One of the most important pieces of equipment you're going to need in your home studio is your audio interface. And it's the way you're going to get all the audio in and out of your computer, and it actual function in a couple other ways as well. As you research an audio interface, it's a goo, actually a really good moment. Because it makes you think about, what are the things you're actually going to be doing in your home studio? And you're going to find there's a wide range of capabilities with one of these devices. So, I'm going to look at this [UNKNOWN] interface, and we're going to see what capabilities it has and talk a little bit about what you might need in your, in your home studio. We'll start with the back of the device, and we can see this one gives us a wide range of different inputs and outputs. And just like we saw before, the inputs and outputs are largely a quarter inch cables, and these are all TRS. so, that's one thing to look at when you're looking for your audio interface to make sure the inputs and outputs are TRS, which also allow you to use balance cables, and kind of reduce the noise in your studio. This interface does provide two XLR inputs. We have one on the back, and one in the front here. And we see a couple other things it has as well. We have MIDI input and output. so, that's one thing to ask yourself, do you have any old synthesizers that you need to connect to you inter, into your computer. In which case you might want to look for an interface that does have a MIDI capability. It has a digital signal in and output called SPDIF/g, which might be useful if you have some digital reverb units or something. This connects to my computer via firewire, and we also find many interfaces that connect via USB, that's a choice you want to make. firewire connections tend to work with a larger number of audio streams going at once, but USB is fine if you're recording only a couple things at once simultaneously. Now, this is quite a full-featured device. Now, we have many, many inputs and outputs, and for many situations, you probably won't need that many ins, and outs. Like are audio recording a complete drum kit with ten microphones. Well, something like this might be quite useful. But if you're only going to be recording a vocalist and a guitar player at once, a smaller interface is fine. I would suggest actually getting a smaller interface if you're only going to be recording a couple things at a time, and getting a high quality one as opposed to getting one that has many, many ins and outs. Particularly, if you don't even have that many microphones or synthesizers, the additional ins and outs aren't going to help you at all. Now, in addition to having inputs and outputs, the interface actually provides a number of functions. So, it does provide the ins and outs, we see that it has XLR inputs. So, we'll provide our microphone preamp capabilities here. And that it will have the functionality to bring the microphone level up to that standard line level. And when doing that, there will always be a knob on the outside called trim or gain, just for that purpose. We also see that this interface has a series of switches. Now, one of them is the 48 which is phantom power. Which is going to be used to power condenser microphones, which you saw was necessary. And another switch we see here is a pad. And a pad is an attenuation. which means it's lowering the value of, of the signal. It's actually making it quieter. And that can be necessary when you're using a really, really high quality microphone with a powerful output. Or when you're recording something that's very loud, it might be necessary to bring that pad in to reduce the level of the signal. It's also one of those things where you might have the pad on by accident. I actually don't find myself using the pad much. I find it more, I'll be like curious, why am I not getting enough signal? Oh, that, that switch is enabled. There are some devices where it's actually a knob that gets pulled out that engages the pad, and it's even harder to see that it's there. So, do investigate with your interface if there is that functionality. because it can be an important one, it can cause issues, and it can also be something you do want to engage if you're if you're using very loud signals. they'll also be your headphone output will be here. So, in addition to inputs, you do want to make sure the output you're using is of a high quality. definitely, it's much better to use an interface audio than rely on the audio output from your computer. It will sound better, and you'll probably get a hotter signal, and the headphone out will sound better as well. So, that is something to, to, to, to watch for. Now, even inside this box, there are a couple things going on. We have the mic pre, which we mentioned already, but it also functions as your analog to digital converter. So, this is providing that translation from a continuously variable signal into a digital signal, which we will talk about in depth later in the course. and on the other side of the output side of things, it is also providing the digital to analog conversion. So, we see that the interface provides many, many functio, many, many things in our, in our signal flow. So, we want to be careful and choose one that meets our needs and is very high quality. Now, there are so many possible options for this. I think it's a great option, a great opportunity, to go to the forums and start discussing about interfaces, your experiences with them, how they're being used, and kind of what you need. Something to watch out for when purchasing an interface are going to be does it work with your computer? So, make sure that all the drivers are there and it'll function with your computer. And make sure it has all the functionality you do need, and not too much extra stuff. I actually find that kind of one with less knobs and less ins and outs but of a higher quality will serve you much, much better in the long run.
