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In the fall In 2006, I decided that emo was out and about IDM There was. Fueled by the hope of becoming the next Four Tet or Aphex Twin, I headed to my local guitar center and bought an audio interface to turn my guitar and songs into ones and zeros, then distorted them in Ableton Live.
When I got home, I plugged the brand-new M-Audio Fast Track Pro into my Windows desktop and immediately hit a brick wall of audio driver configuration hell. I was finally able to get the device up and running after hours of troubleshooting, but latency—the gap between when the sound is produced and when it reaches your computer—rendered the box unusable.
I was tempted to throw the fast track out the window and sample the sound of it hitting the pavement with an analog tape recorder. Instead, I went back to Guitar Center, replaced the interface with a Line 6 DL4 delay pedal, and set my sights on transcribing Explosions in the Sky in the appropriate band setting.
If there had been something as quick and painless as the Universal Audio Volt 876 back then, who knows where my life would be now. I may not have opened for Four Tet and Fred Again… at the O2 Academy, but my entry into computer-based music would have been much smoother than it was in 2006.
For the fans
Audio interfaces have come a long way since then. Prices are down, quality is up, and latency is minimal in most home studio environments. Interfaces coupled with proprietary software and drivers still exist, but the genius of class compliance — meaning you can connect a device to your computer without having to do the above — makes it easy for audio hardware manufacturers to create boxes that can easily plug and play on most operating systems. Even iOS and Android, in many cases. Anyone can find a good-sounding interface on Amazon for $200 or less, connect it to their iPhone, then plug in an inexpensive microphone and make their way to TikTok fame.
Photo: Pete Kotel
