If you are a musician, you should know that an audio interface connected to a computer can enhance your possibility of recording to a greater dimension. An audio interface takes the feed from your microphone and modifies it to its best shape to give you an upper hand in recording music.
We have gathered a list of instructions here to show you how to connect the audio interface to the computer for your convenience. By reading this instruction, you can learn your computer’s basic configuration and setting of audio interfaces.
In general, connecting audio interfaces to the computer is not that tricky at all. But it gets pretty challenging if you are not familiar with the relevant tools.
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Equipment Needed to Connect Audio Interface to the Computer
To perfectly connect the intended audio interface hardware to the computer, you will need a few tools. The required tools depend on what kind of audio interface you are willing to connect to your computer. Here, we are going to talk about the general tools that you’re going to use.
1. A designated cable for connecting the audio interface to the computer (generally, type A to B universal Serial Bus-USB cable)
2. A dedicated cable connecting the microphone input (basically, a 0.25-inch jack lead/ a piece of XLR cable).
3. The audio interface itself. (Also, an additional power supply device if it’s not USB powered).
4. A computer/laptop.
Steps For Connecting An Audio Interface To The Computer
Connecting the audio interface to the computer is especially simple if you have a portable audio interface. So when buying an audio interface, keep in mind that portable choice is the best choice.
Now, follow the below steps to connect your audio interface to the computer:
Step 1: Connect one end of your USB / thunderbolt cable to your computer. Then connect the other end of the cable to your audio interface.
Step 2: If the audio interface Is USB powered, It will receive power and indicate some LED light to show that it’s alive now.
Step 3: check if the PHANTOM POWER option is turned off or not. If it’s turned off, it’s better to turn it on. If you use a condenser microphone, you can keep it off.
Step 4: Completely turn down the gain settings to the lowest level.
Step 5: Now, check in your computer if it’s detected the audio interface or not. You can do this by navigating to your laptop’s or computers’ audio input and output settings.
Step 6: Now, it’s time to connect your microphone and other audio input instruments to the audio interface. For this, you can use the XLR cable or a jack lead cable.
Step 7: Check if your input sound is increasing the game level gradually or not. There should be some green or yellow LED light indicating the gain increases as you sing or speak into the microphone.
Step 8: Now adjust the audio level to your preference, not peaking too high or clipping too low.
Step 9: In your DAW, set the input audio level to the audio interface. And you can start your audio recording right away.
If your computer does not recognize your audio interface, try reinstalling the driver of the audio interface. That should solve the problem.