Best Audio Interface?

Which Systems?

  • Aardvark Q10

    Votes: 42 6.5%
  • Echo Layla24

    Votes: 42 6.5%
  • M-Audio Delta 1010

    Votes: 146 22.6%
  • Digidesign Digi-001

    Votes: 54 8.4%
  • RME Hammerfall Multiface

    Votes: 99 15.3%
  • Motu 2408mk3

    Votes: 62 9.6%
  • other... please specify

    Votes: 200 31.0%

  • Total voters
    645
I voted for RME.....I would love to own one, but damn its expensive. I know someone who does and its flawless with 0 latency. Next in line would be the 1010. M-Audio makes some fine equipment as well.
 
Expensive?

ive done some research and ive got it at the same price as the Layla24, Q10 and Digi-001. The Motu is $100Aust more and the Delta1010 is $350 cheaper...
 
Big T... said:
Expensive?

ive done some research and ive got it at the same price as the Layla24, Q10 and Digi-001. The Motu is $100Aust more and the Delta1010 is $350 cheaper...
Well, expensive enough...I haven't seen it for less than $850 in the states. And, I wouldn't own a digi, or motu.
 
Big T... said:
what isnt good about it?
Here are a few posts of many that turned me off:

The new HD MOTU stuff looks real nice, but I've had my doubts about their interfaces due to so many people complaining about their compatibility issues. I'm going to stay with my Layla and just get the Layla EXP to add on to it.

hiya, welcome to the wonderful world of MOTU. motu stuff is a pain in the ass and what I've heard about customer support and driver support is atrocious. Now mind you thank god I don't own any motu products but a friend of mine a few months back was having problems installing a 1224 expansion on a pci-324 card with a 2408. He asked for the assistance of the nubmeister since I'm quite familiar with troubleshooting DAW's. Now he did have a 2408 running under xp with the most current drivers at the time (i think wdm v.2.0) but once the 1224 was installed the 2408's audio was FUBAR'd but the 1224 would work fine. Nubs tried in vain for several hours to correct the problem to no avail. I finally had to say the most hated phrase in the audio engineers vernacular "call tech support" I guess I took him several days to get through and they finally figured out the 1224 with rom versions 1.1 and below would not work on a pci-324 card with any other breakout box attached! Now what really stuck in his craw is he bought it as an expansion box. The whole point of motu products is the ability to add breakout boxes through the firewire jacks on the pci-324 card. This of course means they didn't even test the units to see if they were compatible. So the fix finally was is they had to ship him a new ROM chip which he had to install. NUBS suggestion: at this point in time I am getting really sick of PC based DAWS. Save up and buy a stand alone unit or better yet a RADAR. Nubs his now setting his eyes on the RADAR. (IZ not OTARI) P.s. the Motu stuff doesn't sound so hot anyways, if you are looking at a mkII I suggest RME in the similar price range.

anybody else have one of these cards? i have windows me and cannot get it to see the drivers. i have tried installing several times. i downloaded the latest drivers from their website and trying installing them after copying them to the harddrive. anybody know what is going on?

Motu installation Locks up the Computer
When I try to install the pci-324 card, windows Xp recognizes the hardware, installs the gsif driver, then recognizes hardware again and trys to install the wave driver (which I need). Just as the progress bar finishes up the system locks up, and I mean dead stop, the mouse wont move, not the XP type of freeze where it only happens in the program.

What kind of problem does that sound like, once I know I could start troubleshooting with some direction (I dont expect a definitive answer). Could this be an IRQ conflict, or will IRQ conflicts allow you to install the hardware?
out of those choicesi'd get the delta 1010. the omni if you need ok preamps. with the delta i'd just buy a nice preamp. the only motu i'd get over the delta is the 896, but its like $1200 and motu's support is up there with digidesign, Close to none

i have heard ALL motu gear doesn't play nice with windows.

dude, i installed the 4-in-1's. i downloaded the latest BIOS, the latest drivers for everything in my system, i followed the MOTU installation instructions to a tee (strange as they are... install drivers BEFORE the card), i tried different PCI slots, i even tried reformatting and reinstalling Windows XP... all with no luck.

MOTU support SUCKS for Windows. I will never buy anything from them again.

Contacting MOTU via Email has yielded zero results.


But then again, someone is going to bitch about every piece of equipment out there.

If you really want to know....Ask Track Rat...He seems to have success with it and maybe its just user error. I have come to the conclusion though, that there support sucks.
 
RME multiface.

I had a delta, upgraded to the RME. It's worth every penny. After tracking a whole song and mixing, the difference it like night and day. The song done on the RME had frequencies that i hadn't ever heard before through the delta. I guess that's the reason most of their users speak so highly of their a/d converters. They convinced me.

Brandon
 
First44. What delta did you have? Just wondering since the 1010 has better specs than the multiface.
 
The Digi 001 won't do cakewalk and VST all that well. Digidesign has just released it's second beta version of an ASIO driver that lets other programs play with their hardware, but the MIDI outs aren't supported, yet.

I'd avoid the Digi unless you want Pro Tools for some reason.

Take care,
Chris
 
Swede said:
First44. What delta did you have? Just wondering since the 1010 has better specs than the multiface.

FYI manufactures specs dont' MEAN SHIT...this the US things cost more for a reason(usually)
 
I thought the biggest reason for getting an RME-multiface would be the great driver-support and low-latency performance. I just wonder how they can make a card with the same converters as the delta audiophile that sounds better than a delta 1010. I guess there is more to it than converters then.
 
the better sounding cards usually sound better because the analog circuitry is better..just cuz they got the same digital chip don't mean spit
 
swede-along with the great drivers and the low latency the converters are way better. Call any large, reputable store and get a personal opinion about rme vs. delta. I researched this decision for over 6 months and although you have to take people's opinions with a grain of salt, you can usually figure whether they're selling it to you because they make more money of it, or what. Everyone i've talked that has heard the motu, delta, and rme in action has always come to the conclusion that the rme sounds better.

call macmidimusic.com and talk to anyone of the daw people, they'll tell you.

I think i made the right decision, it sure surprised the hell out of me when i mixed that first song with the rme. Everything just seems to fall into place much easier. there seems to be a lot more spectral room for instruments to sit without interfering with one another.

Brandon
 
...I dunno much, I'll vote for Creative's if there's an option. :D Guess I'm typical Home Recorder that much. :D But I'll go M-Audio since I also love my Delta 66...

Humble me...:(
Jaymz
 
i thought the Aardvark Q10 would have been up there... i think it is very practical, and possibly the most expandable...
 
jake-owa said:
I'm saving my pennies for one of these.

lynx 22
Best converters on the internal interface market.
OUCH !! $1300 bucks...it better be good.
I was looking at the breakout cables....I dont see the analog or spdif connects ?
 
It comes with a bunch of different configurations so the cable will be different for every model. It is a standard 25 pin D-sub connector. The digital connectors are on a 10 pin D-sub.

I've found the lynx two for as low as $899. Or the lynx one for under $600 which has the same type of conversion.

Beats the pants off a digi 001 or Motu where conversion is concerned.
 
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