Fast Track Pro or MBox2 - Sound Quality

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Booda

Booda

Master of the Obvious
I've been planning on getting a Fast Track Pro for a simple Laptop setup... and today I read this statement...

"I've used everything from the best SSL equipment in the world to a fast track pro and an audio buddy. I'd obviously choose the more expensive stuff but there is NOTHING that the cheaper box can't do as far as functions that the "big boy stuff" can, especially when combined with a mixer. For the record though, the fast track pro is pretty shitty esp in conversion for what it costs and i'd use my computers stock soundcard first!!!"

Is it that bad?

I have a decent Project Studio w/ higher end Converters, Pres and Mics running Cubase for 10+ years... but I'm looking for a USB 2ch. + MIDI interface that I can use on a Laptop in my front room for working out ideas and songs. I also want to get something Pro Tools compatible so I can start learning PT and possibly clients could bring in their Pro Tools projects from other studios and vica versa. (although that's not my main objective) The FTPro seemed to fit the bill... I could run both PT (M-powered) and Cubase on it. Maybe I should go the Mbox 2 route w/ LE ?

Thanks for any opinions,
B.
 
I bought the fast track for the same reason around 2 or 3 years ago. Man it was a real piece of shit. Especially if you're going to be running it on an average computer. Yeah, you can use it with any software, but I would get really bad delay problems and I really didn't like the sound of it.

It also seemed really cheap, like plastic and I was worried about breaking it. After a few days I returned it. I had a behringer mixer and ran it into an average sound card and it still sounded better than the fast track.

I'm not saying M-Audio products in general are this bad, but it's a cheap product that is poorly made in my opinion. Unless they did something to make it better over the last few years I wouldn't waste my money on it.

Keep in mind I've tried a lot of products. Like the Line 6 POD Studio UX2, M-Audio Fast Track, M-Audio Audiophile 2496, and even those crappy USB audio cables that plug directly into the computer.

Don't waste time or money and just get an Mbox. When they say zero latency monitoring, they mean it. It's a very solid build. Very far from being cheap. Even the Mbox mini is a HEAVY DUTY construction. So, if you're wondering why it's so much more expensive, it's because it's not made out of plastic.
 
FoulPhil said:
Yeah, you can use it with any software, but I would get really bad delay problems and I really didn't like the sound of it.
Click to expand...

Man, calm down, and RTFM next time.

The Fast Track USB and Fast Track Pro both have rudimentary zero-latency (hardware) input monitoring in the form of an input/playback mix control. Move up to the Fast Track Ultra and it looks like you get a more flexible system that seems comparable to the likes of Motu Cuemix, etc.


Considering that Avid (parent company of Digidesign) has owned M-Audio for a good few years now, I think its safe to say that some of the more recent M-Audio hardware and the Mbox 2 series (which was released about a year after the acquirement of M-audio) will have been developed by the same team of people. As well as gaining a bit more market dominance, you have to ask why Avid (traditionally based in video) would want to buy out a company dedicated to making audio hardware... well, it was probably to gain the industry knowledge, expertise and manufacturing capacity to move even further into the project studio market.
 
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Yeah I know all that dude. I'm just saying the fast track line is a poor product. I don't need to calm down, I'm just telling about the experience I had.
 
Ok, it just seemed like you were moaning about things which were actually related to your setup or usage of the product, and not an inherent fault or pitfall of the product itself.

I don't own any M-audio products, but a few friends of mine own various incarnations of the Fast Track series which I have used on plenty of occasions and never had any issues with. I also borrowed a Fast Track Ultra from one of them once to do some overdubs on my laptop at a friend's house (it was only some quick stuff and I didn't want to have the hassle of dragging my racked up interfaces in my car with me) and found that to be a great little unit.
 
Cool deal. I formed my opinion after trying out a lot of different products. All of them actually had some kind of latency issue. I know you can make adjustments to try and correct it, but it's nice when you can just plug something in and have it work.

Keep in mind I've read a lot of the complaints people have had about the Mbox and pro tools 8 as well. Most of them are due to people just not paying attention and reading the bright green words telling them it's going to take a long time to install and to click continue anyway when the pop ups come. :laughings:
 
Hey guys thanks for the input...

