best audio interface for mac home studio

This not only makes it pretty easy to understand, but also means that you can pair it up with any manufacturer’s suitably equipped interface. Part of the company's prosumer Clarett+ USB audio interface range, OctoPre is a mic pre and A-D, D-A converter with no computer interfacing. This is where Focusrite’s OctoPre comes into play. However, many interfaces include additional line or digital inputs that enable you to extend your mic input options by using an additional mic input device.

If you want to record multi-mic'd drums or simply want more mic inputs, you could opt for one of the few interfaces with eight mic inputs. Most audio interfaces offer two or maybe four mic inputs. But that icing is layered deep and tastes exceptionally sweet. ID44 (MKII) also has a new all-digital internal Audio Loopback feature that enables users to capture playback from multiple applications on the computer, all at the same time as the microphones that are plugged into the interface.Ī new dual headphone amp, meanwhile - with both a 1/4-inch jack and a mini-jack - means that now three sets of headphones can be plugged in at once.Īudio quality is where the ID44 MKII really shines everything else is icing on the cake. The Digital to Analogue Converters (DAC) are similarly pristine, with imperceptible noise and 126dB of dynamic range. Somehow, Audient has managed to improve the iD44’s Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC) THD+N figure by an impressive 9dB to a class-leading 112dB. The MKII version ramps up the performance even further. Less trivially, the iD44’s primary strength was the superb quality of its mic pres and converters. The ID44 was already an impressive bit of kit, but the MkI always looked a bit ‘meh’ in its uninspired silver and black livery. Again, there’s 24-bit/192kHz conversion, 48v phantom power, direct monitoring and MIDI I/O, but just the one headphone output. There are two preamps that offer the aforementioned Vintage mode, and line inputs on channels 3 and 4.

The Volt 4, meanwhile, doesn’t have the built-in compressor but is the first of the cheaper Volts to offer four channels. The Volt 476p operates at up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution and also offers dual headphone outputs, 48v phantom power, direct monitoring and MIDI I/O. However, it dispenses with the line inputs on channels 3 and 4, replacing them with two additional mic preamps, bringing the total to four.Įach preamp can be switched to Vintage mode for an “album-ready” sound - this emulates the tone of UA’s classic 610 tube preamp - and you also get three compressor presets that are tailored for recording vocals, guitars and synths/drum machines. Like the existing Volt 476, the Volt 476p has a built-in 1176-inspired compressor. Having struck gold in 2021 with its one- and two-channel models, UA got a bit more expansive this year with a couple of new four-channel Volt audio interfaces.

Best audio interface for mac home studio