The whole starving artist thing is no joke. Being a musician often involves being dirt poor while having to shell out for some of the most expensive gear out there. It’s a disappointingly ironic situation, and makes you wonder whether you should throw it all in and go play golf (since those guys on the golf course always seem pretty wealthy).

But you don’t have to resort to playing a sport, nor even going outside. There are budget audio interfaces out there, so using this list you can hold off on breaking the bank at least until your next big audio purchase comes up.

What price point defines a budget interface? $295 for a loaf of bread is outrageously expensive, but pretty darn cheap for an audio interface, so what makes a price “budget” is all pretty relative to the market. I think a relatively accurate definition of budget in the audio interface arena is anything less than $1,000, and we’re going to try and keep them under $500.

Alesis MultiMix 8 USB 2.0

The MultiMix comes with a great price tag. The manufacturer’s recommended retail price is $269, but you can find this device sold around the net from $150 to $200. It features XLR, 1/4″ and line inputs, onboard effects processing (capable of external effects using the aux send/return), and 3-band EQ. A copy of Cubase LE is included. This bit of gear is much like my Behringer Eurorack that I keep at home for quick demoing, though the Eurorack lacks USB or any other form of digital output.

Mbox 2

With a recommended retail price of $495, the Mbox 2 just sneaks in under our preferred price bracket. If you do most of your tracking in a studio, chances are your projects are all Pro Tools sessions. If that’s the case you’ll need a chunk of hardware in order to get Pro Tools running on your own computer, even if you only want to mix using the software. Restrictive and pathetic, yes, but that’s the way it is.

With two analogue inputs and one MIDI input, it won’t handle as many audio sources as the cheaper MultiMix (though it can’t take MIDI), but if you want to run Pro Tools this is the best bet for you.

MOTU 8pre

This MOTU FireWire device goes for about $550 and is a good, solid bit of gear. Unlike the previous two devices, this one’s designed to fit in a rack, though don’t let that stop you from chucking it on top of your old CRT monitor (unless workplace health and safety laws apply to your home studio!). It’s fitted with eight microphone/instrument input preamps and has one MIDI input and output.

Also unlike many cheaper interfaces, all eight mic inputs have their own phantom power control, so you need not be pumping extra voltage to microphones that don’t need it. I don’t know how much cash in electricity this will save you, but it could certainly make up the price of the device if you left it running for enough years!

E-MU 0404 USB 2.0

The 0404 has two combo mic preamp/line inputs, and for about $200 it’s not a bad little USB interface, especially if you don’t need to record a whole lot simultaneously and just want to overdub with very simple mic setups (since you can’t put more than two microphones on an instrument). It’ll also suit you if you record guitar and bass straight through the interface and program your drums, the way many home demos are done these days.

It comes with a fair bit of software, which is always a plus, including Proteus VX, as well as Sonar, Cubase and Ableton Live (all of the above are, of course, the “lite” versions). But if you want the ultimate in simple, skip this one over and get a…

Behringer F-Control Audio FCA202

With a name that has more to it than the product, this Behringer FireWire device has only two 1/4″ inputs, and no mic inputs. You can grab one for $80, making it one of the cheapest interfaces on the market. You get what you pay for.

This is an excellent choice for guitarists who are happy using amp simulator plugins and others who work with instruments that have electrical outputs. If you’re a vocalist or someone who plays an instrument that needs a mic to be recorded, skip this.

M-Audio Fast Track Ultra USB 2.0

For about $350, you can pick up M-Audio’s Fast Track Ultra, a USB audio interface with four preamps—two combo, two XLR—and a MIDI in/out. Something that’s not always found in a cheap interface, the Fast Track has an onboard DSP mixer can handle eight mic/instrument inputs and eight software returns.

M-Audio are perhaps better known for their excellent MIDI keyboards, but this is a interface worth checking out—it packs a good punch for the price.

Alesis iO|26

The Alesis goes for about $350 and it’s a FireWire device. It certainly has an interesting design, one that’s not found in many audio interfaces. The iO|26 features eight combo XLR/1/4″ preamp inputs with phantom power, and eight inserts.

While it does have a better signal monitor for each preamp than most cheap interfaces, it lacks any EQ. No surprises there, but given the number of inputs and the design of the device, I think they could’ve included a 3-channel equalizer pretty easily.

Focusrite Saffire

The Focusrite Saffire is a FireWire interface with four inputs and ten outputs, including onboard DSP effects processing much like the M-Audio. By the way, in case you didn’t know, onboard DSP is great for budget home studios—you probably don’t have a great computer either, and shifting the effects processing to your interface takes the load off your processor.

The Saffire also includes two headphone outputs (which can both playback different mixes at once), which certainly makes collaboration easier. You can fetch a Saffire for about $300.

My Preference

While I don’t own one, I have used the Mbox 2 almost daily for the past six months and it’s a great choice, if you can afford to go that $50 above our preferred budget of $500*. It’s also great to get a copy of Pro Tools LE and the hardware that’ll allow you to run it, since if you’re collaborating with anyone, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get session files in Pro Tools format.

I hinted at what I actually use at home earlier, the Behringer Eurorack UB802. I probably should upgrade, but for now it’s all I need at home to capture ideas, since I use the studio for most production work.

* Did you notice the Mbox was the only time we even started to approach $1,000? You can get a decent rig for home at a good price, and if you want to pay some more, jump up a notch to the 003 or similar.