What audio interface do you use?

Killahurts · Post by **Killahurts** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:29 am

Frodo wrote:
Killahurts wrote:
Frodo, you are scaring the poop out of me. It occurred to me while reading this that if my Alphalink goes down, I'm dead in the water, again! I don't want a replay of September, when my Sony console died..

I'm going to give the SSL a sweet pat on the head and a goodnight kiss tonight.
Man-- I try to be honest and it results in "buy-bye" for someone else.

Consolation:

If you bought your AlphaLink after Q2/Q3 2009, then you got one of the internally redesigned units to address the issue. May your device serve you well for YEARS and YEARS as it ought!!

Cool, thanks for that! I just bought it in September, so I'm good, I guess. I think I remember the problem you're talking about, you must have got yours in the early days...

Also, I remembered that I have (2) M-Audio 2626 that I got to use as 16 "utility" preamps, again, to replace functionality I had with the console. I don't have them hooked up into the firewire, only as stand alone pres, but I guess they would be a suitable backup interface, if the need arose.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:54 am

Killahurts wrote:
Cool, thanks for that! I just bought it in September, so I'm good, I guess. I think I remember the problem you're talking about, you must have got yours in the early days...

Yep-- March, 2009.

dexterflex · Post by **dexterflex** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:12 pm

dcoscina wrote:Thanks for the info on the Babyface. While budget is a little limited, I could easily sell the Duet and get the Babyface. The IOs are superior to the Apogee and the optical SPDIF ports are brilliant. If this thing is as optimized for my Mac Pro as I hope, it will make a great addition to my set with greater expansion possibilities.

How is the apogee duet with big orchestral templates? My current template is around 300 MIDI channels. Will the duet handle that?

dcoscina · Post by **dcoscina** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:12 pm

dexterflex wrote:
dcoscina wrote:Thanks for the info on the Babyface. While budget is a little limited, I could easily sell the Duet and get the Babyface. The IOs are superior to the Apogee and the optical SPDIF ports are brilliant. If this thing is as optimized for my Mac Pro as I hope, it will make a great addition to my set with greater expansion possibilities.

How is the apogee duet with big orchestral templates? My current template is around 300 MIDI channels. Will the duet handle that?

Geez, I dunno. I usually get up to 40 but that's not normal for me. 20 or 25 tracks is my max but then again I'm not composing cues that are Mahler sized. I'm sort of doing '60s Goldsmith and paring down groups to smaller ensembles. I haven't had any issues with DP and the Duet when running large amounts of VIs even when I'm streaming the scene in QT next to it. I'm told that there's no difference for VIs between the Duet and the Ensemble. Just more IOs basically. I've heard some scary things about build quality in the Babyface that has me waiting until rev. 2 comes out. I like the Apogee and will probably just end up springing for the BREAKOUT box that is $200 but includes balanced outs and a nicer more sturdy box rather than the cables.

dexterflex · Post by **dexterflex** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:46 pm

Thanks for the info. Do you know if it would be possible to use the headphone out from the duet connected to the AKG Q701 headphones? Or would I need a headphone amp to power those?

dcoscina · Post by **dcoscina** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 4:24 am

I use AKG 240mk2 and they sound fine. I do find the lack of separate phones and monitor outs to be a drag sometimes and preferred the Presonus Firestudio mobile design wise. The problem with the Presonus was it's drivers. Buggy as heck which had me return to the Duet which operates so smoothly with my Mac.

dexterflex · Post by **dexterflex** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:59 am

Thanks for the reply. It's hard to decide since the duet is only 2 hundred dollars less than the RME HDSPe AIO. And I imagine the PCIe card will provide better latency.

marcmarc · Post by **marcmarc** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:21 am

I was a motu 896 (original) user for many years but it has died in a (sunny?) afternoon, leaving me with nothing to record the next day's acoustic session with five musicians...
I had to react quickly and I've chosen a rme fireface UC wich is an USB interface.
I was reluctant because of the USB connection but it was the only "real" interface in my local music store with at least 8 analog inputs (I have the preamps) in my price range.

