Advice on UA audio interface and the Dwarf

Hi all,

I’ve been looking at the Universal Audio interfaces to replace my Audient Evo4, to which the Dwarf is connected and need some advice: is there a value to spending more on the UA ecosystem if I have the Dwarf powering the signal chain for my guitar + bass?

Thanks!

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It all depends on how you design your signal flow.

First and foremost, UA interfaces are top quality. Excellent preamps, super quiet, highly dependable. So, adding one certainly doesn’t hurt. For Mac users, the thunderbolt units are incredibly fast. Their plugins are also top class, some of the finest in the industry. They are highly valuable an hold a high resale value as well. Finally, they are vastly superior to Audient.

Now, if you are inputting your instrument signal into the MOD and processing it there already, then you may not need so much processing at the interface or computer stages. (Most UA plugins are for post-processing). So here is where you need to assess how much post-processing power you still need – mixing, normalising, etc. – and how much improvement over the final output mix and overall audio quality you need. For instance, MOTUs are nice and flexible, work well standalone, and are great quality for the money. But the effects are weak and the overall sound is quite dull. An Universal Audio interface really shines when you playback over the monitors.

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Thanks for the response @QuestionMarc, really appreciate it. I have more to learn, but I know that the Audient I have needs an upgrade.

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