Throw Away Your Interface? - Do You Need DSP?

Some people have said to throw away your Interface if it doesn't have DSP. Since Avid has just announced their new DSP Interface the Carbon, I thought it was fitting to discuss DSP interfaces, and whether not you should throw away your interface.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE:

SOCIAL MEDIA STUFF:

► Help support Sidoti Sound by grabbing some killer Merch!

INTRO MUSIC

⚙️ CHECK OUT THE GEAR I USE ⚙️ (affiliate links)

🔊 AUDIO GEAR 🔊

Softube Console 1

Avid Artist Mix (x2) Discontinued
Replaced with - Avid S1

JBL Professional 305 P MkII

Yamaha NS-10M (Vintage)

Powered 12" Subwoofer

Presonus Central Station Plus

Focusrite Scarlet 18i20

📸 VIDEO GEAR 📸

Canon M50

11" Adjustable Robust Articulating Friction Magic Arm

M50 Power Adapter

SanDisk SD Card

Fovitec - 2 Light Kit

Wired LAV Mic

Tri-Pod
#sidotisound #avidcarbon #uadapollo

OUTRO MUSIC

[buohmix]

Hey everyone, being totally objective, THIS IS QUALITY CONTENT. I love the fact that he's helping everyone to create real criteria, that's a big deal in this industry.👏🏻👏🏻

Now, I totally agree with everything he's saying, I personally own an Antelope interface with DSP, I find it useful and I love the sound quality of the plugins and the interface it self, but I don't need it, I was working for many years with my old Macbook pro, mixing even with stock plugins and freewares, and I'm sure I can reach as good results with that just as I do with the DSP based plugins, just because I prioritized education and spent a lot of time understanding how processes and processors works, even now I keep learning, experimenting and trying new things.

Invest in knowledge first!! ✌🏻✌🏻

[CryptoDefender]

What a pleasure to be able to watch videos produced by someone who really knows his field of work!
I have four synths I need to integrate with my DAW. Your videos opened my eyes and I narrowed down my options to an Audient ID44 and a Motu M4. Ended up ordering the latter. Prior to one of your previous videos I was thinking about an Apollo Twin and by comparing specs, in no way it's worth all that extra money. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

[MrHumphrey]

I’m still keeping my 18i20 2nd gen and a 2012 Mac mini i7 16gig ram I upgraded, i don’t find any problem with it, my clients are paying me for results not status hyped equipments 😂. Thank you sir for this vid, always gives me a reason not to waste money.

[NeilParfittMusic]

Real-time tracking aside, UA's need for DSP is nothing more than bulletproof copy protection with the speed of computers these days.

HDX was always a step-up as it's the entire mix engine - so for realtime recording with high I/o, near zero latency and negligible load on huge mixes and surround, it's still pretty killer.

It's a shame the carbon didn't come out like 5 years ago going head to head with the Apollo. AAX-DSP was literally dead in the water so here's hoping this revitalizes interest for devs to make cool stuff for it.

[Elias_Frost]

I think it's all about using ProTools on an Apple machine since even top-spec Apples can't handle the "modern" mixing/sound designing sessions.
Good Pre-amps and AD-DA converters are more important for good audio. my choice for project studios is something like Focusrite Clarett 4pre - good 4 preamps+ADAT input (for tracking drums externally) and it's still quite affordable so you can focus more on stuff like the actual plugins which cost a lot nowadays:)

[tonwerks]

HD, or HDX processing for latency is one of those things you don't really appreciate until you're not using it. Also, since this is built specifically for Pro Tools, there's no extra mixer panel like other 3rd party interface units. The I/O mixer panel is right in the Pro Tools software. For those 2 reasons alone, I'm giving this serious consideration.

[damianeskridge]

My current setup is a the new Mac Pro, Apollo twin, and Logic Pro X. I’ve never had DSP issues. Even when I use my MacBook Pro to track/mix. Then again I’m not recording a band.

