what's up guys if you follow me on instagram you may have noticed that I
posted a photo recently a to brand new audio interfaces that I purchased so why
not purchase - well to make a long story short I was about to record the vocals
for one of my new videos though were the one where I covered Drake feel no ways
the cool move MIDI device I plugged in my microphone - my focus right - I for
first generation and no sound I was getting like this very very low sound
from the microphone I was actually hoping that it was my audio interface
that was the problem because that's a lot cheaper than my microphone so I said
ok if I need new audio interface let me try two of them the focus right - I -
which is a hundred and fifty dollars and the UAD arrow which is five hundred
dollars a big difference in price I want to share with you my experience with it
this is not gonna be an in-depth review of all the technical details and all the
specs you can probably find those on your own but what I am gonna cover is my
experience with it and usability from my perspective I make most of my music at
home but I also like to mix and tweak things on the go maybe if I'm on the
train or on a plane I recorded my vocal track with both the UAD
and the focus right I'm gonna play those for you right now you can hear them
without any effects without any processing these are completely dry
which is really scary because you get to hear my voice without any any processing
in it whatsoever for both of these vocal recordings I use the rode nt1-a
microphone take a listen and then I'm gonna tell you the two things that were
really apparent to me that we're very different between the two audio
interfaces
I ship it downtown whip another way do
you've got something that belongs to me your body language says it all
Speight the things you said to me that's right with you
smart enough to sleeping in and getting half you I have to let go uh show myself
what I can do not just didn't sit right with you
I should be downtown whipping on the way to you you've got something that belongs
to me your body language says it all
despite the things you said to me I tried with you it's more like I'm
slipping in and getting high with you I had to let go show myself what I can do
not just didn't sit right with you all right what did you think did you have
the difference I think you can I think it's very very clear the UAD interface
to me was buttery smooth I mean it was just it was clear it was crisp yet there
was this smoothness to it there was just something about that vocal recording
with the UAD arrow that just sounded so much better
the focus right on the other hand was much noisier you could actually hear a
lot more background noise on there I also feel that my vocals on the
Focusrite sound a little bit more electronic and the uid arrow just sounds
so much more warm and human-like and I don't know it's just hard to explain now
if you want to hear more vocals out of the Focusrite and the UAD
you can actually go back to two previous videos that I recorded on my Black
Panther video I recorded my vocals with the Focusrite 2i4 first-generation along
with my sennheiser mk4 microphone for my move midi the drake feel Norway song for
that video I used the UAD arrow along with another microphone that my cousin
actually put together himself modeled after the Noi Minh u89 both the Black
Panther song and the PLO ways song we recorded with different microphones
different audio interfaces and of course it was a ton of different processing
done on the vocals so it's kind of hard to tell the difference there but go
check it out if you're interested so what do I like about the flow
right - why - well for one thing it's plug-and-play I mean there's just no
fuss you just plug it in with the USB cable and it just works there's nothing
to install there's not much to you have to play around with for somebody who
just wants to get something then get going with really decent preamps in it
the focus rights are really good audio interfaces so then is it just the preamp
in the UAD arrow that justifies that crazy price well no there's a lot more
that you get actually plugins is one of the big things you get a bunch of UAD
plugins when you purchase the arrow and they are top-quality plugins but what
makes them even better is that all those UAT plugins run using the DSP in the
audio interface that means that you're not using your computer power when you
are using those plugins which is really great when I tested this out myself
I ran about 5 UAT plugins at one time and it put absolutely zero strain on my
computer now here's the thing if your computer's powerful enough you really
don't even need that now as much as I loved the UAT plugins and the fact that
it has DSP and all that good stuff and the preamp is so awesome there was one
deal-breaker for me the UAT plugins which really justify the price of the
audio interface cannot be used without the audio interface attached and it
seems like a no-brainer but to me I thought hey why don't they allow you to
use the UAD plugins using your computer's power instead of DSP if
you're on the go I don't want to carry the UAD interface
everywhere I go just so that I could mix my song or I could add another
instrument somewhere else or I don't know do do whatever I want to do when
I'm mobile where the UAT plugins good enough to justify the price and the
inconvenience of having to carry it around if you're going mobile not for me
they weren't you can get really nice plugins that are using your computer
power but that sound just as good you can get them from waves or other great
plug-in developers all right so to sum it up at the Focusrite - I too
is a fantastic value for money you get a no-nonsense audio interface that just
works the preamps are good and I think you even get some plugins in the UAD
arrow is awesome is it worth the money I actually think it is I think it's a
pretty good value you get an excellent interface it's well built the preamp
sounds amazing you get some really good plugins and you
get that DSP processing as well which is really good to have if you need that
extra processing power so what am I gonna do with these audio interfaces now
well I'm gonna return them both so when the interface is arrived I plugged in
this microphone and guess what no sound so it was the microphone my microphones
dead since it was my mic that was the problem the whole time I don't need
another audio interface I'm actually good with my to I floor for now there's
my quick review if you like this video hit the like button and subscribe I've
got lots of other music production videos and always make the music that
you love I will see you guys later