New Audio Interface Advise?

I've got a buddy who sent me this. I imagine this is a great place to get some suggestions...
BTW: I think he's using boot camp...
I need a new sound card/break-out box and thought if you don't know you might know someone who can help.
I have an iMac that's partitioned. One side Mac OS -- and the other Windows XP.
I run Sonar on XP and I'd like to learn Logic to "wean" myself off of Sonar.
So.... I'd like to get a basic stereo in/out interface with as good of A/D converters as I can afford.
I need:
Firewire
2 XLR and 2 phono inputs and 2 phono or rca outputs
Midi
Needs to run on BOTH Mac OS and XP
A good cue/headphone system (two mixes would be heaven)
Around $300.
Let me know what you think.
Could I get a higher quality older unit used... or should I buy new?
PS I'm tryin' to avoid the lower ended stuff like M-Audio & Presonus ie
What about a used RME Fireface UC
or a
Metric Halo MIO ULN2
or
Focusrite Saffire LE Firewire
or
Edirol?
Thanks in advance for any help

revDAVE wrote:
I've got a buddy who sent me this. I imagine this is a great place to get some suggestions...
BTW: I think he's using boot camp...
PS I'm tryin' to avoid the lower ended stuff like M-Audio & Presonus ie
What about a used RME Fireface UC
or a
Metric Halo MIO ULN2
or
Focusrite Saffire LE Firewire
or
Edirol?
Thanks in advance for any help
Of the items listed.
-Metric Halo is Mac only.
-Edirol is solid on PC but seems less so on Mac.
-Focusrite, least sure about this one, I've heard it's Firewire implementaion can be picky.
-RME is the best bet.
-Some of the higher end Presonus hardware is decent, their engineering staff is Mac oriented.
I have identical RME PCI cards in both the Mac & PC and their operation has been flawless.
pancenter-

Similar Messages

Help - I need a new audio interface!

I need an audio interface - PCI, Firewire or USB-2 - with a bunch of inputs and outputs (min. 6 in, 4 out), a couple of universal XLR/minijack input jacks with good pre-amps and, here's the clincher, separate level controls for headphones and monitor output.
Does anyone know of anything that suits my needs?

you might shop around for an M-audio Firewire 1814, which meets all of your requirements (225£). Or if you're looking for more of a mixer, check out the Tascam US-122; it's a mixer with USB connectivity to your mac.
As for functionality as reliability, i've only heard good things about the firebox and firepod, but they do seem a little outpriced per feature compared to the m-audio line. The thing that i admire (i don't own any yet - can't make up my mind) about the firewire 1814 is the dual headphones. couple that with it's inputs/outputs (go on and bus that mix directly to 2" tape, why don't you?) and you've got a powerful little box. That said, if the Presonus had dual headphones (their hoping you buy their headphone mixer, maybe), I'd put it on the top of my list.
Since there are a few (really good) options out there, it might be helpful to have people weigh in about why they chose the models that they chose to drop their cash on. How well do the devices work with GB2? Any driver instalbilities? that sort of thing.

Yosemite doesn't reconize my audio interface

Hi,
I installed Yosemite before a got my new audio interface, Terrasoniq Phase X64 USB - USB 2.0, and I've been trying to install it since but is not working. When i go to my audio preferences my audio interface doesn't appears.
What is the best thing to do? to re-install maverick?? or there is any other way to get this working?

There's one thing I can add. This driver is quite buggy. Time after time I get kernel panics because of it:
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         de.musonik.phasex64.usbdriver(2.0.4)[D791A3C5-E085-442D-72D3-F79DE846AAD7]@0xff ffff7f8c736000->0xffffff7f8c770fff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(710.4.14)[4030C18E-76A0-37E6-9612-2C901F789E41]@0xf fffff7f8c6c5000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: MIDIServer
Boot args: kext-dev-mode=1
Mac OS version:
14C1510
I'm lucky not getting any during my performances. I think, some time I'll sell it to a Windows user, since it should work better on that system.