[BlueGuitars]

Give me my old Tasacm 16track and syncing my cubase on my ATARI I did some great demos yes your right about what your saying bring back the old times I'm a 70 year Guy
Who is still recording on with all the up to date gear but I think software is what's going wrong most of the time If all your gear works why fix it.
Really like your channel all the best Old man from the England 🎵🎶🎸🎼👍🤗🎶🎵

[seanriley]

The difference between UAD and Carbon is that the AAX DSP plugins have a native counter part. Which makes it so much better because you can go back and forth with in the protools mixer. You don’t even need your carbon to continue on with your mix. As long as you are happy with the AAX Dsp offerings you are good.

[Nuntiustv]

Now with folders you can track with no problem in the same sessions, make a bounce off the instrumental anda put all your tracks on one folder and disable that folder and done ✅

[elbiso]

It’s great to have an objective point of view and bring things in to the proper perspective. I got the exact same Mac mini setup as you and it’s all I need.

[kapilmadan]

Truly honest and practical video I have been through so far .. otherwise I have seen people bragging around some specific over rated product of some x company .

[jenslempke]

Latency and sound quality overall are so much more important than dsp's or cpu. I think it's more a trend of having dsp's make you a more pro producer/songwriter, since pro studios had used them for decades. But that's because computers weren't powerful enough or ordinary plugins hadn't the quality needed.

[jamesbeylik]

I have an apollo twin. The playback is really nice. So the great sound makes me work longer. That's just playback though. Did I see a huge uptick in spins on Spotify from using it? No. The best way to improve your sound is practice.

[matthewJ]

Exporting and manually re recording is always the best way to just get it done. Real time

[lazylazy]

I kinda agree but an Apollo interface running UA plugins isn’t just dsp... The unison preamps change their impedance to somewhat match the gear it’s trying to model. And I’m not sure how the converters on these compare on max sample rates. But that was a nice video, thanks!

[mostyles]

What a great video. I’m an IT director and manage AV engineers. Why would I buy an interface with a full computer to run internal dsp when average computer chips are faster and more powerful than any UA, AVID... interface. I replace computers every 5 years because they become EOL or obsolete from the current tech. Maybe high end studios are fine replacing $4k interfaces every 5 years, but I don’t plan to in my professional field or in my personal studio. Don’t be fooled and locked into proprietary hardware just to be stuck. It’s all about being flexible. Spent the money on I/Os, preamps and thunderbolt/pcie with extreme low latency. Leave the dsp to the computer that you can afford to upgrade every 5 years. IMHO I don’t want to be locked into one ecosystem....plus the price difference can by a lot of nice outboard pres or compressors that sound way better than regurgitated plugins of the same coding in square waveforms. To each their own and just stay creative. Music first, tech second!

[coldtricky]

What about the MOTU 8PreES? It’s got the same converter chip as Apogee it has Thunderbolt like the Apogee and has AVB just like the Carbon. And it’s at least a Grand less than any of those! (Not to mention amazing dynamic range & talkback etc.)

[PushKahlon]

if you’re an artist, you’re creating as your recording, mixing, doing processing, and going back n forth between tracking and mixing. I agree with you if you’re only mixing sessions, the dsp may not be of much value, but if you’re an artist/mixer, trust me, you’re going to want dsp. Worst thing is having to get out of your creative flow, or having to drag files back because they’re out of time under low buffer rates(happens in logic and Ableton a lot). Your final statement is really what it comes down to. What’s you’re workflow? Truth is more and more people are learning to engineer, record, and mix their own music. For that specific cohort, dsp interfaces are a game changer. Also, if you’re a pop/hip hop/edm artist, dsp interfaces may be more valuable to you. Acoustic/live musicians usually only need a bit of reverb, and I remember my mbox 3 came with an onboard verb n monitor system for monitoring before the signal hits the box. I’m sure other interfaces still have something similar. But, 99% of rappers/singer I record want autotune, verb, and delay enabled for them to record comfortably, and the Apollo solo can do all that. So, it’s not necessary to have several channels for that. Lol sorry to be long winded.

[markguitarsounds]

I bought carbon - I love it. The conversion alone makes it worth every bit of 4k. I get what you are saying about DSP - you don't need it if you have a fast computer. DSP (IMHO) is more of a marketing scheme used by interface manufacturers to force their users to yield more of the company's products. Digidesign/Avid has been working on DSP for years, and while their approaches are not the best, if you think about it - other manufacturers only answer for DSP is that you use an outside software to record in zero latency...I as a software user am not really interested in using another sofware to record in zero latecy.