Had both of them, currently using MOTU, auident’s main “big” encoder got loose after couple of times being carried in backpack, even so if you plan to use it only inside of your studio it’s a good option. The only trouble with MOTU was-it forced me to upgrade my MacOS to Monterey one day, I was on Catalina that time and MOTU just stopped working

Motu is better if you want among the best audio output quality, including potentially the best headphone preamps among the bunch.

Seconding the Julian Krause recommendation! It’s suuuper rare to find such in-depth technical reviews & explanations that nonetheless are presented in a way that is also easy to understand!

I would like to share my experience, albeit completely out of fashion: I still use a Terratec EWS 88-MT sound card, with midi IN/OUT, 8 IN/8 OUT mono mounted on a separate chassis which can be used both as an external and internal module at the PC. The drivers have not been updated for some time, yet I have used this card on all Windows operating systems, from XP to 10.

I also have an external M-Audio Audiophile USB which, in fact, I’ve never used because it often created problems for me and, with its price at the time, around €160.00, today I would certainly buy better products.

I paid a lot for Terratec: 22 years ago, the equivalent of around €480.00 today and I’d say it was an excellent purchase. Today you can find used ones for €60/70 and, if you consider that you can mount 4 together, you can get up to 32 analogue IN/OUTs, the equivalent of a top-level professional studio enclosed in a PC. To connect and record live a band with a synth, electronic drums (or acoustic drums with microphones connected to another mixer), guitar, bass and a microphone, you only need one!

Certainly it is better to buy newer products but, in making a choice, I think it is also important to think about the life cycle of the product.

Thanks for the space granted and good music to all.

Enter Sweetwater staff. I first tried the Audient ID14 MkI demo model. It would have sounded great, but my setup requires me to use a mixer auxiliary that was too hot for the Audient. There was no way to lower that aux without upsetting the mix signal to noise. I needed a interface that kept line level activated upon restart. So I sent that back and the suggested Presonus 68c was sent out. Wow! This is a great USB interface. And I have a DAW, Studio One Artist 6, that I can use to shape my audio with plug-ins, sending the sound easily back to the 68c and on to the Livestreams on Zoom and YouTube.

Anyway, great article. The 24c is the smaller version of the 68c. It’ll sound clean and clear. And it handles mic and line level sources easily.

Audient!

No, Motu M2 or M4 M6 has the lowest on usb and presonus quantum on thunderbolt

Great suggestion! We will add it to the article. It comes with a useful software bundle from NI.