Need help finding an audio interface for my old ADAT

Hello,
I've been using Cakewalk Sonar for about 3 years and recently purchased a Macbook Pro and am making the switch to logic. In Windows I was using a E-mu 1212m PCI audio card that was connected via lightpipe to a Behringer ADA8000 8-channel preamp that has ADAT lightpipe output.
The songs I do are 90% audio with midi only used very sparingly for maybe a piano here and there. I record drums with a 6 mic setup (2 overheads, 2 on snare, one bass, one hi-hat). I'm looking for a new audio interface to use with my Macbook Pro. I'm also looking at purchasing Logic Express as it seems like the only things in Pro that affect me is more channels than I use on songs.
I would really like to spend no more than maybe 400-600 dollars if possible. Based on reading these forums, the best thing may be for me to get a MOTU 828 MKII off eBay (they seem to be available for about 500) or PreSonus Firepod.
I've heard that some people love the PreSonus Fireface, but I'm not sure how the Firepod compares. Are the converters on the Firepod and 828 comparable or is the 828 significantly better?
Also, my behringer preamps seem OK but I wonder if the Firepod would probably have better sounding ones, I think I only paid 2 or 300 dollars for the Behringer one.
Any feedback at all would be great. Alot of great stuff on this forum I'm just having a tough time figuring out if I should ditch my existing ADAT preamp for a Firepod or use it with the 828 basically.
Thanks,
-Jayme
Macbook Pro 2.33 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi Jayme,
Welcome to the Forum!
Have you consider the Traveler?
http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/traveler/overview.html
Boy, see it for yourself, for a couple of hundred dollars more you've got
192k and then some.
:o)
Cheers,
Jorge

Selecting an Audio Interface

Hi,
I recently purchased Logic Pro 9 on my 2011 13" Macbook Pro, and am in need of a new audio interface. I am using it to record with my band (using synthetic drums so I am usually recording one track at a time). We used to use Sonar Home Studio with an Alesis Multimix 8 USB 2.0, but felt we needed something with more power and options so we switched to Logic. Also, we had some problems with the Alesis with quality among other things. I need an audio interface that will give me good sound quality with at lease one XLR input, a guitar input, a MIDI input and an output or two, one of which that can be used for headphones while tracking vocals and such. I don't have a set price range but I do want something that will give us good audio quality and something that will work well with logic.
Any help and suggestions are much appreciated and please let me know if there is any more information you need from me.
Thanks!

Presonus makes good quality equipment and they're always wheeling & dealing with various music retailers (ie Sweetwater, Musicians Friend) to offer package deals with, say, an audio interface + heavy discount on Studio One Pro which is their relatively new DAW (btw, it is a nice app and has defaulted to my secondary after Logic).
I'd avoid M-Audio. I once owned their 2496 card which was worth every penny I paid: $15 + a six pack of Sam Adams to a friend moving out of state.
Can't really go wrong with Focusrite hardware but someone needs to get their plug-in developers to step up.
Good luck.

Pops, latency, distortion. Can't record more than 2 secs. Audio interface?

As near as I can tell, all my software is up to date, I have the latest drivers for my audio interface, and Garageband has basically stopped working.
Firstly, whenever I start Garageband the first time, I get latency that is as much as a second or more. So I have to quit and restart Garageband every time to fix that.
If I leave Garageband running overnight, it completely forgets about my interface, and I'm forced to reboot in order to get any sound at all into Garageband. It sees my audio interface (a Tascam US-122), but I can play away and it won't get any sound at all from it until a reboot.
This means that pretty much every time I want to use Garageband I've first got to reboot the system to convince MacOSX to first listen to my Tascam. Then I've got to start Garageband, then quit and restart to get rid of the latency. This is quite a pain and I've been living with it for some time.
But now, it's gotten worse. Since upgrading everything, now I can only record a few seconds of music, before Garageband stops, creates crackling sounds and popping, and occasionally distorted versions of what I played, but stretched out and terrible sounding, and all between long gaps of dead air. This is pretty useless.
There are some people that believe there is an issue involving Garageband and Airport. And, one time I was able to record part of a track by turning off all effects and turning off my airport card. But this only worked one time.
From reading other posts, it's clear that are at least some others that are having at least some of these same problems.
So, here's what I'd like to know:
1. Has anyone had these problems and figured out a fix?
2. I'd really like to know if anyone is all caught up (10.5.2, latest Garageband, etc...) and is having no problems with Garageband?
3. If you are not having problems, what audio interface are you using?
4. I have a Tascam US-122. If you are also have this audio interface, I'd like to know if Garageband is working for you, or if you're having the same problems I'm having.
In case it's not obvious from the above questions, I'm suspecting that my problem might involve my audio interface and I'm hoping we can gather some info here to help resolve that question.
Thanks in advance for your help.

