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JULY 16, 2025 INTERVIEWS
Digital or Analog?

Digital or Analog?: Multi-Channel Audio interfaces for your PC

When I first started recording music, my first purchase was a trusty and reliable TEAC 3340 4-track reel to reel recorder. That deck worked great for many years. I later upgraded to a Fostex 8-track, then a 16- track, then 3 ADATs and eventually an MCI 2" 24-track, that I run mainly with a 16-track headstack now. I love my tape decks. I love the massiveness and solidity of both the decks and the media that they record onto. Conversely, I hate computers. I think that's because I make my living with them doing graphic design and sit in front of them all day long. Nonetheless, if I was thinking about building a studio today, I would seriously consider going the tapeless route. Why? Well, for one, it's really cheap and storage mediums (hard drives, etc.) are getting cheaper daily. Secondly, a lot of the newer 24-bit 96k systems sound pretty damn good. Thirdly, as much as I like my analog decks, I hate maintaining and repairing them. Anybody who has an analog deck knows what I mean. Parts are hard to find and so are people who know how to fix them when you get in over your head. Computers overall, are pretty damn reliable and when they break, it's comparatively pretty cheap to fix or replace. And lastly, the combination of hardware and software that's available now is pretty versatile, but you already knew that from reading all the "Tape is dead" articles in all the other mags. I doubt tape will die anymore than books or movies died with the advent of television. But just as television changed the way people absorb information, computer recording will change how we record music in the future in ways that we can't yet entirely predict. In this article, we will look at some of the different multi-channel hard drive interfaces in the $1000 and under price range and discuss the pros and cons of them. We've tested as many as we could get our hands on, but there will doubtless be ones we've missed or came out after we went to press, so consider this article a starting point and then do your own research if you want to dive into multi-channel hard drive recording on your PC. -John Botch

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