It’s true that your computer will probably have an audio output you can use with speakers or headphones. You may even be using Bluetooth to listen to music wirelessly. Both these scenarios let you listen to music at a reasonable level of quality. Let’s assume we’re ignoring built in speakers as they don’t really have anything to offer someone who is building a studio. Onboard audio is fine for listening to music but it starts to fall apart once you get serious about what you need to make music.

You may be using music apps on an iPad and listening via Bluetooth on some speakers. That’s fine, but what happens when you want to record your voice or a guitar? That integrated microphone is not going to give you anything approaching studio quality. You can perform a live stream with it, but it will always sound like you’re singing down a phone. You might be using Ableton Live on a laptop and find the output is just fine through the headphone socket. But what happens if you want to mix in a hardware synth or record some live drums?

You can get by with onboard audio but at some point you will come up against the limitations of what it offers and that will impact your creativity and the ease at which you develop your music.

An audio interface will help you in a number of ways:

• Connections
• Physicality
• Quality
• Latency

Probably the most important feature of an audio interface is that it will have inputs for microphones, instruments, synths, grooveboxes, samplers and line level sources. And outputs for speakers, headphones and possibly mixing. It will use high quality sockets that can accommodate studio quality gear with appropriate cabling. It provides the box into which you can plug a whole band and have it recorded as multiple tracks on your computer.

The microphone inputs will have preamps for getting the levels right for your type of microphone, environment and performance. It will have phantom power for running high-end condenser microphones, or powering DI boxes. You’ll get level metering so you can see if you are overloading or under recording from the other side of the room. You’ll also be able to turn things up and down by grabbing a knob rather than trying to locate your mouse cursor and peering into a screen.

From a simple 2in/2out box for making music with you and your mate, to 8, 16, 32 or more rows of inputs for drum kits, bands, ensembles and choirs. Whatever your situation there’s an audio interface that’ll offer all the connections you need. All the computer needs is a spare USB port.

The tactile nature of a box with hardware controls feeds our connection to the world outside the computer. To be able to nudge a knob in the right direction, to feel the click of a plug in a socket and the lights as levels play with the meters is something a computer can’t replicate.

If you’re working with people, with musicians and other creatives, then you need gear that’s going to survive lively jam sessions, lots of replugging, spilt beer and being trodden on. An audio interface puts a safety barrier between the music makers and your treasured computer studio. Splitting headphone outputs from an iPad is just not going to cut it.

Tiny microphones and inbuilt speakers do not glow with the confidence of studio quality. They are great for making calls, playing games and listening to Spotify but for making music they leave a lot to be desired. Don’t get me wrong, you don’t need posh gear to make music but having a bit of quality on your side is going to make getting a good result so much easier.

An Audio interface doesn’t have to be expensive and even budget ones are going to give you a much better sound than an iPhone mic. It encourages the connections of better microphones, better cables and more sophisticated arrangements.

You’ll be able to record at higher bit levels and better sample rates, giving you a better consistency of sound while you mix and process your tracks. This means that your end result has much more chance of sounding as awesome as you’d like it to.

Computers take a certain amount of time to process sound. They introduce buffers than gather the musical data so that it can be streamed to your headphones without any glitches. Have you ever noticed a short delay between you press play and hearing the sound? That’s latency. Latency is low these days and in many case, games and music, it’s not noticeable. But once you start mixing, once you start recording vocals and guitar through effects or playing virtual instruments from a MIDI keyboard, the latency or delay can make it unworkable or unplayable.

A good audio interface will come with the ability to shift audio with the smallest possible buffers. It will ensure that the latency is down to unnoticeable levels in every scenario. It’s what turns your computer into a live rig, virtual instrument or real time effects machine. Without it, level control will feel sluggish, drums will feel behind the beat and it will feel like you’ve forgotten how to play piano.

A decent audio interface will pull all these things together to give you a gateway to music production. But which one should you get? We’ve produced numerous articles on the Best Audio Interfaces but here are three examples for three common scenarios.

We’re not all working with a band or even collaborating with other musicians in the same space so we don’t need much. Your focus might be on getting high quality playback and the ability to record something. All your instruments and effects are inside the box so you don’t need lots of inputs.

For this simple scenario there are a number of good 2in/2out boxes. You could record something like a microphone and guitar and then the two outputs are simply the stereo output for your speakers. It also have a solid stereo output for your headphones.

They are simple, bus powered, plug and play and will massively upgrade the quality of sound you’re getting from your computer.

If you are developing your computer studio to accommodate a bit of hardware here and there then an interface with 4-8 inputs is going to be a good choice. Maybe you’ve got a couple of synths or you like to sing and play guitar at the same time, or you have people to make music with, then a few inputs is going to be a good choice.

You can have your external gear permanently wired into the audio interface and mixed through your computer. The monitoring will tell you if you’re at the right levels and everything is ready for recording at the touch of a button.

These are still often bus powered and plug and play with good and sizable controls to make the workflow relaxed and groovy.

You’ve got the space, you’ve got bands coming in or racks of synths to work with then you’ll need something a bit more professional. You can rack up audio interfaces for permanent wiring, running on their own power and controlled from your computer. You can do all your routing from your DAW ready for your next production.

You can plug in rows of microphones, return effects for monitoring and capture performances like a real studio – because you are a real studio.

Which scenario suits you best?