Choices, choices.
I’m window-shopping for a new audio interface. Right now, I have the M-Audio Firewire Solo, and it is, truly, nothing fancy. Can’t do surround, and the drivers are usually late. For example, I upgrade to Snow Leopard a while ago, as I posted, totally forgetting the fact that I should check my drivers before doing so. Sure enough, The last ones to be released at that time were for 10.5.7 or .8. I’ve been using some sort of weird work-around that someone posted on their forums, and it’s actually treating me better than 10.4.11’s drivers ever could. For example, no longer does my sound totally fail me me if I put the computer to sleep while a program that’s using audio is currently running (like Safari, if I’m on a youtube page or something). I haven’t had to restart the system (for that reason) since I’ve upgraded. That’s just one problem fixed, though.
Anyway, I’m tired of the FW Solo, I’m tired of buggy software and unreliable hardware. I’m tired of not even having the option to create a surround sound mix, regardless of whether or not I have the monitors to support it (that’ll be a post for another day). I want to upgrade, and when I get the money for the studio, I’ll be doing so! My criteria are as follows:
- Must already be supported in 10.6/Snow Leopard (shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s definitely a requirement)
Must have more than 5 outputs for surround sound support.
Must have ADAT optical IO, in the event that I need it later on.
Must be less than $2,000 CDN, as that’s the maximum I’m allowing myself to possibly budget for, but I’d like it to be cheaper.
So, with that criteria in place, the main contenders are:
- Motu 828 MKIII ($870)
- RME Fireface 400 ($1,469)
- Apogee Ensemble ($1,984)
For prices, I’ve taken them all from Saved By Technology, a fantastic site that caters to both US and Canadian residents for pretty much all of their digital audio needs.
Wow, while I was looking all of this up, I also found that SbT is selling a Mackie Control Universal Pro for $1,367! Well, I think that cuts a LOT of this short, since I’ve heard excellent things about the MOTU 828 MKIII, and have always really really wanted the MCU Pro.
So, thoughts?
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:50 PM
I’ve been “more or less” very happy with my Ultralite mk1. The only problem i had was a blown pre-amp, i took it back, and had to wait for them to ship it back and get a new one. And then Steve’s Music wanted to charge ME the $70 shipping! Broken out of the box. I caused a TREMENDOUS scene in the store. And eventually, the manager called me and they ate it. But sheesh…. Penalize ME for shopping at THEIR store. WTF.
The only other problem… i learned the hard way NOT to unplug FW with the machine running. I seem to have fried something on my macbook’s fw port. And now, if i plug something in with it on… Bzzoooo, it’s off. That’s annoying. So I have to power down to plug the Ultralite in. But that’s not the end of the world.
I’m very happy with the MOTU pre-amps, and with their Cuemix software. And if you’re getting a mkIII, you’ll get Cuemix effects, which i don’t have. It would be nice to put a little reverb in the box, but no latency, on vocals. Ah well. (I believe that is possible with the mk3?)
-=-
I’ve heard rave reviews of RME. Never heard a bad thing about it. And… Apogee is just too hilarious an amount of money. I think you’d be better to buy those extra monitors!
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:03 AM
I’ve done some hot-plugging in the past, happily to no ill-effect, but you never know… it could happen at any time, so I’ve stopped doing it.
I’ve heard the Ultralite is really good for it’s sound vs portability. Confirm/Deny? I’m definitely not looking to take my interface anywhere.
You’re right about the Apogee’s laughably high price… but I’ve very, very rarely heard a bad word spoken against it. Normally, with a high-end piece of gear, you’ll hear 90% good, 10% bad. Maybe it’s where I’ve been reading about it, but the Ensemble seems to be around 99% good. And they’ve got that whole “Designed for Logic” thing going on. It’s like using Digi hardware for PT, only it’s more of a suggestion, rather than a stupid rule.
I just know that between a choice of buying an interface of extreme quality, and then an interface of perhaps-slightly-lower-quality and also an awesome controller, I pick option 2.
An interface will only do so much, the rest is up to the engineer. And this engineer could definitely stand a bit of a workflow change.