So, I tried recording into Sound Studio using my TASCAM, and I got some of the same intermittent problems I was having in Garageband. Sometimes there would be a long pause and then I'd hear what I had just played but sounding like it was in slow motion and underwater. This suggested either a systemic Apple problem or a TASCAM problem. Putting my bet on TASCAM, I decided to try a new audio interface.
Anyway, after some net searching, I decided on an Edirol FA-66, so I headed on down to my local Guitar Center to buy one.
Only they don't carry them. Apparently, they stopped carrying Edirol stuff a while ago. The guy asked me what I wanted one for and I told him I was recording my guitar on Garageband. His face lighted up and he said, oh, that's easy, you've got to get an Apogee Duet. Because you're a Mac guy, you can buy one. But, I had seen the price and thought that was too much.
So, I looked all over town, and no one had an Edirol. So, I headed home and got online and started reading about the Duet. Every single person that had one raved about it. I also realized that it was only for Macintosh, so if they don't get it right, no sales. I have to say, I liked that.
So, in the end, I went back to Guitar Center and I bought one.
I've had it now for a few hours, and all my latency, pop, and noise problems have, so far, gone away.
But even better, is that the sound quality is stunningly better. At the best of times with my TASCAM US-122, my guitar sound was "thin". It never really sounded anything close to good.
This is a whole new thing. Playing through Garageband is like playing through an amp.
And, it's so nice to have all that rebooting and restarting nonsense over with.
So far, my recommendation is, if you can afford one, go for the Apogee Duet. In fairness, I haven't tried anything but the Duet and my TASCAM, but people online that have agree that the sound quality of the Duet is as good as it gets in this price range.
So, I've seen a number of other posts in which various people complained about problems that sounded similar to mine. Currently, my experience says that it may be your audio interface (or its driver).

Get a better performance with audio interface?

Hi all.
I got a silly question. I run Logic 7 on a Powerbook G4 12" with 1.33 Ghz and (only) 768 Mb RAM and a (hard to built in) 160 Gb Harddrive.
After having often the "Disk is too slow..." message I was thinking about buying a external audio interface (presonus firebox).
My simple question is: does an external audio interface give Logic (or CoreAudio) more free DSP-Power? So that maybe I got a better performance? Or do I need to get something like a TC Powercore Firewire?
An answer would be great ... otherwise I have to sell my nice and small 12incher and buy an Intelbook ...
Thanks. Frank.
Powerbook G4 12" 1.33 Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

A new audio interface won't help.
You should start by getting an external 7200 RPM Firewire drive to put your audio on. That right there will help, especially with higher track counts.
Secondly, get more RAM. 768 of RAM is borderline for Logic. I always recommend at least 1 gig. Go ahead and max out that Powerbook to 2 gig of RAM, if you can.
All that to say, an Intel mac would be a huge improvement over the Powerbook. And if you do go that route, still get an external FW drive for audio, and as much RAM as you can afford.

Any reccomendations on a Audio Interface for recording?

Hello!
I’m looking to buy a new Audio Interface for under $500. Any recommendations?
Thanks!

I bought a firebox to do some mobile recording, but it had problems and I had to send it back to presonus. in fact I have had 3 other presonus products and every one of them developed problems and I had to send all of them in for repairs. The good thing is Presonus is a great company and they stand behind their products, but in my experience their quality control *****.
once I got the firebox back, I used it for 3 mobile sessions and it worked fine recording 4 tracks. I used it in the studio once as an aggregate device with my motu and the thing glitches about a dozen times during the session, which forced me to constantly restart or re select the driver. right after the session was over I put it on ebay and got rid of it. and I will never buy another presonus product again
take a look at Motu

FW400 audio interface into FW800 connection

I am planning to upgrade to Logic Studio 2. Not being ready to but a new machine now, I will have to install it on my MBP (intel) until I can upgrade my tower (G5).
Problem is that my audio interface is a Firewire 400 connection and Apple dropped that on the MBP! I only have FW800 ports.
Is there a way to convert the FW400 connection to a FW 800 port? Or am I going to need a new audio interface?
Thanks!

or this:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw_adapter.html

The best audio interface with Mac Mini using new & existing equipment?