To be short : The session went right and I'm completely delighted with the rock-solid stability and the usability at very low buffer, much better in fact that my old 896.

silkytom · Post by **silkytom** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:36 am

2408 Mk2 here, with an old Alesis AI2 for extra outboard processors.

Wouldn't mind a 24i/o to hook all my toys up directly.

Thinking about saving up for the Black Lion mods. I keeping hearing good users reviews of them.

soloact · Post by **soloact** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:48 pm

Metric Halo ULN-2 and 2882 2D +DSP

2882 is an amazingly versatile box and the ULN2 is sounds really nice.

Dan Walsh · Post by **Dan Walsh** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 1:35 pm

Hey dcoscina---PM sent.

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:36 pm

My interfaces are in my signature, so I didn't bother responding so far, but this past weekend I reviewed everything I had read, written, and printed in the past year about the current market, and came to a clear conclusion to upgrade my Fireface to the latest model.

With the new protocols coming along, I just can't see investing in the PCIe approach at this point in time, given the limitations in terms of protocols, cabling, inter-vendor compatibility, etc. I just kept coming back to RME with their lovely TotalMix and incredible reliability and customer support, and with the PCIe-equivalent latency of the FPGA-based newer RME designs, it was a no-brainer.

If I was starting from scratch and was on Windows vs. Mac, I would possibly go instead for a PCIe approach using SSL's offerings.

The latest Fireface model has AES/EBU, allowing me to use dedicated two-channel high-end AD and DA units at 96 kHz. Two headphone outs, so that I don't have to keep rewiring in the back to switch between ghost track monitoring (via my excellent but little-known Symetrix four-channel headphone amp) and playback monitoring (via the FF800). This will help at sessions, as will the built-in effects, as most singers freak out if they don't have effects during vocal overdubs.

So, those are redundant features, but not from a practical point of view of fast work at sessions with inexperienced musicians who need a lot of hand-holding. My recent engineering work (still ongoing) has made me realize why all the vendors are now adding these "redundant" features of multiple headphone outs and built-in effects. Clearly this comes from customer feedback about what helps in actual studio sessions with live musicians, vs. what is needed for later mixing sessions or MIDI-based in-the-box recordings.

The metering also helps. EVERYTHING helps, in this model. And since there are two additional mic channels, and all four of the mic channels are transparent and of above-average quality, that too makes it a huge upgrade from the FF800. The ADDA converters are also a step or two up.

Given how the technology goes in general, the difference between a mid-range new model and a high-end older model, is usually fairly small. So, this puts the Fireface UF as best bang-for-buck vs. the more costly "separates" approach with PCIe using older models from whichever vendors.

Also, RME have future-proofed this model to a great degree. They do resort to FW400, but they have told me several times at trade shows that they consider FW800 to be less reliable for audio than FW400, and that a properly designed USB2 (or soon USB3) interface can be just as fast and more reliable when the vendor doesn't use stock parts that aren't optimized for audio. So the FPGA approach is really the way to go (we do this at my company as well, and it has made a huge difference).

Another amazing feature is the front-panel USB port, which will eventually support direct-to-flash-drive recording! Great for location recording, mobile studios, etc., simplifying the gear list and setup/break-down time for sessions so that the full gear is only needed later in the main studio for mixing and mastering.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 7:31 am

Radiogal wrote:My signature tells it all. I´m totally Motufied

Ditto.

Always have been, too. Zero issues except for a faulty PCI-324 card 10 years ago.

bjornln · Post by **bjornln** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:35 am

After having my (two) 828 mk3's in for service 4 times (unevenly distributed between the two interfaces) now, and will send in the second one in once more, I'm done with the 828's. It's not that the 828's are bad. It's just that when they break down, it (usually) takes four weeks to get them back again.

So now I bought a SSL Alphalink AX. I haven't hooked it up yet, but it seems like a solid built piece of gear.

/B

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