Massive newbie question.
Before buying my Rev2, I only had my Kronos. It was plugged into a 4i4. I was also using the midi ports for working within my DAWs of choice. I currently only have one set of ear phones and my plan is to eventually get a set of studio monitors. I have roommates to contend with so I would be mainly using the headphones followed by the monitors on lower volume.
When I only had the Kronos moving the headphones from audio interface to the keyboard was no big deal. Now that I am acquiring more gear I am loathing the thought of playing musical headphone jack or opening Guitar Rig so that I can hear anything through the interface.
So should I look into an interface with more inputs such as the 18i20? Or should I go the mixer route and just plug that into the 4i4? I am starting to look at either a 12 or 16 channel mixer such as the Yamaha 12/16 MGXU.
If I had a dedicated midi keyboard, the mixer is a no brainer but as I will also be using the Kronos as the midi controller things are a bit more complicated.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Yeah You definitely should. Don't know what but sure you should. You know what I would want if they weren't like 1500 bucks would be a Presonus interface with the 16 or 24 inputs. What are those called? I C R. Studio live 24 or studio live 16 maybe? Those are so big on inputs. I actually managed to pick up 2 interfaces late last year to combine, using ADAT that get me 16 ins. This is great cause 2 interfaces means 4 MIDI (2 in and 2 out) interfaces are great cause they always have those solid inputs, solid USB driven MIDI ins that can be picked up in as many concurrent aps as you want.
Yup interfaces are an all around good purchase. Those two I got were the Presonus 1824c (has an ADAT in and out (optical)) and Presonus 1810c. (ADAT in only so it has to be the audio engine in the daw). So that's 16 inputs. I have 5 hardware synths, including the Mono out from the prophet and 4 stereo outs from other synths, and of course the stereo ins from my Roland drums (no USB audio output for these) and a mic and then and this next part I find very detailed and interesting, and if you have a Roland Boutique or other modern Roland synth and use WIndows, this can purtain to you.
Having 2 interfaces can be uniquely useful for the following purpose: ADAT really is useful because 2 of the synths are Rolands, which all seem to have USB audio, which is like ASIO interface audio to your DAW in Windows. The USB sound of the Roland System 1m has no hum when connecting to modular from my Beatstep Pro sequencer, so it is much better when used as its Roland interface USB in. This precludes these Roland synths from coming in to the DAW for sound engine reasons, but not from coming into Voicemeeter virtual audio, and out thru software returns to an interface with outs via ADAT for inputting to the DAW that way So I run 1 stereo synth, a mic, the Prophet 10 Rev 4 and the Drums into the DAW Engine interface and the other 3 synths (including 1 stereo via ordinary 1/4" guitar cable pair) out via ADAT each using separate stereo outs from the 2nd interface. I use the 4th ADAT stereo out pair to pick up the mono sound from the 2nd Prophet 10 preamp out (unnecessary and not needed but I do that). This leaves a few extra ins for other things I may bring, (since the USB from Roland and Voicemeeter audio returns don't require physical ins off the interface). So I take a stereo input and use one pair of patch cables out of the DAW Engine interface and that allows it to come into OBS and vwalla, I can make a video while recording the live shows. So to make a long story short, interfaces are so cool, and very useful. The more you have, the better you get at finding uses for them.
You may buy more hardware in the future, so consider that when you consider your interface needs. You can also need more USB ins for this reason, which can cause you to need to upgrade your computer. I never had a mixing board it would be too big for my small space.
OH F...I can't forget the iPhone 5s output input (Moog Model D) I do on that Engine inerface. so ya that's all 8 ins used on both interfaces....cool
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