Hi,
I got my existing set-up back in 2003. I'm now about to update it.
I've talked to Apple Technical Support re which computer is best for me.
Some important questions remain in terms of the audio interface or sound bridge I should use.
I've detailed below my existing set-up, my existing configuration, my desired set-up (as recommended by Apple expert) and questions I have.
Existing set-up:
Hardware...
1. ViewSonic HDMI 1080p Full HD LED monitor
2. PowerMac G4 (PowerPC processor) computer
3. PCI-424 soundcard within computer (works in conjunction with MOTU 2408 mk3 unit)
4. MOTU 2408 mk3
5. Quested monitors
6. Focusrite Session Pack ff ISA220 compressor
7. MOTU micro lite (midi-usb interface)
8. Keyboard (yet to choose - I'll explain later)
9. ADK Tube Condenser Commemorative Edition microphone
10. ADK Tube Condenser Commemorative Edition microphone power box (supplies both power and phantom power)
Software...
11. Tiger 10.4.11 operating system
12. Logic Studio 8 music program
Desired set-up:
1. ViewSonic HDMI 1080p Full HD LED monitor
2. Mac Mini full spec = £999.00
3. _______________________________________
4. _______________________________________
5. Quested monitors
6. _______________________________________
7. _______________________________________
8. _______________________________________
9. ADK Tube Condenser Commemorative Edition microphone
10. ADK Tube Condenser Commemorative Edition microphone power box (supplies both power and phantom power)
Software...
11. Top-end operating system = Comes with Mac Mini
12. Logic Pro X music program = £139.99
Existing configuration:
ViewSonic HDMI 1080p Full HD LED monitor goes into PowerMac G4 (PowerPC processor) computer
PCI-424 soundcard within computer (works in conjunction with MOTU 2408 mk3 unit)
MOTU 2408 mk3 used as my audio interface for sound in and sound out. This means that the sound comes out of computer via the MOTU 2408 and out of my Quested monitors (they are active so self-powered) which are attached to the MOTU's outputs.
When I record vocals I sing into my ADK microphone (this microphone sources its own power from its own box which also feeds it Phantom Power) which is connected by a mic to jack cable to the Focusrite compressor which is connected by jack to jack cable to the MOTU 2408 which then goes into my computer via a firewire cable.
When I play keyboards or use my keyboard as a midi controller it connects to my computer via the MOTU micro lite (midi-usb interface).
I don't currently have a keyboard. I used to use my basic Yamaha PSR-540 keyboard as a midi controller but as it's not weighted and faulty I needed to get a new one. We got a new one via Thomann which was the M-Audio Pro Keys 88 keyboard but this quickly became faulty. We returned it and have since been considering other weighted keyboards. I am simply wanting a keyboard with Aftertouch, either 76 or 88 keys, weighted keys and very importantly, hammer action where the action is fast. I don't care for other controllers on the keyboard, on-board sounds, iPad compatibility or whatever.
My Questions:
Q1) Can you recommend any keyboards meeting my specifications?
Q2) I can't imagine any of the Blue or other USB mics competing with my ADK and I'm quite happy with it. For vocals and when I've wanted to play the keyboard in as audio (not as a midi controller) I've used the Focusrite compressor to boost the sound. I'm not using many functions/presets on the compressor as I know it's best to record the sound of vocals mostly raw, is this correct, and if so is it worth me continuing to use this compressor or sell it?
Q3) Do I need to have the MOTU micro lite (midi to usb) unit? Don't most keyboards these days connect direct usb to usb on the computer?
Q4) I'm happy and used to the sound out from my Quested monitors. I'm happy and used to the sound in using my ADK microphone. What do I need for these to work best with the Mac Mini? Is my MOTU 2408 good for this, or is another MOTU product needed, or another product altogether?
Q5) Depending on (Q4) do I need a soundcard installed in the Mac Mini as I read on a forum that these days the audio interface acts like the soundcard?
Q6) I have such a bad connection to the internet it's like I have Dial-up!!! I use Airport Wireless which is connected to a router downstairs, which is 02 Broadband. Internet's not an issue downstairs on my girlfriend's intel PC which also uses a wireless connection but not Airport. Is this a problem because of my Airport, or do I need to get a router for upstairs, or should I connect it directy to the router downstairs by ethernet cable?
Many thanks!

Is there a reason you don't want to use your current Tascam?

Is there a way to connect the new MacBook Air to an audio interface that only has FireWire 400 input?

