What audio interface do you use?

[kgdrum]

RME Fireface 800. Just wonderful.

Drivers are completely solid as well.

Best Mid priced converter for the $$$ IMHO.

Big RME fan here. Solid. I've never had a single care or worry.

c-ya,

Dan Worley

+1 agree best Mid priced interface.
TotalMix is great and SynthAx(tech support USA) are very nice and helpful.
If I had more $$ I would get Metric Halo imo they have the best products and great support.

[mikeka]

BLA modded 1224 and 2408 MK2. Very happy with these.

[dcoscina]

I'm playing around with the Avid Mbox3 and it's almost as clean as the Duet but lacks the low end. I hear more range in the frequency spectrum.

I used to have a MOTU ultraLite ver 1 but it gave me problems and I traded in for the Duet a while back. I liked its sound but between the flakiness and the small little knobs on the front, I had to let it go. I hear good things about the new UltraLite Mk3.

I probably will wait and buy an RME pci-e card and breakout box since that's going to yield the best results as far as latency and such is concerned. I do 95% virtual instruments with almost no analog inputs so something like an 898 or 8Pre is overkill for my work. Again, I did like the little UltraLite for its sound but its build quality was wanting in its first generation.

I wish MOTU made a pci-e card and box for Mac Pros....

[Phil O]

I wish MOTU made a pci-e card and box for Mac Pros....

I thought they did. Have they discontinued that stuff?

Phil

[cbergm7210]

Another RME Fireface 800 fan here.

In addition I run an M-Audio OCTANE that adds 8 reasonably priced pre's to the setup that get piped into the FF 800 via the ADAT port. Works great.

My FF 800 just recently went down with a bad power supply. I shipped it and they had it fixed in two days. Had it back in operation in 1 week with travel time to and from Syntax. That is sweet service indeed.

[Armageddon]

I have an 8pre, but I can't really recommend it. After 18 months, it developed a short in a few of the channels, and I had to send it back for repairs. Every time you touched the box, the mic would die. Now, my first channel has died in a similar fashion, just 1.5 years after I "got it back" (they likely replaced the first). 828s only have 2 mic pres, which is fine if you have a bank of external pres, but I don't. Since I rarely need all my pres, I'll be fine with my 7pre as it is.

I still have a fully-working 828 mk1, which I ran out to buy back in 2001 (?) because it was the actual very first Firewire audio interface ever made and I was running an iMac G3 DV Special Edition at the time. It had some sort of major problem in 2008 and I had to contact MOTU about it -- since it was registered, they either fixed it or replaced it (I'm still not clear which) for about eighty bucks. Either way, it works fine now and is still compatible with my software and hardware, although my MacBook has built-in 96 kHz/24-bit digital audio, so there's not much point in hooking it up.

I'm not sure if MOTU still stands behind their hardware like they used to, but I also recall having a problem with my old Fastlane USB in 2001 and, after a lot of back and forth with a tech at MOTU, I was first sent a replacement chip and instructions on how to fix it, then, when that didn't work, they had me send in the old interface and replaced it with a brand-new one gratis.

[Shooshie]

I wish MOTU made a pci-e card and box for Mac Pros....

I thought they did. Have they discontinued that stuff?

Phil

They certainly do make them. The HD192 is the flagship of this line of products, with the 24 I/O and the 2408mkIII right behind it.

http://www.motu.com/products/pciaudio" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shooshie

[Frodo]

Gosh! No PCIe from MOTU? If anything out there were leading people to believe that such a thing did not exist, I'd do anything to clear the air. It's been a reality and a fixture for goodness-knows-how-long!! I've sworn by it.

I've had three 2408s-- mk1, mk2, and mk3-- with PCI, PCIx, and PCIe as the years morphed from one to another. I still have my mk3, but I've added an SSL AlphaLInk with MADI card--- 64 inputs on one data path, 64 outputs on another data path. AFAIK, it's the only system that has independent paths of ins and outs. I will be adding an Apogee system as well because of client prefs.

[dcoscina]

I hadn't realized that MOTU does make a PCi-e interface in the 2408Mk3 and it's actually very reasonably priced. I'm getting into bigger and denser compositions so I really want an interface with zero latency. I'm buying one this week methinks.

[SixStringGeek]

MOTU 828 mk II

Considering that I've had it for over 5 years and got it replaced for $100 when it failed a couple months ago, I can't complain.

[airtime]

828 mkII with original Black Lion Audio mods to clock and analog I/O circuits. It's been working flawlessly for about 5 years.

[daniel.sneed]

I still have a fully-working 828 mk1, which I ran out to buy back in 2001 (?) because it was the actual very first Firewire audio interface ever made[...]

Same here, but bought in 2002. Still working fine. Never a single glitch with this one.
Great when Adat connected to my Yamaha 01V.
Motu rocks!

For small location jobs and gigs, a Tascam US-144mkII, and no more pluging-unplugging downtime in the studio.

[stainlessbrown]

I'm pretty happy with my RME FF800. I use it with a Presonus D8, and SPDIF using a ART DPSII (I'm looking to replace it, with what i don't know yet)

[melenko]

RME fireface 800 here, and same feelings as kassonica.

[David Polich]

Apogee Duet. Couldn't be happier with it. Going from a MOTU 828 MK II
to the Duet was like taking plastic film off of my speakers.