An audio interface is a device that converts the electrical signal of your microphone, guitar or other electronic instrument into a digital data signal ready for your computer or mobile devices to send to your audience or fellow performers.
Audio interfaces have a number of input and output connections and these can also be used to record your music to your devices. Input connections might be sockets to plug in microphones or electric instruments. Outputs will include usually headphone sockets, and maybe outputs sockets you can connect to speakers.
Crucially, audio interfaces have cable that allows data to travel both ways between your audio interface and your device. The most affordable connection between a computer and sometimes a mobile device is a USB cable.
When choosing an audio interface first consider what activities you are likely to need it for. How many input sockets might you need? A vocalist will only need one microphone input, but if you sing and play guitar, having an interface with two input sockets means you are better able to balance the levels of your guitar against your vocal.
A dedicated headphone socket can provide a convenient place to plug your headphones into and also get a reliable and quality signal. A ‘Direct Monitoring’ or ‘Low latency Monitoring’ control is a great feature as it helps avoid musical signals being delayed when they travel to your headphones due to the digital data conversion process. These delays can be very off putting!
As with everything in life, the quality of audio interfaces varies according to their cost. We have found the PreSonus Audiobox iOne and iTwo audio interfaces to be hardy and robust in all settings. Focusrite are probably the premium brand at the moment and the quality of the electronics inside their Scarlett range of interfaces are very high indeed.
UCan Play, the company managing the Interface:Response project, can provide you with preferential pricing on any microphone or audio interface purchases that you might want to purchase. Please get in touch with us for further details.
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