Julian is the man when it comes to audio interface noise testing!

Try plugging an SM7B into the SSL2+. There isn't nearly enough gain. Yeah, yeah, I know... the SM7B is s problem for a lot of interfaces. But even an SM58 requires that you set the gain almost all the way up. The other thing you'll find on the SSL2+ is that 90% of the gain adjustment is in the last 10% of the dial. I'll say this for SSL though. I took my SSL2+ out on a remote livestream (I love that it's powered off the usb that handles the sound). Someone thought they needed the 4K button, and while I wasn't looking they pulled it off. It still worked, of course, but it looked terrible. I emailed SSL, and they overnighted me a new button, free, with no questions asked. For the record, I think Julian Krause is doing subtle German mind-control experiments where he lulls viewers into a trance and then implants hypnotic suggestions in their minds. He says these monotone phrases that are supposed to be humor. I look up and he's grinning, but I notice that 10 minutes have elapsed and I have no idea what happened during that time. And I appear to have sent some troubling selfies to a number in Germany. You've been warned.

Behringer UMC204HD. Has Midas mic preamps (very low noise floor), zero latency monitoring, $179CAD; problem solved.

@@RockPolitics yes, SM7B needs a lot of gain, but you can just add a cloudlifter or DM1 dynamite at the front and all will be fine. ( also works well for ribbons and protects those from accidental 48V exposer)

5 years is too soon but you do use it a lot. but I have had one go 20 + years and it still works great. the SSL is AWESOME pre-amps. M-Audio is mid grade. Tascam is mid-grade. the scarlett isn't bad actually same with Behringer. Apogee is good. Audient is pretty good but 5 years is too soon. the phantom power is not going to hurt your dynamic mic but I agree and don't like it.. I use independent phantom power per channel. I mean.. I would recommend the Midas MR12 but its 500 bucks and geared towards live performance but it is very nice sounding, upgrade from behringer. SSL ( Solid State Logic ) is very very good. the only other option you haven't mentioned at the level of SSL or better is NEVE. all you need is 48kHz 24 bit. The NEVE 88M ($1250 US) is pretty solid. Honestly for your voice ?? the SSL DESTROYS the Tascam sound quality wise. honestly, the Sennheiser e945 into an SSL is kind of a joke. with an SSL, most people are probably plugging in a $1500 mic on up. still, its only 2 channels.. so go Tascam for the price.. if you want to buy one that has 8 inputs or more.. then get a SSL or NEVE so you can record a drum-set

Haha I caught the "James" thing, too

"James" Krause belong on the UFC conspiracies channel. He was in the UFC but now is not because of the conspiracies he was involved with.

Hi James, how are you doing?

Thanks "James"! lol. Thanks for letting me steal your work :)

I'm going good thanks

The SSL2 is garbage ... I was able to use mine for a couple of months until it pretty much broke.

I have both the audient and ssl2. The SSL2 is way way more durable and feels rugged. The audient's is pretty on the outside but the build quality really pales when compared to the ssl2.. my knobs popped out although I fixed them. I record live music with both and I can tell you from experience the ssl2 is a better option to buy - cheaper, better build quality and that harmonic 4k distortion is amazing.. the audient is flat which is also a good thing just like the ssl2 without the 4k.

@@joshmcdzz6925 The build quality is absolutely not good on the SSL2 .. I have no clue about the Audient .. All the push buttons on mine were super loose and fuzzy and the whole thing just feels like plastic. I have no clue what people are raving about with this thing. Even if the thing weren't clunky, it sounded like garbage until it didn't work. I don't know if I just got a lemon, but I'd still say the build quality is not that great on these things. It's gimmicky branding with the SSL stamp in my opinion.

@@joshmcdzz6925 How could the SSL2 be "way way more durable than the Audient", when the SSL 2 is PLASTIC, and the AUDIENT is METAL?! LOL

@@DICARLOPRODUCTIONS because I have both and from experience it is.. I know 2 ppl whose audient bricked out within a space of 3-4years

Just because they stamp a 'cool' brand on it, doesn't mean it's any good. My SSL2 was unusable within a couple of months. All hype in my opinion ... either that or I just got a lemon. I could still never recommend that interface.

