems to be not a huge difference in recording quality. Just wanting to see if you guys have an opinion.
 
How does the Audient compare with Focusrite when it comes to latency? I have a Forte which had no further support from Focusrite any more so may need to change it at some point.
 
How does the Audient compare with Focusrite when it comes to latency? I have a Forte which had no further support from Focusrite any more so may need to change it at some point.
Good point. I think the Focusrite has its own ASIO drivers. I am assuming Audient has its own ASIO drivers too, and is good with latency.
And does Audient ever go on sale , e.g. Black Friday? Focusrite comes down about 30% in price.
 
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My opinion only as I have not used either. I almost bought an Audient ID22, because it has inserts for analog gear, but the ID14 is a bit more scaled down. Ended up buying a Tascam UH7000 instead.

Things I like about the ID14 over the Focusrite 2I2.

1.The Audient microphone preamp designs are supposed to be the same ones as used in their mixing consoles.

2. I like the layout of the ID14 better, it looks more solid and less fiddly to handle when compared to the Focusrite. E.g the microphone gain knobs on the Audient look bigger and easier to handle, you get a better LED level metre display, which gives you a more accurate idea of what is happening. But what I really liked is the scroll wheel function which could be used for many things I'd imagine, like zooming in and out on your DAW screen, controlling plugins etc (The ID22 did not have this feature unfortunately). It also has dedicated buttons for speaker, headphone and scroll wheel function.

3. The ID14 has optical input, incase you ever need to expand.

I still like the Focusrite brand though, especially their flagship Clarett models, but I don't have thunderbolt. The Red colour is nice too!
 
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latency is a bit worse with the audient, but it got better with latest drivers. go for the audient.

the tascam 7000 has between the same converters than the audient id22, but i liked it also a bit better. lateny wise the tascam was bad for me.

if you can get a cheap focusrite forte, then go for that piece. it has same converters than the clarett series and beats the audient.
 
Here is a nice perk about Focusrite.

Access to Focusrite's Plug-in Collective, with exclusive offers from Nugen Audio, Exponential Audio, Fabfilter, D16 Group, Flux, Positive Grid, Sound Radix, Eventide, iZotope, and more

You do get some nice free stuff every month.
 
I see the Audient ID14 on Ebay for about $130, pre-owned of course.
 
The preamps and overall sound quality of my Focusrite Forte is great, I can't fault it for that. My only concern really is they as it's discontinued there won't be any driver optimisation. They've told me they'll do fixes so it doesn't break (or something along those lines) but there won't be any further development of their drivers.

It's all running fine at the moment but there's always a worry it won't! So I keep my ear to the ground about potential replacements so I'm not having to make a snap decision under pressure.

The Focusrite plugin collective is superb. You get an Addictive Keys piano for starters.
 
My own comparison between the Audient, Focusrite, Steinberg and (I forget no. 4 actually) endet up with buying an ID14. It simply sounded better, at least for my ears.
 
I’ve had the id14 for a couple of years and no complaints. Also recently tried a scarlett 2i2 briefly, although just with the instrument inputs, and it seems very good value. A couple of things to consider besides the price and quality of the preamps -

id14 - The preamps have considerably more gain, so can better handle low output mics like ribbons.

2i2 - Slightly more versatile input options. You can connect 2 guitars, or 1 guitar and 1 bass etc. at the same time. The id14 can only connect 1. Front facing controls might be an advantage when it comes to where you position the interface.

So it depends to some extent on your recording needs and the mics you’ll be using. If you only plan on using 1 mic, you could get the id4 which is roughly the same price as the scarlet but with the better preamp. Having said that, I think the quality of your mics and the acoustics will affect how much you’re actually going to benefit from more expensive preamps.
 
2i2 - Slightly more versatile input options. You can connect 2 guitars, or 1 guitar and 1 bass etc. at the same time. The id14 can only connect 1. Front facing controls might be an advantage when it comes to where you position the interface.
I thought the ID14 had two XLR inputs. So why can't you connect two guitars at once?
 
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I thought the ID14 had two XLR inputs. So why can't you input two guitars?
Sorry mate, ignore my post. I'm happy to be corrected on this but what I meant was that the id14 has only one dedicated input for electric guitar, whereas you can use both inputs on the scarlet 2i2 for this.

But yes, if you are connecting an electroacoustic via XLR, or an electric via a DI box using XLR, you can use either input on the back of the id14. So you could record simultaneously either one DI guitar and one connected via XLR, or two via XLR.
 
Will the release of gen 3 from Focusrite mean my gen 1 will sooner or later be unsupported? What’s Focusrite’s/ other brands’ history on this?
 
Audient!

I use one of their analog to ADAT converters and it sounds great, works great. I like the company, I trust their designs, and I trust them to support their products.

Not a slam against Focusrite, but for a smaller interface I would choose Audient.
 
I am hearing that a few people have had USB surge problems and this has led to their Audient unit breaking. The Audient I think comes with an external power supply as well as the option for it to rely solely on USB power.

As far as I am aware a USB surge is when the unit is asking for more power than the USB port can supply(?)

So I am wondering if employing the external power will mean that the Audient is less likely to surge since its not relying on USB power?
 
When I was in the market for an interface I remember reading that the smaller Audient ID4 could use USB power exclusively because it had lower grade converters or perhaps because it has one input channel only, or something like that, can't remember.

However, the ID14 is slightly different.
"the iD14 will work on bus power; however, Audient say that USB can’t provide enough power to maintain the iD14’s sound quality while also powering mics, so if you want to engage phantom power, you have to use the supplied DC adaptor."

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/audient-id14
 
However, the ID14 is slightly different.
"the iD14 will work on bus power; however, Audient say that USB can’t provide enough power to maintain the iD14’s sound quality while also powering mics, so if you want to engage phantom power, you have to use the supplied DC adaptor."
So having it plugged into external power will nullify the risk of USB power surge(?)
 
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