Help choosing interface (duet 3/Babyface pro/mt48)?

[rec71]

Hi all,

I’m looking for a new interface. It’s for recording vocals only (I’m on Mac).

Things I like about each one:

Apogee duet 3: I’ve always used apogee and I am used to it. It’s always been pretty simple to use and works well with Mac. It also has plenty of clean gain from my experience.

RME Babyface pro fs: I’m hearing a lot about this interface I don’t know too much about it.

Apollo twin: the main reason I’m interested in this interface is obviously to try the plug-ins. I don’t have any hardware and given I’ve seen so many people swear by the plug-in emulations I’m interested to give them a try. I’m also keen on the fact that it seems like the only interface that I can use to track with autotune at the same time with essentially no latency. However, is this no longer an issue with the new Macs that are out which make it possible to reduce the buffer size down to 32 without any pops or clicks while recording.

Neumann mt48: is this just overkill for my needs? I’ve seen a lot of people raving about the sound quality and I’m led to believe that the sound quality is a major step up from the likes of the Apollo and the apogee duet 3 which I have been using.

Also, does a bus powered interface equal a less than desirable sonic outcome from the microphone as I’ve read somewhere that this is a potential reason for getting a mains powered interface as it will better serve the microphone. The apogee is obviously bus powered, and from what I understand the babyface can be both used as a bus powered and mains powered.

I don’t want anything too complicated to use (I had seen the Anubis which seems complicated for my needs - I don’t even know what an Ethernet cable would be used for on an interface).

[Drew Stephenson]

They're all good units, I'd take any claims about 'major steps up in sound quality' with a pinch of salt.

[James Perrett]

Personally I would always go for RME. The drivers are very good at working at low latencies and they support their devices for a long time - over 20 years in some cases. I mainly use their digital interfaces with separate convertors but they have a very good reputation for sound quality.

[sonics]

I agree with both Drew and James! I've been incredibly happy with my RME gear, both sonically and with reference to the latency and driver quality and stability. It's simply excellent engineering. I've found no meaningful difference at this level when compared to the other interfaces I've used, like Avid, Apogee, Apollo etc.

PreSonus achieved very low latency and great sound with their Quantum range but I'm not sure of the state of that now.

[rggillespie]

I've recently replaced a very faithful RME fireface 400 and moved over to a UA apollo twin. The RME was faultless for more than 20 years and never missed a beat but I always found their totalmix software a nightmare to understand and use. It's software loved by many on here but just wasn't for me. When you say 'I don’t want anything too complicated to use' I've found the UA a doodle to set up and use compared to the RME with total mix. I don't have experience of any of the other models you're looking at but I've really taken to the UA. The free software it came with I've found excellent and trouble free. I didn't buy it for that especially but I feel its a big bonus and well worth having. In the past, I think I've made the mistake of buying things that are designed for pros when my know how is well short of whats required to use the equipment properly. That's another reason I like the UA its so simple you can just get on with the fun of recording. Hope that's relevant to you I don't think you can go too far wrong with any of the candidates you're looking at.

[The Elf]

Decent sound quality is pretty much a given with any of those interfaces.

TotalMix is a major plus for buying RME - and the reason I do.

[Wonks]

Though not really a great necessity when you only have a couple of inputs and outputs.

[james@electronic-quill.net]

I have the Babyface Pro FS, and love it.

it had no problems powering a condenser mic (Lewitt LCT440) while bus-powered. I only have one of those mics, but it seems unlikely that there'd be a problem with powering two of them. RME engineering is famously solid and carefully thought out.
If your mics don't need phantom power, this is a non-issue; just turn up the input gain on the interface.

One of the things I really like about it is how neutral the preamps are. They're about as close to uncoloured as it gets, which means you can stick whatever coloured preamp in front of it that you choose. Or you can record straight through the interface, and add preamp emulation afterwards.

As for the Totalmix software, you may not need it. You can use the controls on the device itself to control input/output levels, and switch phantom power on and off. If you do all your monitoring through your DAW, that's as far as you need to go. If you want it to be a mixer as well as an interface, that's when you'd want to use Totalmix.

Need more channels? I have a Focusrite OctoPre connected via ADAT, and the Babyface syncs cleanly and automatically to the incoming clock signal. As with everything else, this Just Works.

All of this is from plugging it into a machine running Linux, so my experience is from using it in class-compliant mode: no special drivers needed, just plug it in and go. They make, support and update drivers for MacOS, so your experience would be even better.
I also have no experience with any onboard processing on the interface itself, so I have no opinion about that.

[resistorman]

All of those will sound great, there won't be any difference in sound quality that you'll be able to hear in a blind test. So choose on budget and features

[Sam Inglis]

It's a difficult choice because they are all very good!

I don't think you should have a problem running any interface at a 32-sample buffer size on a modern Mac, unless your DAW project is pushing the CPU to its limits. You will typically get better low-latency performance with a Thunderbolt interface than with most USB interfaces. However, RME use their own USB drivers, which achieve performance pretty much on a par with Thunderbolt.

Issues with bus powering tend to be more to do with the headphone amps than the mic amps in my experience. But now that most USB sockets on computers are USB 3 spec that's a less common problem anyway.

Of the interfaces you've listed, the RME and the Neumann are possibly the most 'engineering-led' designs, by which I mean they're extremely capable, not flashy and can present a bit of a technical learning curve. The Duet is at the other end of the scale, and there are aspects of its design that arguably prioritise form over function a little bit. (It does look cool, though, and is very portable.)

If you are only recording vocals, I think the Neumann probably is overkill for your needs, lovely though it is. For me it'd probably be a toss up between the RME and the Apollo Twin. But if you're already using the Duet I'd stick with it, I think there would be better ways to spent £800+ than changing it out for another interface.

[Arpangel]

It's a difficult choice because they are all very good!

That’s it!
Wouldn’t it be great if it was a case of "this one doesn’t have that and doesn’t do what I want it to do" like, this car only has two seats, I need four?
But it’s always down to nit picking things, that aren’t that important, as they are all much of a muchness.
Price, is the determining factor as the bottom line, very often these days.

[Drew Stephenson]

Wouldn’t it be great if...

Surely the great thing is that almost any interface you lay your hands on now is going to offer excellent performance and you can therefore just pick and choose for the features you need at a low price?

[Arpangel]

Wouldn’t it be great if...

Surely the great thing is that almost any interface you lay your hands on now is going to offer excellent performance and you can therefore just pick and choose for the features you need at a low price?

That’s it, we’ve come a long way, and things aren’t what they used to be, and expectations have changed, at a certain price.