The twenty first century gave rise to the bed room producer. And in 2020 the music business lastly acknowledged that songs recorded in somebody’s bed room have been simply as viable as these captured in a studio crammed with tens of millions of {dollars} value of apparatus. This has, in fact, led lots of these high-end studio tools makers to attempt to get in on the house studio recreation.

The newest to make the leap is Universal Audio. They’re a model with over 60 years of expertise, whose gear has been used to report a few of the most iconic albums of all time. But, till lately essentially the most reasonably priced interface the corporate made was the $699 Apollo Solo – hardly the type of cash a newbie or informal hobbyist is gonna drop. The Volt sequence, nevertheless, ditches the corporate’s costly DSP chips and focuses on delivering the fundamentals with a number of distinctive twists. The result’s a set of reasonably priced audio interfaces that needs to be on the shortlist for any house studio setup.

Pros

• Vintage mode provides character
• Low noise
• Better latency than the competitors on Windows

Cons

• Slightly pricer than comparable gadgets
• Software bundle is mediocre
• No mix for direct monitoring

Pros

• Vintage mode add character
• 76 Compressor is great
• Controls are massive and spaced for simple use
• Attractive design

Cons

• Software bundle is mediocre
• No mix for direct monitoring

The Volt lineup consists of five models from the $139 single-input Volt 1, all the way in which as much as the $369 four-input Volt 476. Some of the options are completely different and the variety of ins and outs varies from mannequin to mannequin, however they share the identical core together with 24-bit/192 kHz audio converters and preamps with a “Vintage” mode that makes an attempt to recreate the sound of a traditional UA 610 tube preamp.

I examined two midrange fashions: the $189 Volt 2 and $299 Volt 276. These are each two-input interfaces. What separates the “76” variations from the bottom fashions are some ergonomic and design tweaks, and the inclusion of a built-in compressor modeled on the corporate’s iconic 1176 limiting amplifier.

Hardware

Before you even begin considering the compressor, although, the distinction between the Volt 2 and 276 is instantly apparent. The 2 is easy and utilitarian. It seems like most different interfaces within the sub $200 vary. There’s a pair of mixture TRS / XLR inputs on the entrance, together with knobs to regulate the acquire of every channel There’s buttons to activate 48v phantom energy for utilizing condenser mics, Vintage mode, and for switching between line stage and instrument stage alerts. Lastly, there’s a monitor quantity knob, headphone jack and a button for turning on and off direct monitoring.

Around again are MIDI out and in ports (one thing notably absent from the corporate’s higher-end Apollo interfaces), balanced outs for connecting studio displays, a USB-C port, a 5V energy jack (crucial when utilizing it with an iPad or different cell machine) and, considerably unusually, an on and off change.

The remainder of the Volt 2 is a plain field. On the plus aspect, when you have restricted desk area you may stick the Volt 2 in tight spots or relaxation issues on prime of it, and nonetheless have entry to all of the controls. On the draw back, it could possibly really feel cramped, particularly once you’re making an attempt to watch your enter ranges. There are two tiny LEDs subsequent to every enter that gentle as much as warn you once you’re about to begin clipping.

The 276, then again, is good-looking and spacious. But you’re going to want further deskspace since many of the controls are on the highest. On the highest proper you’ll discover massive five-segment LEDs for checking your ranges. The acquire knob and monitor stage knob on prime are additionally a lot larger, which makes it simpler to dial issues in.

In addition, the entire thing simply has much more fashion. The metering LEDs are on a slight angle to make them simpler to see, and the perimeters are a stunning wooden. Are these aesthetic prospers and conveniences alone value the additional $60? Honestly, they is likely to be.

The competitors

Once you issue within the compressor, I believe the selection between the 2 right here is apparent, so long as your price range can deal with it. The Volt 2 (and by extension the Volt 1) are fairly priced, completely serviceable audio interfaces. But they don’t essentially stand out from the group. Focusrite’s Scarlett sequence is nicely established, competitively priced and shares a number of the identical options. The third-generation Scarlett 2i2 is $170 ($20 lower than the Volt 2), shares the entire similar connectivity choices and has “Air” mode, which is similar to UA’s Vintage.

Most importantly, although, you’d be onerous pressed to inform the distinction between the 2 in case your objective is to seize the clear audio. With Air and Vintage turned off and the acquire on the preamps set to decrease ranges, each interfaces produce crisp and clear outcomes. Are there variations? Sure. But they’re extraordinarily refined. I wouldn’t be capable to separate a Volt, from a Scarlett, from an Arturia Minifuse in blind style take a look at. And I doubt the target market of hobbyists and rookies would be capable to both.

(If you wish to get actually nerdy concerning the signal-to-noise ratio and noise flooring and frequency response, I extremely suggest Julian Krause’s YouTube channel.)

Latency amongst all of those is fairly comparable too. I gathered the interfaces I had mendacity round – the Volt 2, Volt 276, Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 second-gen, and Arturia MiniFuse 2 – and plugged them into my MacGuide Pro (2019, quad-core Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM) and Dell XPS 15 (2019, quad-core Core i7 processor, 32GB of RAM), set the pattern fee to 44,100Hz and buffer dimension to 128 samples and measured whole latency in Ableton Live 11. All 4 interfaces delivered the identical precise latency of 12.2ms on the Mac. On the Dell, each Volts got here in at simply 8.89ms, the MiniFuse at 9.89ms and the Scarlett introduced up the rear at 12.9ms. While decrease latency is clearly higher, none of these numbers are notably alarming.

That distinction begins to indicate up a bit extra once you crank the acquire and push the preamps on these interfaces. I plugged my Fender Toronado with Atomic humbuckers instantly into the Volt 2, Volt 276, 2i4 and MiniFuse. I cranked the preamp acquire on every all the way in which up and fed them right into a primary clear amp simulator in Ableton. Here the variations are just a little extra apparent, however they’re not that dramatic – a minimum of till you activate the 276’s compressor.

The MiniFuse at full acquire is a bit brittle and feels like a full-on fuzz pedal. The Scarlett has a bit extra backside finish and barely scooped mids, however continues to be a lot aggressive. While the Volt 2 is a contact thinner on the backside finish and places extra give attention to the mids and highs. The compressor on the 276 makes an enormous distinction right here, although. It softens the perimeters a bit and tames a little bit of the harsher frequencies. It’s value noting that each one of those sound fairly harsh on the larger frequencies with the acquire turned all the way in which up. Then once more, it’s unlikely that anybody will likely be cranking these preamps to max regularly.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have an SSL2+ available to check, which might have been the higher comparability for the Volt 276.

The 76 Compressor