TOP 5 affordable sound cards for home studios

The American brand Presonus has eaten more than one dog on inexpensive audio interfaces, and their Audiobox has not dropped out of recommendations for home studios for a decade. AudioBox USB96 is a logical continuation of the original Audiobox, which was slightly modernized, but the stuffing was not touched. This is a compact and heavy sound interface in a metal case, equipped with a pair of A-class preamps that are excellent by the standards of the low-cost level and converters with support for 96 kHz / 24 bit sampling rates. Actually, the increased frequency of discrediting became the reason for the upgrade, the old AudioBox USB supported only 48 kHz.

Support for iOS was another important update point. After releasing several specialized mobile interfaces a la iBox, Presonus decided to take a simpler path and added iOS integration where possible. Given the sheer number of unique music apps, samplers and loopers (Loopy Pro, AUM, Drambo, MiRack, Samplr, Patterning, etc.) this is a powerful bonus to a well-established audio interface. A pair of balanced 6.35/XLR inputs allows you to simultaneously record several instruments, the presence of a MIDI interface makes it possible to connect hardware such as a synthesizer and a drum machine, USB power simplifies the connection process, and the iron part (Cirrus Logic CS4270 chip + ST Microelectronics TS464 + amplifiers microcontroller NXP LPC4320FBD144) produces high-quality sound for a low-cost level. True, it colors a little, making it brighter. That is, on another audio interface, the demo may sound a little less festive and rollicking.

Another strong point of the audio box is a powerful bonus software package, which, according to the manufacturer's idea, is able to cover many needs of a novice musician. At least at first. Firstly, the package includes the current version of Studio One Artist - this is a lite version of a very cool DAW from Presonus, for which in recent years many have abandoned the familiar Cubase and Pro Tools. Moreover, the Artist version is a completely complex product, which lacks some of the branded Studio One Pro chips (for example, MixFX or Chorrd Track support). In addition to the DAW itself, the Studio Magic software package includes a lightweight set of software synthesizers from Arturia, a mini-modular system from Cherry Audio, a small set of effects from Brainwox, Lexicon and iZotope, as well as several sample packs.

In 2019, Focusrite introduced the third update of audio interfaces from its massive Scarlett line. In addition to the improved hardware, the new Scarletts have added an Air button that activates a rather interesting emulation of ISA transformer microphone preamps. When recording in this mode, the readability and purity of the mid- and high-frequency spectrum are slightly improved. Useful when recording vocals, guitars and other acoustic instruments. The considered model Scarlett Solo is the junior representative of this line.

The Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen is a compact sound card designed for mobile and home use. It features an updated Focusrite preamp that supports up to 24-bit 192kHz sampling rates and up to 56dB of gain. As the model name suggests, there is only one line input for connecting instruments (6.35 / XLR), but with support for three different operating modes (line, microphone, instrument). Plus, the card has been modernized in terms of connection - instead of the old USB A, USB-C is now used, and the card works without problems with MacOS laptops and computers and iOS tablets. True, in the latter case, we are talking only about iPad Pro models.

In recent years, the game on the market of low-cost sound cards has reached a new level: the cards began to sound more interesting than their low-cost counterparts 10-15 years ago, and the quality of preamps has completely increased. Therefore, additional weapons go into battle, most often in the format of a serious software package. For example, the Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen comes with 2 DAWs in the basic version at once - Avid Pro Tools First and Ableton Live Lite. The first is respected by sound engineers and directors, the second is adored by electronic musicians. Both, in fact, are the gold standard and cover the needs of a novice musician in many ways. In addition to both DAWs, the package includes a package of sound processing plugins from Focusrite itself, Softube, Relab, Brainworx and other famous plugin manufacturers, several guitar amp emulations, Auto-Tune, a couple of synthesizers, as well as excellent keyboards XLN Addictive Keys and a popular virtual drum kit XLN Addictive Drums.

The UR22 MKII is the second version of the home studio audio interface developed by Germany's Steinberg in collaboration with Yamaha. The card is equipped with a Class A mic preamp that Yamaha was responsible for developing. Sterinberg boasts that they used high-end inverted compound transistors in its design, thanks to which they managed to achieve extremely clear and detailed sound. At least by the standards of entry-level sound cards.

