Audio Interface advice

I've been out of the windows game for a while and wanted a little input. There looking at getting SCS and maybe one day upgrading to qlab. I want to get them a very simple and reliable 4 channel interface. Just wondering what other peoples thoughts are.

Thanks

I have been running SCS for years now. It is great. A very cost effective, and feature-rich alternative to other programs out there. I have an ECHO Layla 8 channel card that is great. The presonus 44VSL is a good 4 channel box. The Tascam US 4x4 is good. M-Audio in general make good cards. Not certain on it's compatability with Qlab, as I do not use that program.

~Dave

Consider using Dante Virtual Soundcard and an external DA converter. There are a plethora of Dante-enabled DA products on the market. DVS is available for PC or Mac and the DA hardware doesn't care which OS or software is driving it.

There is a 'sticky' thread - https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/cue-playback-software.6064/ that discusses just this subject.

I don't use any small-factor interfaces at the professional level, but I've been generally happy with PreSonus's equipment - but more the larger format stuff. I currently have a recording rig with 4 10 channel units in it - and couldn't be happier. If you're looking for a built-in card, I'm useless for advice. I will say, the PreSonus gear is nice, though.

I assume you are looking at USB interfaces.

I've used a number of M-Audio interfaces (PCI Delta series, and USB FastTrack series) ... very happy with them.

I have friends who use Presonus boxes and are happy with them as well.

I also purchased a used Tascam US-144 for the local school for PC playback, it also worked fine.

My experience is 4-5 years old though.

If you do decide you want to pick up a used FastTrack Pro or Ultra, pls PM me as I have switched from Windows to Mac and their drivers are no longer supported on the latest Mac OS releases.

You can find alot of the previous generation firewire presonus 8 channel interfaces on craigs list and ebay at crazy low prices.

I'll throw a negative towards Presonus Firestudio firewire boxes. I've had nothing but trouble with these. I've got some vague buffering issue that crops up randomly and particularly when daisy-chaining two boxes together. I can't get anywhere with Presonus' tech support. Maybe it's just my experience, but I won't buy another product from them and my customer service experience was less than stellar overall. It could also be an Apple issue with their firewire bus, but having the macbook checked out showed no issues with the hardware itself. Just my $0.02 and YMMV.