Hi, I’m currently using my Quad Cortex through a Scarlet 2I2 gen 1, and I’ve been trying to route the QC directly to my Studio monitor instead. I noticed a huge bump in terms of sound quality, as if my AI was muffling the sound of whatever other crap filtering it does.
My issue is that I absolutely need an audio interface and don’t want to use the QC as the audio interface, I just can’t for many reasons. So my question is, what do I need to look for when searching for an audio interface that would not deteriorate the sound quality of the QC like the Scarlett does ?
The original RME Babyface has been rock solid for me.
Apollo hands down. The ability to load plugins directly on the interface makes a huge difference.
SSL 2 Plus is really good, too. Lots of headroom ,transparent sound, high signal-to-noise ratio.
Basically all interfaces will color your sound some will color it more than others.. And you will need to purchase a hole bunch to find out which one the least to your taste…you could also look at a passive line switcher… They are usually designed not to color your sound… But youl want 2 stereo inputs and and 1 stereo output
When checking out interfaces look for ones with separate line ins that aren’t part of the combo xlr inputs and if they are check specs to see if they bypass the preamps when in line mode