Edirol Fa 101

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artCROSS

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I know it's relatively new, but has anyone had any experience with this interface? I was looking for a good interface for firewire under $500 that had at least 4 inputs.
 
I'm thinking of getting one as well. A salesguy gave me all the lowdown on the FA101, but it would be good to see what anyone thinks about it, or Edirol products for that matter.
 
just out of curiousity, what did the salesperson have to say about it? i mean, besides the obvious bias sales pitch...
 
Sorry to say it was all biased sales pitch. He was helpful, but just gave me marketing spin. He did like the Edirol stuff over M-Audio though.
 
The M Audio Delta has 4 inputs, but is a PCI card with breakout box

How does the Edirol compare to that ?
 
i may just pick one up...someplace like sweetwater has free shipping and they price match. They're price is $600 i think, but i found it for $450 on the web.
 
the edirol has 2 mic preamps and an additional 6 instrument (1/4in") inputs. It also has SPDIF and Midi in/out. 8 1/4in" outs. It sounds pretty good for the price, but then again, i don't know anyone who has used it yet.
 
I finally found a couple of reviews of the Edirol FA-101. They are in french, but both basically say the unit is excellent.

The first guy says the installation was a breeze. The 1.0 drivers were very stable. Initial tests showed a latency of 9 ms at 44k, but no tweaking had been done yet. Overall, he says for the price and for the outputs and features, the FA-101 beats both the M-AUdio Firewire 410 and MOTU 828 MKII.

A second reviewer says the converters are high quality and there is ultra low latency. He also mentioned that installation was a breeze. His latency tests showed 5ms with 6 tracks simultaneously recording. No glitches were occurring. All of this came after 15 days of usage. His biggest complaint was the lack of a french manual. ;-)

Both of the reviewers gave 9/10 overall scores.

Here is the link: http://fr.audiofanzine.com/produits/avis/index,idproduit,34085.html

Also, I should mention for Canadians that www.ecost.com appears to be offering the unit for $200 cheaper than any other price I've found, and they will have them in stock at the end of June. Interesting. I bought a Rio Karma through them and their service and shipping quality was impeccable.

I'll be getting one for sure and I'll post my own review at that time.
 
I ordered one yesterday, should have it in my hands Thursday. Bad news is I won't be able to put it to use right away because I'm moving this next week. But I hope to have an extended session the first week of August.

Edirol is a step up from M-Audio. The preamps are made by Roland (who owns Edirol). Personally, I bought an M-Audio product (it was my first semi-professional card). The drivers stunk to high heaven. The tech support was the worst I have yet to experience.

Edirol's clients are primarily educational. That means their drivers are more tested and generally safer because they have to work on a consistent basis in a classroom setting.

Currently I only have an Edirol USB Midi port which I have had no problems with. I directed my dad to buy the usb rca cable in/out device and he loves it, very stable and dependable.

I will be using the FA-1o1 on an Emachines laptop; 1.8 AMD64 3000XP 512ram. 4pin fw connector. The FA-101 comes with both 6 and 4 pin cables so I won't have to buy an adapter. It will be used as the outputs to my soft synths for live performance. The inputs will be used to occasionally record vocals and guitars. So I will need to tell you all about it in a week.

Never buy M-Audio. That's my official stance. Thery are the McDonalds of recording interfaces. You get what you pay for. If I could afford something better I would buy the Mini Me from Apogee. :cool:
 
this BBS just saved me some condsiderable $$!

Hey, motionblur:

Thanks a million for your post - I was looking at the edirol the other day at a music store in Toronto (a reputable one): the price quoted on the website you referenced was actually ~$200 less than what the store would have charged me.

I suppose it really does pay to do some due diligence!

Thanks again.
 
Chang said:
Hey, motionblur:

Thanks a million for your post - I was looking at the edirol the other day at a music store in Toronto (a reputable one): the price quoted on the website you referenced was actually ~$200 less than what the store would have charged me.

I suppose it really does pay to do some due diligence!

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Glad to help! I've always found ecost.com is a great site for Canadian buyers.
 
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