You just bought an audio interface (also called an external sound card), but you are not sure of the right method to set it up correctly on your computer?
That’s normal: while setting up a sound card is not necessarily something complex, when you’re starting out, it’s easy to make mistakes.
I’ve prepared this article to help you set it up in the best possible way.
Here are the topics we will cover:
- Unboxing and Connection
- Installing Audio Drivers
- Updating the Firmware
- Configuring Your Computer’s Audio Outputs
- Configuring the Sound Card in Your DAW
- Configuring Inputs/Outputs in Your DAW
- Adjusting the Buffer Size
Unboxing & Connection
If you haven’t done so already, start by unboxing your external sound card and check that everything is present.
In addition to the interface, you will find:
- a USB or Thunderbolt cable to connect the interface to the computer;
- (optional) a power cable with a charger;
- (optional) a quick start flyer or booklet, which will guide you through the steps to set up your audio interface.
Even if you have this quick start booklet, I still recommend reading the entire article: it can help you avoid the most common configuration mistakes.
Once everything is unboxed and you’ve checked that all the equipment is visually in good condition (you never know! :)), you can connect your audio interface using the provided connection cable and the optional power supply.
Logically, the interface should then power on.
However, be careful: for interfaces powered via the USB cable (thus without a power supply), it is possible that in some cases, they may struggle to be powered correctly by certain USB ports on the computer.
For example, on the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen, if there is not enough power available, a red light will start to blink.
If this happens, try other USB ports on your computer.
If it still doesn’t work, refer to the manual of your audio interface, available on the manufacturer’s website.
Installing Audio Drivers
Now that your interface is connected, the first thing to do is to install the appropriate audio drivers so that it can function correctly.
What is an Audio Driver?
An audio driver, or audio software, is an essential program that allows your computer to communicate with your audio interface. It acts as a translator between the hardware of the audio interface and your computer’s operating system.
Without this driver, the computer would not be able to recognize or use the sound card correctly.
The audio driver manages incoming and outgoing audio data, ensuring that sound is transferred smoothly and efficiently between your computer and the audio interface. It also allows you to configure essential settings such as latency, sample rate, and bit depth, thus optimizing audio performance for recording and playback.
In short, the audio driver is crucial for ensuring stable and high-quality communication between your audio interface and your computer.
How to Get the Audio Driver?
In the past, the audio driver was provided on a CD with the sound card.
Today, it is generally available on the manufacturer’s website.
To access the program download, you usually have two options:
- either you have a link on the quick start flyer provided with your audio interface;
- or you need to go to the manufacturer’s website yourself. There, you will generally find a page allowing you to download the appropriate driver. You will usually need to enter the model of your sound card first, as shown in the screenshot below.
Tip: a quicker way to access the appropriate page of the manufacturer may be to type on Google:
Model name of the sound card + “driver”
However, be careful to ensure you arrive at the official site of your sound card.
It is impossible to be truly exhaustive, but here are some links to the main audio driver download pages for the most well-known manufacturers:
- Arturia
- Audient (drivers are available from the product pages)
- Audient / EVO
- Behringer
- Focusrite
- MOTU
- PreSonus
- RME
- SSL
- Universal Audio
Once the executable file corresponding to your audio interface / sound card is downloaded, you just need to install it like any other software. Be sure to follow the steps in the order requested: this is important to ensure proper installation.
The case of Asio4All
For Windows users, you may have been told (or you may have read) that to properly configure your audio interface, you need to install drivers called Asio4All.
Well, if needed, here is the official link: https://asio4all.org/about/download-asio4all/
That said, I can only advise against it unless you are in one of the following three cases:
- if you do not have an audio interface, and just want a system to play MIDI notes without latency (with a MIDI keyboard for example);
- if the manufacturer of your audio interface does not provide a driver (today, I don’t believe that still exists… but you never know…);
- if you are in a very particular configuration that means none of the official drivers for your sound card work, and you know exactly what you are doing.
In fact, for the technical minute: Asio4All drivers are not quite Asio drivers (we’ll talk about the term later). They are actually a wrapper for Windows WDM drivers, which works reasonably well, but is not what should be used by default in a home studio.
Firmware Update
Now that the drivers are installed, I recommend moving on to updating the firmware of your sound card.
This is not mandatory but is recommended for greater stability.
What is firmware?
The firmware of an audio interface is a type of software embedded directly in the hardware of the interface. So unlike drivers, which are installed on the computer, the firmware resides in the internal memory of the audio interface.
It controls the basic functions of the device, such as managing audio inputs and outputs, converting analog signals to digital, and vice versa.
Manufacturers often release firmware updates to improve performance, add new features, or fix bugs. Updating the firmware of your audio interface can thus optimize its operation and extend its lifespan.
How to perform the update?
To perform the firmware update, I would advise checking the procedure directly on the website of the manufacturer of your audio interface, typically in the manual for your equipment.
This will ensure you are certain of what you are doing, as it is always a bit different depending on the brands.
However, there are generally two possible scenarios.
Case #1: From the control software
For many interfaces, when you install the driver as seen previously, a control software is also installed.
For example, on the famous audio interfaces Focusrite Scarlett, the software is called “Focusrite Control”.
At Audient, it is called “iD”.
Etc.
In short, if you launch this software and your sound card is connected via USB (or Thunderbolt), it should detect if a firmware update is available and offer to install it.
Sometimes, the proposal is not automatic, but through the application menus, you can initiate the installation of the update.
Case #2: Manually
In other cases, it is necessary to install the firmware manually.