@@TobiasRieperGood @TobiasRieperGood I'm afraid I have to strongly disagree there. It's not just a moving membrane. Even if it was, the way, the membrane is built - diamter, material, etc - has a huge impact on the sound. And then it has to be transformed into an electrical signal. There's huge differences in sound. Or would you say, just because every eardrum is just a moving membrane, everybody hears the same way? Or vocal cords all function the same way, so every voice sounds the same? The closer you get to the sound source the more important is quality of the component. starting with a good speaker's voice, then room acoustics, then microphone, then preamp, then ADC. I'm sure more people can hear a difference between microphones but only a few can tell the difference between preamps or even ADCs.

To be fair, there have been a couple of rack preamps with variable impedance, and the Chinese are getting better at copying mics. It'll be interesting to see if "any decent mic" will replace a lot of the good mics in future

​@@beautgrainger147I wonder if MEMS microphone tech will advance in such a way that arrays of these produce superior mics at a very low price point.

@@Fiveash-Artnope.. 2 of my friends had a SSL2 crapping out within 6 months... its garbage.

I like the truthfulness honest approach with mixed in slang. I'm subbing too :)

I have to agree with your premise. I’ve come to the conclusion most (99%) of the gear nerds are full of $h!t. You can take 10 interfaces ranging from $20,000 to $200, run the exact same audio through them and nobody is going to be able to tell you which is which. The quality of affordable gear today is crazy compared to what was available just 10 or 15 years ago. Thanks to Julian’s videos I saved myself over $1k on my last purchase.

According to SSL, the 4K emulator circuit on these is completely analog. Which of course also means it's burnt into the recording...

Does a great job on guitars and bass

The 2i4 is Focusrites lost gem. Mine is alsp 7 to 8 years old and still rocking hard in my studio. It is better than the 3rd gen 2i2 and 4i4 imo. Yes the preamps are older but the functions are better than the new .models!

The 2i4 is my unit as well and just copped the SSL2+.

Yeap, they make very expensive audio mixing consoles and are perhaps the world leaders.

Absolutely, SSL is great. Same goes for Audient tho, don’t know why his died. I love my iD44.

Not the same engineers or production. Only thing the same is the name. And they WERE known for a certain 80's sound that wouldn't fly today with few people still using their desks unless producing 80s style music. They had a signature, but were not the best. Certainly no Neve.

Don't be fooled by branding. While SSL have made some great consoles and outboard, audio interfaces.... not so much. SSL have never been known for their convertors. In fact their history here would point to shitty drivers and them abandoning tech product support early. IMO an RME or GEN4 Focusrite are vastly superior, better drivers, better build quality.... and preamps differences at this price is irrelevant but both are as good as the SSL Also. the 4K button is a console emulation, not HD vs 4k

Yes, this guy is hilarious using that chart and believing that the "best" preamps in the market are in a budget M-Audio interface. 🤣🤣

Correct. I have a 16 channel mixer that when you turn on Phantom Power it turns it on for all mics. I routinely will have both dynamic and condenser mics plugged in and the dynamic mics are fine.

Yeah, I was going to mention the same thing. Some audio ocd here but even though it doesn’t do anything, it still bothers the crap out of me having phantom on a dynamic mic.

Yes. There is no voltage across the coil system because both ends are at 48V relative to pin 1.

Yup. As long as you're not using a ribbon mic you'll be safe

MOTU is excellent.My previous MOTU lasted for 16 years.

Hey Ryan, I love my Motu M2. Forgive me..Drivers are the software that give the correct instructions to the hardware, right? Your motu m2 works, just it is not being updated to work with your gear???

It's more of a mental problem after seeing the chart lol.

Even professional voice actors have no problem using a focusrite scarlett

@@craftedpixel People who lack talent and technical skills of their craft resort to gear-buying spree. The most talented players I've met personally aren't playing Gibson guitars. Those are reserved for dentists who can't play.

That's good advice on troubleshooting the dead USB audio interface. It's always a good idea to use power conditioning on sensitive electronics like audio, video, and computers. Silicon chips are very sensitive to voltage spikes from inductive loads coming on and off the power line, like compressors in refrigerators and HVAC, the motors in your laundry machines, and any lightning within a few miles. Outlet strips with spike suppressors are a good start. A quality UPS with electromagnetic noise filtering and voltage surge suppression can increase the lifespan of your electronics quite a bit.

SSL is pretty high end.. tascam has some decent stuff but the unit he was showing is just commercial off the shelf grade stuff. not bad.. I personally would not use it for anything important. that particular 2 channel SSL however- I"m not sure that is anywhere near as good as a legit SSL board or your big 6 either.

