Is an audio interface really necessary?

Will my M-Audio interface work with other multitrack software?

• I bought M-Audio interface for home-studio recording and making my own album at home. It came with a stripped down version of ProTools SE, which blows big-time. It crashes continually, losing all My tracks (and those of you who are in the know, realize it takes 20-30 bad takes before you finally lay a good one, unless you loop, which i REFUSE TO DO (it's cheating)! So..a few questions. I will give a reader's digest on how this works in case a tech person doesn't know but knows where to find the answer. I have the M-Audio interface, which is the go-between from the Instruments and microphones to the computer and mixing software. You plug a cord into the guitar, it plugs into the M-audio hardware interface, then it USB's into the computer and the software pix up the sound and records it. you then can play another guitar, any other instrument or vocal and "layer" one "track" atop the other - creating your song. Since the software that came with the M-Audio interface hardware sucks, I downloaded some VERY HIGHLY and well regarded software designed to do the same thing. Just need to know if the hardware and its driver will be compatible with the software. If not, anyone know how to make Protools less volatile or another software package that WILL work? ON a deadline for this album, sure could use the help..pass this link around - someone is bound to know someone! My direct email is [email protected]

• Answer:

  Yes, it should work just fine. Only Pro Tools requires first-party hardware to operate.