Audio interfaces come in all shapes and sizes, but when you're trying to build a recording studio on a budget, you might be more concerned with the unit's price. While you can never put a dollar sign on creating quality audio, we've brought together some of our favorite audio interfaces under $3000 to illustarate that you can capture professional sounding recordings at this pricepoint. Read on to discover more about these interfaces made by
Antelope Audio,
Apogee,
Universal Audio,
Focusrite and
Prism from our own Ryan McGuire.
Antelope Orion Studio:
This is a full-featured interface of exceptional audio quality offering blistering latency specs over thunderbolt. The Orion Studio features DSP accelerated plug-in hosting capabilities with a growing list of available plug-ins that make this a very attractive solution for the project studio owner.
Apogee Symphony I/O MK II 2x6:
A refresh of the powerful Symphony series from one of the leaders in converter technology. On board thunderbolt now rounds out the feature set for this popular top quality converter series. Updated functionality and classic Apogee sound quality make this one of the best converter options available.
Universal Audio Apollo 8 QUAD:
The best-selling interface in its price range, the Universal Audio Apollo has an undeniably attractive mix of on-board features and DSP plug-in hosting options. Updated recently with true Thunderbolt connectivity for incredible latency specs.
Focusrite Red4 Pre:
A flagship integrated interface offering from Focusrite aimed at the project studio owner who demands uncompromised conversion quality. Based on the Rednet series of network based convertors, the Red 4Pre relies on Thunderbolt 2 connectivity for stability and the lowest latency specs. As a bonus, the Red4 Pre includes a suite of tasty plugs-ins Softube’s Drawmer S73 Intelligent Master Processor, TSAR-1R Reverb, Tube Delay and Saturation Knob as well as a suite of Focusrite classics.
Prism Lyra 2:
The British manufacturers of the flagship ADA8-XR, which is held by many to be the best sounding converter ever made, are offering this pared down project studio-centric offering with engineering derived from their mastering level products.
