USB Audio interface or have line 6 spider's usb port fixed?

Just my luck: I finally finished my new guitar and wanted to record some sounds as the usb exit port of my line 6 spider V broke. (the square plastic thingy in the middle broke off)
I managed to detache the malfuntioning usb port from the circuit board and replace it with a new one.
No luck tho: windows says the usb device is unrecognisable or malfunctioning.
Maybe there's a short somewhere, or bad connection, dunno.

Should I keep trying to fix it or have it fixed? (which will cost me, no doubt) Or should I go with a usb audio interface like this https://www.thomann.de/be/focusrite_...i4_3rd_gen.htm
Will it bet better/equal/worse than the line 6 interface?
And are there cheaper alternatives for me?

Thanks for thinking with me :confused:

Those Scarletts have an excellent rap so I dont think you could go wrong there. For playing at home I pretty much always play through the computer, it’s just easier and more versatile while not also annoying the neighbours.

I have a Focusrite Scarlett Solo and as Sonic says they are excellent, easy to use, nice gentle preamps and when you register your unit you'll get Red Comp and Red EQ thrown in.

The Solo also does a full 48V phantom power for my condenser mics, the Behringer Xenyx despite having phantom power hasn't got the grunt to drive them so I need an inline injector for the power.

A repair of the Line 6 might be cheaper but it's a bit of a limitation if you want to do more than guitars ( I have a Fender Mustang for that purpose )

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

I have a Focusrite Scarlett Solo and as Sonic says they are excellent

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I've got 2 of them (each end of the house...overkill)

cheers, Mark.

+1 for the Scarlett.. I've got a 2i2 and its great.

According to the manual you should have a USB-B and a USB-C port on the back, with a switch to select between which one’s in use.

Have you tried using the other USB port (and checked the switch position)?

Which model of Spider V is it? Does it have the XLR direct outs?

With the AI, you’d need to use amp sim software if you plugged directly in to that with the guitar. If that’s the plan, then unless you need the AI for mic use, you may be better off with a small Helix unit and record your sounds direct from that.

Maybe describe just what you’ve got in terms of your recording set-up and what you’d like to do, so we can suggest the easiest ways to achieve it, rather than suggest equipment that whilst good, may not fulfil all your needs, so you then need to spend more on extra hardware and/or software.

Another +1 for the Scarlett 2i2 V1 here. Old but still going strong.

I would do some more troubleshooting on the Line 6 first, if that fails again, get an idea how much it would cost to fix, make your decision then.

rob

What I do: record some guitar, put some VST plugin drums, bass and keyboard next to it. And mix it.
Nothing professional, more like in making garage-demo's.
The spider has xls outputs, so I intend to use those to record the guitar, in stead of the usb like I do now.

Would there be other benefits involved using a 2i2 over the amps usb? (better sound, lower latency or ... ?)

You may get slightly lower latency, but you might not. Using the USB you'll miss out the D/A (in the Line 6) and A/D (in the AI) conversion stages that you'll get when you use the XLR outputs, which will always introduce a few ms latency. But you are already hearing the Line 6's D/A latency when you play through the amp, so extra A/D latency will be minimal (as long as you can use a small buffer size).

I don't know what sort of latency the Line 6 USB connection has, so can't say if it will be better or worse overall. Sound-wise there shouldn't be any noticeable difference. There may be a bit more noise going down the XLR line-out route, but so little that it will be buried in the general background noise.

Have you tried the alternative USB connection port on the Line 6 at all?

The other usb connection is for ipod/iphone i'm afraid. I can't use that as I don't own either

OK, I misread that.

In that case, an external audio interface is your best solution. Then get a mic and you can also do vocals (or get somebody else to do them if you can't sing).

Assuming you have a windows PC and not a Mac, then you'll get lowest latency from using the ASIO drivers for the Focusrite. Which means that you'll need to use the Focusrite (or whatever interface you get) for inputs and outputs when using your DAW. Windows can only use one ASIO driver at a time. So any speakers your headphones you use will need to be plugged into the interface. You may currently be using the computer's own sound card for sound output at the moment.

The XLR connections from the Line 6 will be at at line level, not mic level, so whilst the Focusrite has two 'combi' inputs that have both XLR and TRS jack connections, the XLR portion is mic level and the jack connection for line level inputs, so you'll need a couple of XLR to TRS jack leads.

Great, thanks again Simon.
I'm starting to wonder if there's anything you don't have a clear answer to :-)

Happy holidays!

Eventually I went for the 2i2 3th gen and: no regrets at all.
I also installed Amplitube 5 and now i'm considering on selling my line 6 amp :p

Both the interface as the software are top notch. I even think it sounds better than the amp.
So next purchase is a set of good bedroom studio monitors and i'm off.

Here are some samples I recorded in 1 try (so off tempo now and then :-) as a sound demo.
2i2 as interface, Cubase LE as DAW, amplitube as plugin (the only one, no mastering, EQ etc)

https://soundcloud.com/peter-muylaert/mix/s-SzLBSqxHdeW
https://soundcloud.com/peter-muylaer.../s-d1EE0QnEHO2

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Originally Posted by Eroma

Eventually I went for the 2i2 3th gen and: no regrets at all.
I also installed Amplitube 5 and now i'm considering on selling my line 6 amp :p

Both the interface as the software are top notch. I even think it sounds better than the amp.
So next purchase is a set of good bedroom studio monitors and i'm off.

Here are some samples I recorded in 1 try (so off tempo now and then :-) as a sound demo.
2i2 as interface, Cubase LE as DAW, amplitube as plugin (the only one, no mastering, EQ etc)

https://soundcloud.com/peter-muylaert/mix/s-SzLBSqxHdeW
https://soundcloud.com/peter-muylaer.../s-d1EE0QnEHO2

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Those demos sound great, you should check-out the Ignite Amps website, they offer a free plugins bundle that includes a vst amp plugin called Emissary, really good sounding high-gain amp, there's also a great sounding speaker cab plugin called NadIR that uses Impulse Responses to model some well-known speaker cabs, I downloaded the plugins bundle and they sound great through my studio setup.

https://www.igniteamps.com/

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

https://www.igniteamps.com/

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Wil check it out, thank you for the link.
Peter