Guitar Gear Forum

Are you on Mac or PC? In all honesty, for the most part, no. Though it depends on what you are doing. If you're tracking full bands live with lots of individual tracks, then you need the bandwidth. The advantage of the new protocols like USB 3 and TB is that they can allow for more overall data ie number of simultaneous inputs.

Think of it like a highway, a two lane or 8 lane both have speed limits of 60 so you can go the same speed in your car, but the 8 lane allows for more cars at once.

In theory, Thunderbolt may potentially provide better latencies but that depends on the drivers. A well written USB driver (companies like RME) performs better than most Thunderbolt drivers right now. And if you're on PC, laptops are being very finicky with Thunderbolt.

So it's really not worth the money if you're just tracking a guitar or vocals. What's your current interface and what are you looking at?

After going firewire, I like it. I had to get a card & all that, & I really think I might not go back. Much lower latency, & the sound on my IO 26 is better than the other units I had.
So yeah, thunderbolt would be what Im looking at. I wont be looking till my current unit breaks though, I dig it.

Keeping an eye out, Ive seen the Zoom TACs, but I dont know how that is. Im not a huge fan of focusrite. Who knows...

Ahh ok, Im not sure why I replied to a month old thread, but I hope that 2i2 works ok for you!
Ive heard some people have great luck with them, but I had one & just couldnt dig it.
Either way, theyre fairly solid, inexpensive & popular.