Best quality recording on Prime 4 - Internal HD vs Audacity vs other USB Interface?

@Stulynn,

I think you have enough info to go on. You’ve received replies from those with years of industry experience, those that have been providing years of valuable feeback on this forum, and… the remainder. Continue with your research and I’m sure you’ll make the right decisions to suit your needs.

Cheers,

Thanks guys for all your suggestions and advice. I’ll do some more research taking all this onboard, and see what’s out there in my price range.

I think the consensus is that as long as I get an improvement on the current set up (recording straight into my old Mac via the mic/line in) then it’s a bonus. If I can do this without spending a fortune then great.

1 Like

You might also want to consider something like this: https://www.tascam.eu/en/dr-05x.html

i have an audient i14 - really nice pre amps cost about170 gbp . can’t recommend enough

1 Like

https://www.tascam.eu/en/da-3000.html

I’m looking at this at the moment, for both recording my mixes and my vinyl. There are similar products that record to solid state media but also connect to your network and copy to your computer once recording has finished.

This one has dual mono DAC’s and is actually for mastering. It’s a bit pricy though.

I was looking at the Audient ID14 s as well - gets good reviews on the quality of recording - but maybe a bit out of my price range (although seen some used on eBay recently fo for around £120 which brings it closer the price of a new focusrite 2i2).

Another noob question I guess - I note the main 2 features of all these USB interfaces tend to be the pre-amps and the DAC.

Given I’ll be using this purely for the 2 line-in inputs, is the quality of the pre-amps as important as the quality of the DAC? I take it the pre-amp is more for boosting a mic, guitar or vocal recording rather than a line in? Or is the quality of the pre-amp just as important?

Slowly narrowing the choices down!

I agree that there Red behringer is a sweet little device.

1 Like

i would say that it still matters for line instruments i know mics need more gain but i don’t think the pres are bypassed simply because the input level is hot enough (someone may correct me) audient use the same pre in the entry level stuff as in their pro level boxes. to my mind they seem better than the scarlett. they also do an i4 which is about 120 quid. i went through all this a few months ago . hope i made the right decision! but then i am recording with mics / guitars too

I did look at the I4 but it only has one line in, with the other socket being a DI instrument input. I’m assuming I need an interface with 2 line-ins , 1 for the right channel and 1 for the left? Unless I plug one into the Di?

@Stulynn, I did an internal Prime 4 recording using one of my recently purchased tracks. After the recording, I simultaneously played back the raw recording on LINE 1 and the original track on LINE 2, crossfading back-and-forth between the two. In my test I found no quality/fidelity difference between the original track and the recording. The Prime 4 records a WAV file format at 44.1kHz/2,116kbps (which is excellent).

I would encourage you to do another test making sure that your channel VU levels aren’t peaking (distorted) or too low. Also, make sure your channel EQs are flat (12 o’clock). Please let us know what you find.

1 Like

oops yeah you are correct don’t use the di it has a very tiny distortion on it designed to warm up guitars -

both the scarlett and the audient are kinda built with recording stuff other than just line instruments so if you really never going to do this and only ever record the decks then you may be paying for stuff you don’t use, instead i may look at sinking as much money as possible in something like that tascam above (which just does one job) although mastering gear is known to be pricey

edit: having said all that i can’t find much in that price range that doesn’t cater for recording other stuff.

as mixlive says above - are you sure it is not clipping / post process that is making the internal recordings sound bad?

Will give the P4 recording another recording comparison next week.

I’ve recorded various things on it since I bought it at launch last year, but as well as it recording at a very low level (subject of many discussions on this forum) I also found the quality not quite as good as the original.

Mixlive - I take it the comparison you did when you were crossfading back and forth between the 2 channels - you had to crank the level up on playback of the recorded track? Given the recorded track would have been recorded much lower in volume?

As it happens, Last week I recorded a 80min set directly into Audacity via RCA into my 2010 Mac and at the same time simultaneously recorded it into the P4 hard drive. So I’ll do some playback comparisons.

If I get time I’ll also extract the P4 WAV recording, drop this into Audacity, amplify it and then do a comparison with the raw audacity file that I recorded live - and see if I can tell any difference in the 2.

Thanks.

1 Like

Yes, you are correct. The recording was low. In fact, I viewed the recording in Audacity and it was barely registering. Using the NORMALIZE effect in Audacity will bring the audio level of entire recording to optimum levels. It would be great to have some type of volume adjustment built into the recording function.

Hi, I would like to receave your pdf on how to use such a unit as the Yamaha for dj-ing/recording.
My email is: info@dj-olivier.be

Thanks!

Olivier

the person who’s advice I trust most suggested, though overkill, one of these:

iConnectAudio4+ and I couldn’t be happier or more prepared.

If you are only trying to record audio from 2 ch, and not spend a bundle of cash, check out something like the motu m2: https://motu.com/en-us/products/m-series/m2/

Check the specs on anything recommended to you.

I would not consider that iConnect Audio device to be professional quality.

Motu, Audent, Arturia are all above the Focusrite IMO. I always have issues with their drivers and noise floor but hey thousands of people use them daily and have no complaints.

With an outboard interface you can set the gain how you want for each recording.

1 Like

It’s five years old and has been discontinued.

Some advices are getting out of hand here, so let me add some too.:relieved:

My advice would always be an interface by RME-audio. Sounds pristine and driver support is excellent.

However, they’re not really fitting for a low budget, so my second advice would be an interface from ESI-audio. Okay sound and okay driver support.

On it’s way!

Would be easier to just support my advice, Reese! LOL

1 Like