# Inteface for live monitoring



## KristapsCoCoo (Oct 5, 2016)

I want to make a live monitoring system, but I don't know what interface could pull off this routing:

Ins(5 channels):
Guitar 1
Guitar 2
Bass
Vox
Drum mix

Outs(6 channels):
PA/backtrack
5 channels for in-ear MIX'es.

I've only checked Focusrite Scarlett series, but as far as I understand, only interface that could pull this off from those series is 18i20. 

Which interface would you recommend me? (up to 500$, preferably lower)


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## Blasphemer (Oct 5, 2016)

We use a MOTU Ultralite MK3, and its great for monitoring. The cuemix software is awesome for doing in ears, and is about as cheap of a solution as you can get, monitoring wise. The onboard EQs and verbs are awesome (the compression sucks, though), and the ability to do near 0 latency mixes on the fly is great. This is our setup with it:


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## KristapsCoCoo (Oct 5, 2016)

Blasphemer said:


> We use a MOTU Ultralite MK3, and its great for monitoring. The cuemix software is awesome for doing in ears, and is about as cheap of a solution as you can get, monitoring wise. The onboard EQs and verbs are awesome (the compression sucks, though), and the ability to do near 0 latency mixes on the fly is great. This is our setup with it:



This seems like a great option, but Focusrite is better bang for the buck. And I don't know if I would need any of the on-board effects.

I checked out some other options, is M-Audio M-Track Eight any good? It's cheaper than MOTU or Focusrite, is it because of options/quality?


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## KristapsCoCoo (Oct 8, 2016)

Bump

Are cheaper interfaces like Tascam US-16x08 or Behringer UMC1820 ar any good?

https://www.thomann.de/intl/behringer_umc1820.htm
https://www.thomann.de/intl/tascam_16x08.htm

These ones have plenty of channels which I need, but does the quality hold up? Is the difference in minor details or is it audible dip in quality compared to MOTU, Focusrite, etc. more expensive interfaces?


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## iron blast (Oct 12, 2016)

Cheaper mic pres less reliable and higher latency generally


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## eyeswide (Oct 17, 2016)

iron blast said:


> Cheaper mic pres less reliable and higher latency generally



This is always going to be a problem with "cheaper" stuff. You can get a really, really cheap setup that will work, but it's going to be so frustrating deal with latency issues, it'll hardly be worth it.


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