I’m a guitarist/singer and I’m looking to record some acoustic stuff. I have a condenser mic, but I would need an audio interface. I’m not looking for a fancy setup, just bare bones really. Any recommendations for an open source audio workshop? What’s my cheapest quality option for an audio interface?
Thanks!
For quality, I’d recommend Focusrite Scarlett. I’ve used the solo and the 18i20 and i love them across the board. A 3rd gen Solo is about $100usd, but you get a mic input, line input, RCA outs for speakers, and a headphone output and control. New also means software (ableton live lite, at least when I got mine way back when) so you can use the interface right away.
…realizing I’m on lemmy, so just in case: can’t help much on the software front because I have a dedicated music pc with windows, but can confirm the Solo works like a charm with pop, zorin, and mint at least.
Focusrite is great, I have a 2i4 I got >10 years back mainly to route sound through both headphone and speakers on desktop with analog volume knobs for each, but thing has XLR and phantom power and all that. I’m not musically inclined but I’ve ran an electric guitar and a midi control through it to Ableton without a hitch a long time ago. Their entry level stuff seems rock solid for this even
Unless they’ve gone backwards, the 2i2 worked super well on Linux with JACK. I haven’t used one in years (I’ve got a sizable USB mixer these days) but I remember that Focusrite stuff just worked.
But these days I’m like you. Dedicated Windows PC for music making.