Does an audio interface affect quality of your mixdown? 🤔

DECAP discusses a question he has been asked many times regarding whether a particular grade of audio interface can affect the quality of your mixdown, along with his answer.

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[rook]

For me this video gives a straight answer going sideways answering the wrong question.

[jackspde]

When I switched to the apogee element, the sound quality of monitoring my music went way up and so did recording vocal quality. If you do vocals it matters more. Get a good pre amp with that and you in the game.

[muhammadsarmadhussain]

Sound Card Effects the Rendering Quality as well. Sound Card is fully involved in Rendering!

[WalkinonSunshyne]

Nice lighting/aperture set up on your camera. Really stepping up the game with that. Good info as always

[shiva.singh.]

The mixdown or exporting of the music is completely Software-dependent, like what export settings you're using.. etc.
Whereas, I guess the real question is whether an Audio interface affects sound quality while monitoring (listening) to the mixdowns or while mixing them, to which the answer is YES. Audio interfaces possess a lot of factors which can change how they work out with your particular headphones or speakers like Ohms of the listening device, Output Impedance of the Interface, Output Frequency response and Distortion levels, etc. I recommend checking out reviews of Julian Krause and others to decide which Audio Interface works with your listening device. Thanks! Happy music-making!

[ACDevastation]

If you’re starting out, your budget range could be $100-300, in which a Focusrite is plenty, and the top end (iD14) being more than enough. I tried an RME Babyface Pro FS and Apollo Twin X DUO, and my monitors/headphones sounded the exact same as they did on the iD14 (treated room and everything)

I’m sure the pre amps were a little different on each of them, but I’m an in the box producer so I don’t record much. If you don’t have a treated room and want to invest in better DAC/ADC, your priorities are wrong

[dope_forAreason]

if your interface plays a BIG role in the quality you hear, then it DEFINITELY would affect your final output (aka your mix/mixdown) because you'd process even better hearing better details and clarity. So, no i disagree that an audio interface doesn't affect the quality of the mixdown, it sure does.

You can't mix what you don't hear (properly)
y'all be safe
❤ + 💡

[AlepouTV]

I dont know bro, why every producer with apollo Twin, has that pro sound... 😕

[subhajitsarkar]

Yes you are right but some producer Don't know this and they want to just copy the trending searches

[joelthurner]

TL;DR Mix down is done in your DAW. It never goes through your sound card

[johnnycyoung]

I'm only recording vocals...a friend told me to get the rme babyface...so what I get from this vid is when my songs finalized the vocals will sound the same regardless

[moano]

Well, you kinda will get better mixdowns because the better D/A converters that feeds your speakers, the more detail you will get. Same goes for cables etc. But yeah i know i’m scewing the narrative here..the one mixdown itself wont sound better from one interface to the other, but your future mixdowns will be better because of the enhanced fidelity. 😏

[localeyemusic]

I use Fl studio 21 with asio4all V2 in the daw..on my laptop. Connected to my nad amp and speakers via a jack stick.
Now...wil it make a difference in sound or latency and so if i upgrade to a scarlett? Im not recording anything..i only use samples and vst's/plugins in the daw when im mixing and mastering

[Barnsey]

They say audio interface is a must in a studio but if the sound quality is better while mixing and once you render a project to have the same quality regardless it just comes down to enjoyability.

[fakshen]

The power supply and the quality of the analog components is much more a factor. Convertors are off-the-shelf parts that everyone has access to. What are you building around thosr chips makes all the difference. Making the whole show run off a cheaply made 5v USB port puts limits on things.

[kiddprofit]

I got a Scarlett 2i2 usb and an Apollo twin 2 the Apollo sounds better to me i feel like when the apollo plugged in beats usb cable

[Reggi_Sample]

Wait a minute I know interfaces come into play for monitoring and recording but
Some interfaces only go up to 48k.
This means your session will only be 48k as if your higher you won’t have playback
For those, surely you will hear a difference when the signal is slammed into a limiter one will be fighting off intersample distortion and aliasing and the other will be smooth

[djwickit]

Thank you for this video. This touches on something I'm still a little confused on. I don't use a microphone for anything. I use Ableton, a couple of hardware synths, and a turntable for sampling. What would be the best interface for that specific setup? (I currently have a focusrite)

[Musictron]

I’m looking at getting a crane song Solaris or a RME ADI Pro for a mixing DAC… I have the Apollo twin usb with a Rupert Neve RNHP Headphone amp. I’m listening through Audeze LCD-X headphones and Adam a5x monitors with sub. Between the two DAC’s that you mentioned which one would you recommend?

[naseemjalal]

Thank you for this video
But i gotta Q for u
I got Apollo x8 in my studio and i record all my vocal and choir with it and when i come home i work on my $120 volt to mix and master
I am i losing any quality when i export the mix-down ? Or when i do mastering with my volt card ? Or i need to do the mix and master with my Apollo to get higher quality ??