Review of the M Audio Solo and Scarlett Solo Microphone Interfaces

I recently had the opportunity to review the M Audio Solo microphone interface, which is priced at $69.99 CAD, making it an affordable option for producers and musicians on a budget. I also wanted to compare it to the Scarlett Solo by Focusrite, another popular option in the market. In this article, I will share my experience with both interfaces, including their features, sound quality, and overall performance.

I want to start by saying that if you see a difference in video from the first part of the video to now, I apologize for any issues that may have caused. Unfortunately, the camera used is not 4K capable, despite being labeled as such, due to budget constraints. The M Audio Solo interface has auto-focus capabilities, which I had to miss out on due to my lack of budget at the moment. However, this will be addressed in the future when the channel can afford better equipment.

One thing that's been a lot of overhead for me lately is recording high-quality audio for videos. This has resulted in some inconsistencies in the quality of the recordings, but I'm moving on from that. The M Audio Solo interface was chosen to review, and after using it for an extended period, I can confidently say that it's a great option for producers and musicians on a budget.

In comparison to the Scarlett Solo by Focusrite, I don't have a clear preference between the two interfaces. Both products are high-quality and offer excellent sound quality. The M Audio Solo is priced at $69.99 CAD, while the Scarlett Solo can range from $100-$500 depending on the model. While I was using the interface for my podcast, "The Game Over Podcast," I had some issues with setting it up correctly. These issues were largely due to my own ignorance and a lack of understanding about how to properly configure the M Audio Solo.

I reached out to M Audio when I was experiencing these issues, and they were incredibly helpful in addressing my concerns. They responded quickly and provided me with guidance on how to set up the interface correctly. This experience has been fantastic, and I'm glad that I chose to work with M Audio.

One thing that's impressed me about the M Audio Solo is its value for money. At $69.99 CAD, it's an incredibly affordable option for producers and musicians who want high-quality audio without breaking the bank. The interface also includes a variety of features, such as gain control, monitoring, and XLR/TRS combo inputs.

When I used the M Audio Solo with my manual microphone, I was blown away by the sound quality that it produced. The interface is designed to keep things clean and simple, which made it easy to use even for me, who's not an expert in audio production. The gain controls are intuitive, and the monitoring capabilities allow you to adjust levels and frequencies to your liking.

I also tested the M Audio Solo with a digital audio workstation (DAW) and was impressed by its performance. The interface worked seamlessly with my DAW, allowing me to record high-quality audio tracks in no time. I even tried using it with a full mixer, but the results were not significantly better. However, this is largely due to the simplicity of the M Audio Solo's design.

In conclusion, I highly recommend the M Audio Solo microphone interface for producers and musicians on a budget. It offers excellent sound quality, value for money, and ease of use. The price tag of $69.99 CAD makes it an attractive option for those who want high-quality audio without breaking the bank. If you're looking to upgrade your audio setup, I would definitely consider the M Audio Solo.

For those who are interested in purchasing a microphone interface, I've included a link to my current setup in the description below. This includes the M Audio Solo interface and one of my manual microphones. If you're just starting out or on a tight budget, this is an excellent option for you. The M Audio Solo is available at a price point that's within reach of many producers and musicians, making it an accessible option for those who want high-quality audio without the hefty price tag.