Compared to the first revision of UR22, the sequel introduced cross-platform support, i.e. the card can be connected to Apple mobile devices, and it comes with a license for Cubasis for iOS. The Steinberg UR22 MKII also now supports Loopback for lag-free real-time audio streaming. This feature will definitely come in handy for streaming audio on the web.

The rest of the UR22 MKII has not changed much and retained the best features of its predecessor. It boasts a strong metal case (weight about 1 kg) with controls placed on the front panel. As before, it is equipped with combo XLR/TRS jacks with guitar mode and phantom power, as well as a dedicated MIDI port, which can be useful for connecting an external sequencer, synthesizer or drum machine. The inside of the card supports 24-bit + 192 kHz operation. And as a bonus, the card comes with a license for a lightweight version of the Cubase virtual studio called Cubase AI.

The American brand Mackie, known to many as a manufacturer of studio / concert acoustics and mixing consoles, has recently entered the sound card market. And they immediately went with trump cards. Although entry-level, the Mackie Onyx Artist 1-2 audio interface boasts state-of-the-art XMOS xCore 200 + CS4272 converters) supporting 192kHz sampling rate and an impressive 100dB signal-to-noise ratio. Purely in terms of characteristics, this is already more interesting than half of the entry-level sound cards designed for home studios. The Onyx Artist 1-2 also looks great.

It gets more interesting when it comes to testing preamps. There is only one audio input (Jack / XLR), but what! Onyx's proprietary preamp in terms of overall sound quality and detail is on par with most sound cards in its price range and is at least on par with Focusrite and Presonus. Some musicians say they are even better. It sounds very clear, pleasantly surprises with a high level of detail, has an impressive volume with almost no noise, and when recording, it introduces a minimum of dynamic distortion in the frequency range.

But this is partially offset by problematic drivers that are capricious depending on the operating system. In the test sample, the input volume level began to decrease over time. Although the knob remained in the same position, and the volume did not change in the Windows settings. And a couple of times she just “fell off”. I had to plug in and out the cable. And judging by the reviews on the network, this is not an isolated case - for someone everything works without problems, for someone there are similar dumps or strong recording delays, which are solved by installing the AsIO4ALL drivers. It would seem that this problem is not so difficult to solve, but complaints periodically appear to this day.

The German company Native Instruments among musicians is strongly associated with virtual instruments - primarily with the Reaktor modular supersystem, the legendary Kontakt sampler, the Tracktor virtual DJ deck and the Machine for beatmaking Machine. However, in the last decade they decided to enter the audio interface market with a line of very interesting devices from the Komplete Audio series. And immediately hit the bull's-eye, occupying a unique niche of its kind. While Focusrite, Presonus and other companies focused on the home recording of vocals, guitars and other instruments, NI decided to win the hearts of numerous bedroom producers who write techno, dubstep, house, trance, hip-hop and other music genres focused on club dance floors.

Komplete Audio 2 is an updated version of NI's popular mobile audio interface that retains all the key features of the original. Usually all reviewers start praising the KA 2 for its looks. And it's hard to argue with that. The jet-black chassis with volume controls, audio inputs and power switches would look the same as everyone else, if not for its top panel, which changes everything. It is divided into halves, on one side there is a massive volume control that gives aesthetic pleasure when you turn it, on the other side there is a mirror panel with LED indicators of the incoming and outgoing signal. In addition to the visual aesthetics, the case turned out to be quite compact and also perfectly assembled. As time has shown, Komplete Audio 2 can be carried in a backpack without worrying about its safety.

The quality of the built-in preamp, headphone preamp and DAC is also in order. Komplete Audio 2 sounds decent against the background of PreSonus AudioBox and Focusrite Scarlett, supports 192 kHz sampling rate, and is also equipped with a pair of combo XLR/TRS inputs with support for phantom power. Throw in a serious software starter package (Ableton Lite, Maschine Essentials, Monark, Replika, Komplete Start, etc.) and you get an extremely attractive option for an aspiring musician, producer or beatmaker. The only negative is that the headphone input duplicates the linear one, i.e. they cannot be fed a separate signal in order to monitor the sound from the second deck in Traktor. Apparently, NI decided to divide their cards in a similar way - Audio DJ models are designed for DJs, and Komplete Audio for sound recording.