After almost a full year of working from home and numerous video conferences in different software solutions, I have finally upgraded my audio equipment. Initially I wanted to revive my old Tascam US122L, but it seems that all solutions I found to get that device working in Linux are outdated by now.
TL;DR
I bought a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen USB audio interface*, a the t.bone condenser microphone, and a desk stand for the microphone. I am very satisfied with the overall setup quality and the sound it produces, although I would buy a different desk stand next time.
Longer Story
I have been looking into beginner’s home recording equipment for some time due to my general interest for it. Since, generally speaking, time is the most limiting factor, I never considered buying any of the equipment, as I thought I would never use it. With the pandemic changing the way I work and interact with my colleagues etc, these things have changed, and I finally had an excuse to spend some money.
I had two requirements that the audio interface needs to fulfill:
1. I want a two channel / stereo interface with somewhat decent pre-amps, and,
2. it needs to work on Linux (and potentially Windows).
After spending some time searching the internet, I finally came by the Scarlett series by Focusrite. It seems that their (smaller) interfaces are USB class compliant, meaning that they work with the Linux built-in USB stack – which I can confirm (Manjaro Linux, Kernel 5.11). The reviews for the pre-amps read decent, and it is not excessively expensive. So far, I can only agree and conclude that I like the sound, and knobs and casing look and feel very high quality.
As microphone, I went with more of a budget solution: the “the t.bone SC 400” condenser microphone. Though it is comparably affordable, I think it offers a decent and rich sound. I do feel, however, that it lacks some airiness in the high frequencies.
If you are interested in a little voice demonstration, the audio setup is the one I use for my twitch live streams. So don’t hesitate and join me for some demo of the sound on Wednesday night.