When I use the mic inputs in the Evans Portal I’m getting quite a bit of noise and really have to crank the gain to get a decent signal compared to my other audio interface (MOTU 4pre). I’ve tried this with both dynamic and condenser mics. I’m wondering if the AD/DA converters and preamps in the Portal are not of the same calibre, or am I missing something? Thanks!
Today I conducted, a rather extreme test of microphone preamps. I recorded an acoustic guitar with a Royer R-10 ribbon microphone from a distance of about 60cm(2ft).
After normalizing the recording, the noise reaches -13dB, for comparison on a recording made exactly the same with the Apogee Element 88 interface, the noise was -34dB.
I admit that I think it’s a pretty wild comparison, because ribbon microphones require very quiet preamps as they need a lot of gain, and I completely didn’t expect the Evans Portal to perform well for this purpose, because personally I think at this price it’s completely understandable that the preamps will not be super quiet.
I can recommend using two sound cards simultaneously. In my case, Ableton runs on a sound card connected via thunderbolt for recording and direct monitoring and Sensory Percussion standalone software runs on the Evans Portal. Buffer size at 64 and it runs smoothly, no pops or clicks or other problems. I appreciate that the Sensory Percussion software is so light on the computer.
All the best 
Artur
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I also run two audio interfaces. The Evans, that for now I am taking stereo out into my RME UFX II and using the RME for any live input, Quanta, Reaktor, Ableton…all my Elektron gear, MakeNoise, etc., No problem. It sounds fantastic!
Another solution is to use preamps before Portal.
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+27db of clean gain.