In the future, I'm considering purchasing a second interface, possibly the M Audio Duo or another product in the market. However, this may be addressed in a separate article or video review. For now, I can confidently say that the M Audio Solo is an excellent option for producers and musicians on a budget.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso right off the hop you are greeted with the m audio nice red top of the box amtrak solo now uh this was a very interesting tape job when i got this i called amazon i did cut the bottom open because i had to check and make sure it was new and look at this i have dog hair attached so i took a quick look to make sure that it was sealed inside and it was but this makes you question things quite a bit i mean look at that tape how can it go from this professionalism to this without have been opened and resealed it just it just makes me question so uh basically the amtrak solo is a single dual input if that makes sense i'll get to that in a minute let's just open this up so now that i have that already cracked you are greeted with your usb cable which is your standard like printer style cable to usb one of these days i wish they would come up with the usbc i mean this isn't a bad connection at all and for what this is doing is perfectly fine but it'd be nice to have a usbc just to kind of generally keep things in check um stop what you're doing because i'm about to note for the latest drivers so basically in here of course is your amtrak solo uh manual and setup guide toilet paper remember to stop and take a look all right so as we've seen here i wasn't too worried when i took it out as this could never be reproduced unless you're one heck of a bagger and i guess we'll find out if it works or not when i finally put it to the test but it definitely does not look opened of course this is a bit painful so i'm just going to do it this way old blue always comes in handy the snack pack no don't eat that do not eat that and dispose of it very properly or if you're keeping the box just put it back in there because that stuff can be poisonous to animals kids you name it so right off the bat you would think this is a metal casing because it has that uh you can see here brushed metal look it isn't a cheap plastic it's a nice durable and solid feeling product but it is plastic so one thing to remember like my scarlet solo is all metal the m audio amtrak solo is a durable very nice durable looks good plastic so i'm not going to knock it for that now saying the solo i'm going to compare it to it when i do the review for the simple reason that the scarlet solo is what i use now on my gaming computer and i want to know is this as good because this is half the price and if they made it half the price by you know not making this metal and so on then hey i'm all for it because you gotta cut corners somewhere to make pricing good so just because it's half the price doesn't make it half the product so that's what we're going to find out today so here we have your mic in or line in depending on what you want it to be but it is your dedicated mic in then you have a line in here or what they call uh instrument in so that is up to you here and then you have your whether it's going to be a line so whether it's going to be a music device guitar whatever switch over to what it's going to be and i guess that probably filters what it is if it's a guitar i would just leave it online because i'm not a musician by any means and if you ever want to know listen to me play something phantom power so your phantom power on or off now i do have a phantom power from newer and the problem is it works perfect but i don't have the gains i don't have the stuff i need to make it a better product where i was going to use that for my youtube show so i want the phantom power built in to my m audio solo so here we have output direct or usb so we're going to be on usb because i'm going to go from the usb port here to the pc and that should give me the less or the least amount of distortion going out and you do have your main outs left and right now i guess from what i'm noticing here this could possibly stand alone if it actually has the direct out on it um using the usb just for power that might be possible i can check that as well because that might be kind of cool or useful in a different situation where you just want to power it and go straight to an amplifier which the solo you still have to usb powered of course i can go out two times so i can go out usb to my pc and i can go out off the mains which is what i do for my streaming gaming so what happens is on the scarlet solo my usb is on my gamer so that the you the gamer that is playing with me can hear and notice everything that's going on but i only wanted one mic so to do that i went up from the rcas mind you i had to put a noise filter on it because it was noisy as hell so it doesn't matter how expensive the product is or how expensive your cable is you're going to get noise there's reviews talks about it everywhere a 10 20 filter fixed it and i mean fixed it's solid so uh that's the front we know what's on the back and here so now we have input one input two and output now output is going to be your headphone jack okay um signal and clip here is just going to be how much volume or or output you want that mic to be so if the mic let's say i'm on seven people in the stream are saying it's too loud turn it down to five give it a shot boom there's my key spot that's where i'll leave it same thing goes here if i have a secondary item plugged in whether it be a sound device or whatever just to make sound effects i can overpower whatever to make it applaud or whatever based on what i have plugged in here so really nice to have and that is the feature i needed where my newer was not going to do that i would have to adjust gains in windows and stuff and i really don't want to be touching software while i'm streaming okay guys welcome back it is pretty much eight months later now not without any issues but eight months of using it now what can i say about it i have to say after eight months i am glad i bought this would i buy another frosco right scarlett solo if i got it used like i did mine for about the you know under 100 area yes but to buy new this is all you need the amtrak solo from m audio is absolutely phenomenal in fact everything we're doing right now the recording everything is through the uh manual microphone coming down plugging in to these vasco are to the m audio the m audio is as you can see when i stop talking or talking you see it flashing i am using this to record my voice now in the original i think i was using my wireless mic on my 4k camcorder uh today we're on my overhead which is just a 1080p so if you see a difference in video from the first part of the video to now i apologize but that is why i can't afford to 4k even though these are actually 4k cameras i want something that auto focuses overhead and not fixed focus so i had to make a decision until the channel can afford auto focus 4k cameras for above that's what it's going to be and i apologize because sometimes my overhead i've been doing a lot of overhead videos lately and that is why the quality hasn't been the same but anyway moving on this was to finally end my review on this i did the unboxing over eight months ago now in the end i do not really have a i wouldn't say a preference to the scarlet solo or the m audio solo the amtrak solo sorry if you want to call it m audio m audio versus foster right i think both the products are really really really good this guy for the 100 or under 100 area i think this one's 69.99 canadian you can't go wrong this is all you did i run the whole game over podcast on this unit and i have been since we started uh again if you go back to previous videos you will see some issues and the issues were mostly i didn't know what hurts to put it at to be what it was meant to be and i was trying to set it up like a scarlet solo don't do that when you're setting this up pay attention to m audio settings don't think you're the best guy in the world then you can just do what you did on another product forget it now i did contact m audio when i was having these issues and i thought this unit was defective and it was not it was all me assuming so they were really good they responded really fast took care of my stupidness and i have to say guys if you're looking you're on a budget or even not on a budget like i said this is my second interface here and i gotta say that i would buy more of these maybe the duo whatever case comes down maybe i'm gonna have a you know a q a where someone else is here and i want two microphones off the one device so a duo might come into play in the near future but i highly recommend this m audio solo i think they're amazing the price tag is amazing and you can tell for yourself by the sound quality is coming out right now uh i'm on a hundred dollar you know manual microphone no maybe a little bit more than a hundred dollars sorry probably 120 but this isn't you know a road this isn't uh some high-end four or five hundred dollar microphone system here my whole setup here is about 250 bucks for my audio try and do that with anything big big big brand name and not saying these aren't big brand names m audio is an industry leader and have been around for a long time i have recording studio hardware to go into a server from way way back that's m audio these guys know what they're doing and they're keeping it at a price that i call real so guys i will put a link in description below if you're looking for something i'll even link my microphone that i'm using uh if you're looking for something to save money you're just starting out you don't want to spend a lot or you think the quality of this is absolutely phenomenal for you know 200 or under dollars then please feel free click purchase it will help the channel and i do endorse it i think the product is absolutely phenomenal um everything from the gains to you know i actually was i even tried putting a mix here uh like a full mixer with the thing in it and there and i did not get any better results uh this was more than you needed the mixer i had a little bit more control over some you know mids highs lows it was only about 60 dollars but in the end this keeps it clean it keeps it good and this is actually the area where the podcast happens you just don't see the down part so guys until next time thank you and i hope this helps your channel or helps your music career or whatever you wish it to be but till next time guys thank you for watching and game over