At that point, you just need to download the firmware from the manufacturer’s website (see the links mentioned earlier), launch the installation file, and follow the procedure that appears.
Configuring your computer’s audio outputs
Before talking about music software, you might want to use your new sound card/audio interface as the default listening device.
Typically, if you have plugged in headphones or speakers to your audio interface, you will likely want to use them when listening to music or watching YouTube videos on your PC.
(Speaking of YouTube, are you already subscribed to the Projet Home Studio channel?)
Whether you are on Windows or MacOS, you need to tell your computer, “now, I want the sound from all my applications to output by default through my external sound card”.
Procedure on Windows
- Right-click on the speaker icon in the taskbar (at the bottom right of the screen).
- Select “Sound” from the context menu.
- In the “Sound” window that opens, go to the “Playback” tab.
- Find your audio interface in the list of available devices.
- It may appear under the manufacturer’s or model’s name.
- Depending on the number of audio outputs available on your sound card, there may be several options available.
- Click on the audio output you want to use to select it, then click on “Set Default” at the bottom of the window.
- Click on “OK” to save your settings.
Procedure on MacOS
- Click on the Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen.
- Select “System Preferences”, then click on “Sound”.
- In the “Sound” window, go to the “Output” tab.
- Find your audio interface in the list of available devices. It may appear under the manufacturer’s or model’s name.
- Click on your audio interface to select it.
Configuring the sound card in your DAW
Now, you are ready to configure your sound card in your music software (typically a DAW — if you don’t know the term or haven’t chosen yours yet, check out my dedicated article).
The basic configuration procedure
What you need to understand is that software such as DAWs have audio configurations that are independent of your computer’s configuration.
So even if you have already configured the audio outputs of your Windows or MacOS setup to tell the computer, “OK I want to output the sound from my YouTube videos through the speakers connected to my interface”, you also need to make the right settings in your DAW.
To do this, it is first necessary to go to the sound settings of the software.
There, you will need to select the audio driver that was installed previously:
- If you are on Windows, the driver will be of type “ASIO”;
- If you are on MacOS, the driver will be of type “CoreAudio”.
Once the driver is selected, you will have the option (if you haven’t already set it in the control software of your audio interface) to select the sample rate and the bit resolution.
By default, I recommend choosing:
- Sample rate = 44100 Hz (or 44.1 kHz, it’s the same)
- Recording bit resolution = 24 bits
Procedures in the most common DAWs
To save you time, here are the steps to find this audio configuration panel in the most common DAWs.
Sound card configuration in Ableton Live
- Click on the “Options” menu then on “Preferences“
- Go to the “Audio” tab
Sound card configuration in Studio One
In Studio One, click on the “Studio One” menu then on “Options” and then go to the “Audio Setup” tab.
Sound card configuration in Cubase
In Cubase, click on the “Studio” menu then on “Studio Setup” and select the appropriate driver from the “Devices” list.
Sound card configuration in Reaper
In Reaper, click on the “Options” menu then on “Preferences” and navigate to the “Audio > Device” submenu in the left scrolling panel of the window that opens.
Sound card configuration in FL Studio
In FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops), you can click on the “Options” menu then on “Audio Settings” to open the audio settings.
Sound card configuration in Pro Tools
In Pro Tools, click on the “Setup” menu then on “Playback Engine“.
Sound card configuration in Logic Pro
In Logic Pro, click on the “Logic Pro” menu then on “Preferences” and “Audio“, then click on the “Devices” tab.
Configuration of inputs/outputs in your DAW
On your audio interface, depending on the model, you potentially have several inputs (XLR, Jack…) and several outputs (usually in jack format, but other types of connections can be found).
By default, not all inputs and outputs will be active in your DAW: you need to perform the operation yourself.
For this, it would be difficult to list the exact procedures for each DAW, as it would be complex to read and it will be fully explained in the manual of your software: I therefore refer you to it for the exact procedure.
However, I would still like to explain what this is about so that you understand well what you are doing.
In fact, on your audio interface, you have what are called physical inputs/outputs.
So real.
Touchable, if you will.
For your DAW, however, it only sees virtual inputs/outputs.
So digital.
At some point, you need to connect the two.
That’s why the idea is actually:
- to create or activate in your DAW the virtual inputs/outputs you need
- and in the control software of the interface (and not in the DAW) to route the signal as desired, between the virtual inputs/outputs and the physical inputs/outputs.
For example, you can say:
“When my DAW sends sound to virtual output number 4, I want that sound to go to physical output number 4.”
The more complex your sound card is, the more complex adjustments you will have to make, even though generally many things are preconfigured by default.
It’s inevitable (unfortunately?) but it’s important for everything to work correctly: this is what we call audio routing.
In any case, even without talking about complicated routing, don’t forget to activate the inputs/outputs of your sound card in your DAW. Otherwise, the software may not “see” all possible inputs, and you won’t be able to record all your instruments.
Adjusting the Buffer Size
Finally, we’re almost there: we just need to adjust what we call the “Buffer” size.
This is a subject almost in its own right, because depending on the setting you make, your interface may potentially work better or worse (don’t worry, you can’t break anything!).
► So for this topic, I invite you to check out my detailed guide on latency and, in case of problems, my tutorial to resolve crackling issues.
To Go Further…
If all goes well, you are ready to record! That’s great! 🙂
► In that case, feel free to check out my other tutorials on recording
However, if you have configuration issues with your sound card, then:
- Either you have questions regarding the article — in which case you can leave a comment below;
- Or you need help to properly configure all your equipment — in which case know that I offer assistance services to help you do things right. So if you’re struggling too much for your liking, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! 🙂