Computer Audio Interface

[Anderton]

Let us know which one you really dug this year...

[d. gauss]

i kinda still think they all more or less suck. gimme 24, identical, STABLE, channels in/out with good conversion in one box, and then maybe we'll have made some progress. otherwise, an aging alesis hd24xr still seems state of the art. :)

same with control surfaces. tascam are you listening? people are paying through the nose on ebay for your no longer made us2400, 'cause no one has 24 affordable channels of moving faders in one box.

[johnreelsound]

I do loads of conference stuff where I need a nice quiet USB audio input for laptops and I love the Alesis io/2. It's cheap, its a doddle to use and works perfectly. I bought 4 last year. If anyone knows whats not to like then let me know.

John

[pbognar]

I was a bit disappointed by the Line6 KB-37 upgrade. I was hoping it would go USB2. Instead they went from Gearbox to POD farm which I've heard is nice, but has some compatibility issues with some hosts.

I can't recall at the moment if the unit must be connected to "enable" the Gearbox software...

I like the idea of a portable audio interface, keyboard, and guitar processor which I can move from computer to computer. I do wish it had more knobs and sliders for software control.

[girevik]

Keith McMillen's StringPort (http://www.keithmcmillen.com/stringport/).

This is something that can really take string players, including guitarists, to new sonic vistas beyond the limitations of MIDI, and be affordable at the same time.

Rolf Spuler has an ambitious Firewire guitar project which does some interesting individual string processing too but you have to buy an entire guitar, whereas the StringPort works with any hex pickup system.

[t-rave]

M-audio Profire 2626

8 preamps, 16 channel adat io, spdif, runs rock stable on my Pc with various programs. And the opportunity to run PT8

The on board dsp mixer is easy to figure out and the pre's and converters sound clean.

Nice touches like dual headphone outs and easy track routing really make this well thought out piece of gear way above earlier m-audio or digidesign mbox/003 offerings

[byronus]

The Metric Halo 2d upgrade card and v.5 software for the MIO line of firewire interfaces (ULN-2 and 2882). Astonishing upgrade to some already-great interfaces. More companies should stand behind their customers like Metric Halo does.

[Drumr]

I bought one of each of these really nice Presonus units.
They are daisy-chainable for 24 Tracks-at-once.
Very stable.

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=43

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=51

I like the combo jacks and LEDs on the Project, and the extra inputs on the Tube. Together, they are so very handy to have around.
I originally intended to sell whichever one I didn't like as much, but they work so well together that I can't let either one go.

P

[aleko99]

I've been pretty satisfied with an m-audio audiophile 192, but I need an external interface for my macbook pro. Does anyone have any suggestions? I just need it to take some stress off the cpu and fix the latency issues.