Whether you make music, podcast, stream or simply enjoy listening to any of these things, a good audio interface is going to make all the difference. Your Mac or PC’s built-in sound will be just fine for most pedestrian tasks, but for creators it’s likely going to fall short of what you need for audio recording.
The good news is there’s a wealth of options tailored to a variety of specific needs and use cases. The less-good news is that it can be a bit overwhelming trying to decide which one is the best for you. Which is why we’ve cooked up this guide, in which we highlight the best options whether you simply want to record a guitar, or go live to an audience of thousands (or to at least sound good while you work on that number).
And don’t worry about being overwhelmed with jargon, we’ll focus on the task in hand over the kHz and decibels so that you know which is best for the results you want without feeling like you’ve just come out of a math class.