Reddit reviews M Audio M Track 2X2 | 2 In / 2 Out 24/192 USB Audio Interface

dont get a card, get an interface!

https://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-M-Track-2X2-Interface-24-bit/dp/B01FFH5XMC

you can do a lot more with this. do music with it, take it with you and use your laptop with it for music or recording anything really. just more options for just a few bucks.

I haven't used a sound card since probably around 2002, lol.

as the above guys said the usb audio interface you gonna have couple advantages, basically if you ever planing to upgrade into studio speakers or so, you already gonna be having audio interface, and for studio speakers audio interface its must have thing otherwise you losing more than half of the speakers quality , same goes for microphones, if you ever consider buying some microphone and it has XLR connection, or even 3.5mm jack, you can buy adapter to get XLR or so , and even for some £20 microphone you gonna have pretty clear and more than enough quality for skype talks or so , and it would be many times better than directly plugging into your motherboard or front 3.5m socket. / and the last one its what you need the Headphones quality, usally if you buy headphones for few hundread bucks or so, and you using 3.5mm jack to plug into your motherboard, you losing more than 50% of your audio quality , So with some certain interface you can get the full of your headphones/speakers/mics etc. So for audio interfaces you can go for https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-U-PHORIA-UM2-BEHRINGER/dp/B00EK1OTZC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1484581921&sr=8-2&keywords=usb+audio+interface that would be the most basic and it would do the job more than enough. The 2 more choices is either M audio or Scarlete , m audio : https://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-M-Track-2X2-Interface-24-bit/dp/B01FFH5XMC/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1484581921&sr=8-21&keywords=usb+audio+interface thats also one of their newest audio interfaces , and it has pretty good design doesnt it ? :P The other one https://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-Scarlett-Audio-Interface-Tools/dp/B01E6T56CM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1484581921&sr=8-3&keywords=usb+audio+interface , its literally up to you which one you prefer, you can go for more basic option if you not planing to get some expensive pair of speakers or so , if you thinking that you might get some KRK studio monitors or so you can pick one of them 2 £100 worth audio interfaces , the quality between m audio and focusrite wont be noticeable . But to mention again if you literally need it only for those headphones and you not planing to get anything in future just go for the 50 usd audio interface and you will be more than happy :) ( sorry for not fluent english hopefully you can understand )

Your best option will be to get an audio interface. That will let you use XLR microphones and still connect over USB or thunderbolt. They can be a bit pricey, but there are still some decent budget options out there like this one. If you go this route with the Neewer you'll also need to pick up an XLR-to-XLR cable to hook it up, since the Neewer comes with an XLR-to-3.5mm cable instead.

So to summarize, your setup will be Neewer to audio interface to MacBook Pro. Since the audio interface provides phantom power you won't need a separate box for that.

You're looking for a USB DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter), also called an external soundcard, or some combination of those.

Ones that are a desktop "box" rather than a large dongle tend to be more expensive, however here's one from Asus that a quick Amazon search turned up. Creative is also a name worth looking out for, there's this one and this smaller one There are also higher end ones more suitable if you're doing music or video production, which have high-quality inputs for microphones and instruments.

Don't worry if you find ones that take a 6.25mm (1/4") headphone cable as you can get converters easily. You can certainly get more expensive.

Edit: The Razer box probably does some simulated surround sound processing, I believe the Asus and Creative products should have simulated surround sound (and probably do a better job of it) in addition to enough speaker outputs to have true surround sound. Simulated surround isn't for everyone, and can be turned off.
Worth mentioning is the Sennheiser GSX 1000, which got a great review from HardwareCanucks, especially the simulated surround sound. Very expensive though.

TL;DR
It's a type of USB Soundcard, the Razer one has the wires fixed in. Only some of them are boxes with volume controls on them, so shop around.

For live sound, you'll need some sort of USB audio interface, one of these, that have some sort of monitor out. This will act as a digital to analog converter from your laptop to the house PA for the highest quality audio. It will also give you an input to either DI your guitar, or mic it or a speaker cabinet. You'll also want something to trigger your loops and and adjust things on the Ableton side, but I'd have to know a little more about what you are looking for on that end.

Under $300, your best bet may be to look in the pro-audio world for a USB interface with balanced outs. The Emotiva's will accept 1/4" TRS as well as XLR.

Once the word "balanced" is added to consumer gear, the price shoots up, because snake-oil audiophile marketing.


This is probably the cheapest one I've seen - ($90)

• https://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-M-Track-2X2-Interface-24-bit/dp/B01FFH5XMC (and it does have balanced 1/4" TRS outputs)

I was referring to timthetatman. He does have a lot of bookshelves and random furniture in a small room.

I've just had a few AT headphones that I like and seeing as Tim is very successful at streaming and his stuff sounded great, figured I'd pick it up.

To be honest, I'm not really looking to make a profession out of this stuff, I'm a realist, I know it will never happen. I just prefer to use nice/decent headphones with an amp over gaming headsets, but I hate things like the ModMic so figured I'd pick up a legit microphone.

So if I'm in the middle of a large room (36ft x 14ft) and there's little to nothing done to help sound, what kind of mic should I be looking at? I was going to get this USB interface with the AT2035 but it seems as if that wouldn't be optimal?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01FFH5XMC/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_1_w

Sorry for the late reply, I missed the notification.
Those videos were great. Christ I didn't realise how much of a difference it can make.

http://imgur.com/a/QM714 <-- this is a floor plan I've drawn of my room. It's a pretty big room I'd say; for sizes I'd say from door to window (straight line) is about 4m. Height at tallest point is about 2.5-3m. I can't get pictures of the actual room because it's at uni and I'm home now so this'll have to do. Windows are right next to mixing area basically...
I mostly make melodic electronic stuff but with quite a lot of sampled instruments (Kontakt 5). Distance from window/wall can change a little but the monitors themselves probably can't be further than two to three feet away. I still don't fully understand porting but I think I remember me deciding front was better for my setup (although I would love it was explained fully :)

My budget (including audio interface because I have a shit laptop sound card) is around £350-£400 tops. I'm currently looking at the M-audio BX8 D2s for monitors and the M audio M-track 2x2s Is 8inch too big? It is bedroom producing, but I have a decent-ish size bedroom (for England)

Hope that's everything. Thanks so much for your help :)

Edit: room size changes

I think it would work. I picked up this one M-Audio M-Track 2X2 C-Series | 2-in/2-out USB Audio Interface (24-bit/192kHz) and it’s working great. The only issue that haven’t figured out yet is how to charge the iPad while I’m recording. The good news is that I used it all day today recording and working in GarageBand and my battery lasted fine.

Anyone else with input?