Recommended Audio Interface, $100 or Less

***I originally posted this in the wrong section so I have copied it to here. Administrators may delete or move if necessary. ***

I am wanting to start using Audacity again for arranging music with my keyboards. I was curious about which lower budget audio interfaces work well with my PC (Windows 10) and equipment.

Currently, I am considering the following units. May I have your opinion or insight based on your real world experience?
Tascam US 1x2
Behringer UM2
Behringer UMC22
Mackie Onyx Artist 1-2 2x2
PRESONUS AUDIOBOX USB 96 Audio Interface

Any of those interfaces should be fine. I assume you are using a line-level connection? Not a microphone? Microphone preamps generate noise so they will be different, but there shouldn’t be any audible noise with line-level signals. (You can’t really compare the specs because different manufacturers use different measurement methods.)

Noise can sometimes get-into an interface through the computer’s USB power so if any of those have their own power supply that could be an advantage.

Noise is the ONLY sound-quality issue. Frequency response and distortion will “always” be better than human hearing. (Except all analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters will clip if you try to go over 0dB. :wink: )

A nice feature to look for is “zero-latency hardware-monitoring” (where the monitoring path doesn’t go through the computer). There is always some latency (delay) through the computer and sometimes it’s difficult getting the latency down to where it’s unnoticeable. With keyboards you can always set-up a separate monitoring connection but with a microphone & vocals it’s not so-easy unless it’s built into the interface.

Of course 24-bits is theoretically better than 16-bits but I assume all of those are 24-bits. The sample rate (48kHz or 96kHz) can also “theoretically” make a difference.