Since posting this I now have the Zoom H4N and R16 in the running... they look pretty cool and I can see using it for many situations but mostly as a Sketch pad.
http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h4n/
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=2009

I have other interfaces on the list as well (presonus,tascam) and then came across the Zoom stuff. The R16 looks a little much and I don't see how it could work as a control surface w/out motorized faders.... the H4N looks super Handy. I'm thinking too, if I really want to get into Pro Tools I could get the M-Powered, import the tracks and Mix.

I almost bought a Fast Track Pro last week too I'm glad I didn't... looks like I have more Homework to be doing.

Thanks,
B.
 
I bought the FastTrack Pro a few weeks ago and returned it in just a few days. I traded t for the TASCAM US-144 MkII. the FastTrack Pro never worked smoothly and really messed up my native sound card. While I'm still having some trouble with the TASCAM on my win 7 64 bit system but it works like a charm on my win XP laptop.
 
That's another good point you made. I'm running Pro Tools 8 LE on windows XP home. I have Vista, and I could have windows 7, but on the computer I use for recording I stick with XP.

Pro Tools will work on Vista, but there are some plug ins and features that don't work too well. On XP everything works just fine.

It's kind of weird having a high end computer running XP because the other OS's that are out are much more Fancy and stunning, but you can't trade that in for reliability.

Pro Tools isn't compatible with 64bit systems yet, but using both 64 and 32 bit system, I really don't notice that much of a difference in sound quality. The only real gain as far as I can tell is if you have 8 GB of memory a 64bit system will use all 8 GB and a 32bit system will only utilize around 3.5 GB or something like that.
 
Yeah I'm somewhat in the same boat... as I guess most people. My main Recording Rig (XP w/ Cubase) I don't mess w/ too much. It runs like a champ... even though it's specs are bit out of date. Sure I'd like a little more power but it's so reliable... I even have a newer MB and dual core CPU to put in but just haven't for reasons explained.

I bought a Laptop for the sole purpose of surfing the web w/WiFi around my house and also to use as a Sketch pad w/ some little USB interface. It came w/ Vista and a free Win7 Upgrade. I kinda was hoping Windows 7 would turn out to be ok for Audio... I have the Upgrade and will probably install it this week and see if I can do some basic recording. If it doesn't work out I'll probably wipe it and put XP on there. Especially when it comes to Audio all the Fancy stuff doesn't mean a thing to me. It's like having a Super Hot girlfriend that doesn't give head... what's the point? :D
 
BTW- wcameron, that Tascam does look good I've had that on my list all along too but narrowed it down to the FastTP and MBox2 so I could get into Pro Tools... I'm kinda going back to my old philosophy though... "F*ck Pro Tools"! :D It would be good to know... industry standard, all that crap. I just really like and know Cubase... and it's the HD system that Pro Toolers need and it's waaaaay too much $. I think what I need to learn more about is the OMF file transfer thing. I just read about that recently.

Hey I just read on your Post you have the H4N... that's what is probably on the top of my list right now. How do you like it? and one thing I'm wondering... when you hook it up as a interface and directly record into your program Does it act as a monitoring out as well?

Can you hear the tracks already in your program and what your line IN is going to be recording together, coming out of the H4N? How's the Latency? can you change the buffers size?

Thanks,
B.
 
I have a pretty up to date computer. Intel Core 2 Quad, 4 GB DDR2, 1TB SATA Hard Drive, 250 GB USB HD, GTX 285 Graphics Card and some really serious cooling as well.

XP will run on your new mobo and dual core just fine, but make sure you wipe your hard drive before adding the new parts. Completely delete everything on it and do a clean install with the new hard drive attached. Then add all your drivers and stuff on the mobo CD and you'll be good to go. Update, update, and update some more.

As far as pro tools go, it's BAD ASS. I'm trying to figure out why people hate it so much. I don't understand why you think you need a pro tools HD system for it to be good.

I honestly think it's more of that old Ford Vs Chevy syndrome. PC VS Mac. Intel VS AMD. Anyone who thinks pro tools is shit has no idea what they are talking about.

Macs aren't better than PCs either. I can do a CRAP load more stuff with my PC than with a Mac and I can do the exact same things a Mac does. Not to mention all the programs and software and video games that aren't compatible with mac. It's all on what you're use to and what you know how to use.

I'm just throwing out some examples. Don't believe everything you read about on forums. Majority of it is 100% opinion and every now and then you'll find someone who's really been fair and gave everything a try before deciding which products excelled and which ones failed.
 
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