Interface with stable drivers...?

J

Juan_M

New member
I’m putting together a new studio using some gear I already have. The computer will be an iMac and also have an Apogee Mini Me but I still need a good audio interface with digital in to use the Mini Me as the clock.
I have now an M-Audio Fast Track Pro for my current system (a PC) and those drivers suck pretty bad so I’m now looking for a new fairly cheap USB interface with stable drivers…. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
He means that a cheap USB interface with stable drivers is an oxymoron
such as: jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, happily married, woman president...
 
ok, I get it now... pretty funny actually. So, any suggestions for not-so-cheap interfaces? stability is quite important to me, those M-Audio drive me bananas and I don't want to deal with that again
 
Juan_M said:
ok, I get it now... pretty funny actually. So, any suggestions for not-so-cheap interfaces? stability is quite important to me, those M-Audio drive me bananas and I don't want to deal with that again
Click to expand...

I'd go with something FireWire-based. The iMac should handle that readily. MOTU is rock solid, though their cheapest/smallest interface isn't cheap or small. Failing that, Apogee, RME, and Edirol generally get high marks with the one caveat that RME has had some trouble with compatibility with some Macs as of late. I've read that this has been resolved at this point with the latest drivers/firmware, but I'd still be a little wary for the time being.

I'm not much a fan of Presonus as far as hardware build quality goes, but their compatibility/stability is excellent (as one would hope any device should be that use Apple's audio drivers...). Worth considering in a pinch, as are some of the BeBob-based FireWire mixers (but I don't remember which ones are which---ask pipelineaudio :D).
 
Unless this is another issue, its not that RME is incompatible with some macs, its that some macs were coming with Lucent/Argere FW chips which make trouble with any firewire sound card. RME is fairly aggressive about testing across the board, so as usual they were the first ones to make a big deal about it. After that anyone searching firewire issues ended up on the RME page, as so often happened with other issues, like the xp sp2 firewire issue.
 
pipelineaudio said:
Unless this is another issue, its not that RME is incompatible with some macs, its that some macs were coming with Lucent/Argere FW chips which make trouble with any firewire sound card. RME is fairly aggressive about testing across the board, so as usual they were the first ones to make a big deal about it. After that anyone searching firewire issues ended up on the RME page, as so often happened with other issues, like the xp sp2 firewire issue.
Click to expand...

No, same issue. The point was that MOTU and Apogee both say that their interfaces have been thoroughly tested with the Agere-based Macs and they've seen no problems. Therefore, if you don't know what FireWire chipset you're going to end up with, it is safer to choose a vendor that says it is Agere-compatible and always has been than one who still hasn't officially said that their hardware works with them.... :D
 
Thanks guys, I am definately going Firewire now, the options are much better, it seems. I've looked at the MOTU's interfaces but they seem a bit too expensive to be by bypassed (I'll be using the Mini Me as the main clock). The one I think I'll end up buying is the Focusrite Saffire, it uses Apple drivers and comes with some nice DSP effects to monitor with no latency. And it costs $299 which isn't bad at all! MOTU is second on my list right now.

Thanks!
 
Wait, even thou8gh mOTU has yet to comment or even acknowledge that their latest drivers ignore the ATA ports on some devices, they have taken the time to say that their stuff is working on lucent systems? I take apogees statement to mean "well, its not like our drivers could get any worse"
 
pipelineaudio said:
Wait, even thou8gh mOTU has yet to comment or even acknowledge that their latest drivers ignore the ATA ports on some devices, they have taken the time to say that their stuff is working on lucent systems? I take apogees statement to mean "well, its not like our drivers could get any worse"
Click to expand...

I assume you mean ADAT ports on the original 828?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top