The famous Austrian microphone brand, created by former ex-AKG employees in 2009, has already proven its ability to innovate in the microphone space, and surprised positively with the Connect 6, the company's first dual USB audio interface. This time, the LEWITT in-house engineering team broke away from the sharp geometric shapes of its microphones and the weird design of the Connect 6 and created an ergonomic, tactile desktop surface for the Connect 2.
The Connect 2 is full of unique design details, such as the ability for users to personalize the individual LED colors that complement the touch interface, and the possibility to use the Custom button for workflow shortcuts. The touch-based user interface includes a large mute area for every channel, revealing how the surface was designed taking into considerations today's most common applications, from conference calls to live streaming sessions.
This intuitive user interface also offers touch-based capacitive controls for smooth level adjustments and precise visual metering. The LED colors can be adjusted not only in color but also in brightness, reflecting the setup. Users can even change and customize the color of the metering bar, the gain reduction indicator, and the channel icons.
The Custom button lets users assign one of many workflow shortcuts like quickly switching from a recording to a monitoring scenario or bringing up the Control Center software with a single push - a really nice touch.
The specifications for the Connect 2 ensure optimal audio, with 72dB of gain to work with every microphone without a signal booster. Users can simply run Autosetup and the interface will guide the user through a process to find perfect settings and sound. To refine the sound, LEWITT offers three iconic preamp sounds: Clear for perfect clarity, Warm for a vintage vibe, and Vivid for extra articulation. Under the hood, Clipguard protects the signal from distorting, the Denoiser analyses the signal and gets rid of background noise, while the Compressor adds power and punch any source - all accessible with one click.
This set of sound-shaping tools is useful for music, podcasting, and streaming applications. As they run directly on the powerful internal DSP of the Connect 2, it all works with zero latency. Users can connect a guitar to the Hi-Z instrument input and enjoy a direct signal that faithfully captures the performance. This differential input works with any guitar, from vintage single coils to modern active humbuckers. The ground break loop circuit allows for enhanced hum immunity. As with the microphone channel, the interface can automatically set the input gain after strumming an electric guitar for a few seconds. The tonal variety of the preamp sounds offers more flexibility than other audio interfaces or available DI box solutions, and the 1-click studio-quality compressor is a great way to adapt the playing dynamics.
When recording and mixing, the Connect 2 offers zero-Ohm headphone outputs (3.5mm and 1/4") both of which ensure an accurate listening experience. When using high-impedance studio headphones, users can activate the dedicated high-impedance mode to get the drive needed.
The easy-to-use loopback channel allows users to capture the playback audio of the connected computer. This runs on the DSP of Connect 2 and works independently from the software. It is perfect for streaming, recording samples, Zoom calls, or playing along with YouTube videos. These input channel mapping options and the dedicated streaming mode are defined in the Control Center app, but the interface can easily be connected with any streaming software, mobile devices and mobile apps.
The included Control Center software for Mac, PC, and iOS, allows users to access the full feature set and control all the parameters digitally. In addition to the Control Center software, Connect 2 includes licenses for Steinberg Cubase LE and Steinberg Cubasis LE. The unique combination of great usability and powerful features makes the LEWITT Connect 2 a very attractive desktop audio interface for all types of applications.
The LEWITT Connect 2 USB-C powered audio interface is available now for $199 / €199.
www.lewitt-audio.com
