I realized that I could use USB to send audio instead of relying on the balanced L/R outputs and going through my audio interface. If I’m just recording audio into my DAW, are there any reasons to prefer one approach to the other?
these are two different approaches: when you use analog out you are free to send the signal into a channel strip, from there you can enter your audio interface (this path is Impossible using usb out). Also, not all converters sound the same, there are interfaces with internal dsp for example, some will convert in 192khz 24bit etc.
I would add that if you are recording more than one instrument at the same time, when using the usb out you will have unnecessary complications (aggregate device procedures) and latency mismatch issues
Nah, use whatever works best for you.
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USB audio is cool for multitimbral devices without multiple outputs or for connecting portable gear directly to iPad (or laptop). Obviously it’s also nice to have just one cable for audio and midi and sometimes even power.
But it also often causes latencies, driver/compatibility problems or even system/device crashes, ground noise and can be much more complex to manage in software (or even impossible with multiple devices on Windows, which doesn’t have aggregate device capability). So except for above mentioned cases I much prefer analog audio connection, which literally “just works”.