@@willfest If you go by the EIN numbers, as he has done, it's important to check how they were measured. Some manufacturers don't state this. 150 ohms is standard and most of them are A-weighted measurements. If you lower the resistance, it's not an even playing field anymore.

@@bitspacemusic in the end.. dynamic range matters particularly if you are trying to capture "quiet" sounds but talking in a room isn't very quiet. He so far has complained about the sounds in the room that the mic is picking up in my opinion -- how many people have an actual "silent" sound proofed room where the actual EIN noise-floor becomes a factor???? that is why I rarely concern myself with that end of the spectrum.. in music which I am more interested or as interested in as video. I CAN DEFINITELY SEE for with video, you may want a VERY silent part of a movie for drama-- but in my opinion, the low end interfaces are going to be good enough. if you listen to the audio in movies.. sure some are very clear but the mixes are really all over the place.. you have talking too quiet, explosions waaaay too loud, sound effects too loud or too soft.. the EQ for these effects is questionable (not always) but also I hear the lack of ability to use compression when it is truly needed so -- long before you need to "perfect" your inputs, I'd say perfect your outputs and by then, for video you probably would be very happy with any of the products mentioned unless you truly are an audio artist capturing audio for the sound which you intend on mixing into the film at some extraordinary way which I RARELY see in Hollywood. and then.. well let me put this in perspective. I have some Senheiser mics like Casey's.. I have 3 of them and I have let at least 500 different bands handle them, throw them, drop them, scream directly into them, stick them into their mouths, spit into them, spill beer into them. I knew this would happen when I bought them. I have 1 that only a few friends have used live.. which is in very good condition. These mics do wear out after a while.. I suppose the abused ones have a crusty film on the diaphragm which is like a plastic surface with a coil glued under it. My point is, its a great mic.. for me its more of a "hand held mic" for interviewing and the interviewee should hold that mic up to their mouth and speak into it while on camera. In my opinion, THAT is the intended use by the manufacturer for that microphone (e835, e845, e945 etc). you can also put them on a stand and sing directly into them or mic a guitar cab or snare drum etc with them but that is their intended mice. these dynamic mics are intended for close-range use. HOWEVER, the microphones that he complained about are actually more suited for the purpose he intends because they are "omni" directional mics. you set them up out of the shot and they pick up the whole room. alternatively you could use a shot-gun which are extremely directional but with a shotgun, you actually have to aim it directly at the sound source to get it right and you probably will have to fiddle more with the EQ in post. on the omni, you will be dealing with room sounds more because it is "omni-directional".. with the sennheiser, it is cardioid which means it is "more" directional than the omni but much less directional than a hypercardioid or shotgun.. also a dynamic cardioid mic is going to be a more close-proximity microphone. THESE are the main reasons why his audio sounds much clearer on them and less becasue it is dynamic because there are plenty of non-dynamic mics which are more directional and MUCH cleaner, MUCH more clear than the sennheiser e945 ! ! ! that is my main point. I was mixing stadiums 20 years ago.. and to this day mix primarily outdoor events. I do NOT consider myself an "expert" . but I am a seasoned user of many many microphones and pre-amps and uasually when I am using them, there is a large crowd watching over my shoulder. or a small crowd.. and a hand-ful of musicians who typically know the gear pretty darned well because these are the the musicians at the level where they have a hired sound-man running sound for them. all I am doing is trying to spread the knowledge because I think there are some valuable nuggets in here which can probably not only solve his questions but they can bump him up several levels of how he is looking at it-- at which he will still be learning his own way of doing things which is different from my way--- but he will will see "ahaa.. yes, this perspective is helpful indeed " I mean.. 30 years of operating microphones into hot amps and speakers before a crowd.. if you think "hissing sound" is bad in a video-- try amping up to 30,000 or 100,000 watts!!!! that "seashell ocean" sound can get quite loud ! ! ! so you won't be mixing very many shows if you have "hissing" or "noise".. and many of those years I was using some downright crap gear in the beginning 10 years or so.. still plenty of power, but the crap gear forces you to learn about the noise floor and signals etc...

+1 for the Apollo (can also be modded by blacklionaudio for even better AD/DA performance)

In reality, there's very little difference between different branded audio interfaces at a given price point. They're all similar SMD components with the same dacs and opamps. Probably made in the same factory too.

You are relying on look rather than sound Ssl is great but I bet you haven't used one