I recently acquired the new MacBook Air for my performance rig and have discovered that there is no way to connect it to either of my audio interfaces [both have FireWire 400 ports only. Is there an adaptor for this? I can't seem to find one.

Later on this month, both Belkin and Sonnet have indicated that they will have means to adapt the Thunderbolt port to the Firewire 800 interface.
Sonnet's solution will be an simple adapter, while Belkins will be a more full featured dock, with a few ports, including USB 3.0
There is no indication what the price of either will be, but both of them should provide a relatively easy means to then adapt to Firewire 400, as such cable adapters are already readily available at a nominal price.
Apple has the Sonnet adapter mentioned on their website, so it may be likely that the Apple online store will be carrying them when they become available.
As far as an adapter from USB 2.0 to Firewire, there have been only a scant few adapters available in the past, and all that I have seen were propretary in nature, only usable for the particular device they were fashioned for. I have not seen any that were usable in a general sense. Look at the reviews of any such products you might find in this regard. You will find no satisfied users.

Audio Interface that works for the new 10.6.7 Mac software?

I just bought a new Macbook Pro and I am having trouble finding an Audio Interface for recording vocals/guitars that will actually work!! Most of these companies have not worked out the driver for them yet....Thanks

In addition to Stedman's spot-on reply --
When you buy an upgrade disk, all updates in that OS can be found on Software Update.
For instance, I bought Snow Leopard at 10.6.
All other updates have been free and downloadable. So I'm not a 10.6.7.
10.4 (Tiger) went to 10.4.11.
10.5 (Leopard) went to 1.5.8
10.6(Snow Leopard) is currently at 10.6.7.
Now, when Lion come out (the next major upgrade of OSX), I will have to pay to go to 10.7.
After that, updates are free til 10.8 comes out.

New macbooks incompatibility with audio interfaces because of firewire lack

Hello,
I am a sound engineer and I use my macbook to record music with external audio interfaces such as the digi002 and the digi003 by Digidesign and with the related Pro Tools software which, as you probably know, is the best software for audio recording and is known as the worldwide standard for it.
As my actual macbook is now 4 years old, I was impatiently waiting for the macbook update but I was really astonished when I've seen that apple decided to delete the firewire port on the new model.
This bizarre choice makes the new model incompatible with all the professional audio cards by Digidesign avoiding the use of Pro Tools on these notebooks and forcing me and my colleagues to switch to pcs (or to macbooks pro, if you can afford spending more than the double...).
Can I (we) hope in a sort of new update reintegrating the firewire port which, I say it once again, is fundamental for us in order to continue using macbooks in our job as sound engineers?
Thanks,
Sincerely,
Francesco

The subject has been covered here in multiple threads already. The best way to submit feedback to Apple is through this web page:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html
Whether Apple will ever decide to add Firewire ports back to the MacBook is unknown. Personally I doubt it, but we can hope.

After using my new firewire audio interface, my devices get electrostatic

I recently bought a Focusrite Saffire 24DSP which is connected by a firewire cable to my macbook pro (late 2010). I connect it as stated with my macbook of. Now there are moments (and unfortunately they are moment of surprise) that my macbook's case get all electrostatic. Not just a little bit but one that makes your hair rises. Also at that same moment the case of the Focusrite audio interface is also all static, also the back of my audio monitors/speakers (which is connected by xlr-cable to this audio interface), these last two devices are the worse, and even in some cases the metal case of my Novation Remote SL keyboard which is connected by usb to my macbook. You can understand that I sometimes getting nervous to touch anything once the audio interface is powered on... or at the end of my session to power my stuff off.
I first thought that connecting the audio interface to its own wall socket/adapter, instead of using it by powered from the firewire, would solve it, but not.
Even this morning, after powering off everything last night (though the firewire cable still connected), i got a shock when opening my macbook and 5min. later touching the audio interface. How can I resolve this? Is it a problem of my new interface, is it a firewire problem? or is it the macbook? ......
Would it help to put the audio interface on rubber feets.. or should I take care in what order I put devices on and off? Please any help or suggestions, since waking up this way is a terrible one

Is the MBP plugged in using a three pronged properly grounded outlet?

What is the best audio interface for new mac ?i

I'm new to Apple and have been with tacsam neo 2488 and would like to know witch audio interface would to start with

Is there a reason you don't want to use your current Tascam?

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