MOTUNATION (formerly UnicorNation) is an independent community for discussing Digital Performer and other MOTU audio software and hardware. It is not affiliated with MOTU.
mhschmieder wrote:I personally think they're gorgeous. In fact, my own company's rack gear has a near-identical industrial design -- by sheer coincidence. There are a few other companies that also use this slate blue colour scheme with small squarish buttons as the main toggle switches.
Just in case people don't realize it, the UFX has been shipping for a few weeks now, and the Babyface (announced MUCH earlier than the "surprise" UFX announcement) is finally shipping now as well. They would make a great couple, for laptop users in particular.
I am truly amazed at the UFX specs -- this is a HUGE upgrade from the FF800. The mic pre-amps are the same ones used in Micstacy, I am pretty sure (I don't have the documented proof of this at hand, so maybe it's a faulty memory and they're the same as the ones in the USB edition, which are a huge step up from the original FF800 pre's). And the ones on the front panel are no longer duplicative of the rear channel TRS inputs, and thus you have a total analog channel count of 12 vs. 10, plus digital expansion via ADAT, AES/EBU, S/PDIF, or all three.
The addition of AES/EBU is a HUGE improvement, as it means you can have better quality as well as higher sample rates when connecting high-end two-channel AD or DA units (such as Mytek, Lavry, Benchmark, Grace, Drawmer, Manley, etc.).
Latency is now down to the same low levels as RME's PCIe cards and the USB edition of the Fireface, and the unit is ready for USB 3.0 via firmware updates (forthcoming).
At $2000, this is a bargain. It's probably even worth an upgrade for existing FF800 and FF400 users. Normally it's best to skip at least one update, financially, but this is a case where bang-for-buck may argue for an immediate upgrade.
For me, it's not yet obvious, as I'm still looking at PCIe options, and with the addition of the Focusrite OctoPre II, my need for additional channels has lessened. My need to AES/EBU vs. S/PDIF is quite strong though, and having two more "better" channels on the main unit and just relegating the cheap (and thus low investment risk) Focusrite unit to ghost tracking duties is an option -- even if just for the short-term.
I consider the FF800 to be the best piece of rack gear I've ever owned. I am hesitant to switch to Lynx Aurora or SSL due to the reliability of RME drivers and the flexibility of TotalMix. It's a hard sell to switch from a vendor you have come to trust, and RME just keeps getting better at a faster rate than any other vendor I can think of, in the computer interface and ADDA market.
Wow, I didn't realize this unit had already been out this long until doing a search on appropriate threads to respond to tonight.
Now that I have been actively working with the standalone recording mode feature quite a bit, I wanted to report on that in detail, as it is unique to this device (in terms of interfaces vs. dedicated recorders).
Initially this mode didn't work on my unit as the faceplate controls never worked. I had assumed for eons that it was user error, but after many many hours searching forums, manuals, and trying stuff, I contacted RME with a detailed problem report and my serial number and they had me exchange it for a newer PC board serial number, which fixed the problem.
I have now been recording standalone mode for several months, without a hitch -- up to twenty simultaneous tracks at 24-bits and 48 kHz. It's amazing how much the USB stick's load goes down if you just disable four of those channels, but it can handle that load with no errors. The level meters are a bit hard to distinguish as to which channel, but with concentration you can identify any problem channels during recording setup and decide which channels need more or less gain and/or in-line attenuators.
What's really amazing is that ALL channels are available; including AES/EBU and ADAT. Each one is individually enabled, phase inverted, gain-controlled, etc.
The overall recording process couldn't be simpler: you simply move the cursor to the virtual record button on the record interface (same hardware button access as for the meters display; it comes up on the record page if you have a valid properly-formatted USB stick attached to the front panel), and depress the push-control knob to the right of the screen, then move the cursor to the virtual stop button when done. You can even delete bad or false takes right from the front panel, and it always tells you how much recording time you have left. My recollection is that on an 8 GB USB thumb drive, 20 tracks give two hours; 12 tracks give closer to four hours.
Once you are done (and you can play back from the USB stick and use the headphones or monitors to listen as well, but you can't overdub using standalone mode), you have a single multi-track BWAV file, which you split up to individual mono (or stereo) BWAV files using RME's special software (downloaded from their website).
On the Mac, you can preview the multi-track BWAV files first, to decide which ones you want to keep, but the file system preview feature doesn't seem to let you scroll through the file and so it can be a PITA to start at the beginning and not fast forward etc. Nevertheless, it's nice to be able to delete obvious non-keepers before the next stage of production.
After splitting the tracks, you can drag them to a project that you probably started with a template that has all the drum (or other tracks) labeled and ready to go. Be aware though that the multitrack file numbers tracks sequentially regardless of how many channels the hardware unit supports or how many were recorded. So if you used channels 1 and 3 but not channel 2, the split tracks will be labeled as tracks 1 and 2 vs. 1 and 3. Just keep track and you'll be fine.
This feature is a time-saver as one doesn't need to drag the computer, monitor, and keyboard to a drum recording room when doing initial multi-track sessions (this would also apply to most jazz and classical all-at-once sessions and many pop/rock sessions where you record everyone live vs. doing drums then overdubs). The only drawback is the inability to do detailed critical playback and evaluation sessions before moving to the next stage of overdubs or in deciding easily whether a song needs a redo. But you could always do a bounce-down mix using the RME routing system, and save that to tape or some other medium that then supports more detailed file scrolling etc.
BTW the mic pre-amps on the Fireface are top quality and not just medium quality -- they are almost as detailed and transparent as my True Precision 8, and on a par with some of Forssells designs (such as the AEA Ribbon Mic).
