Help me pick an interface please!

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

Got to scrap my old Tascam FW1804 as the bastards aren't supplying Mac drivers for it any more. So here's my shortlist. Any thoughts, worries, recommendations? As you can see, I'm looking for 8 ins into a Mac. Don't care if it's FW or USB but FW seems to be dead now.

Mackie Onyx Blackbird Firewire £298
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40FW  £399
M AUDIO Profire FW 2626 £399
Tascam US2000 USB £371
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 USB £399

Thanks for your help, chaps.

[Sam Inglis]

Do you need eight mic inputs, or just line ins? I think all of your short listed interfaces have been reviewed, but you could also check out MOTU, Presonus, Roland, Steinberg and Echo in that price range.

[The Elf]

RME's newer Fireface does USB.

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

I think all of your short listed interfaces have been reviewed,

Not the Scarlett as far as I could see. It's the newest one too which maybe why. I read all the others but wanted any additional user feedback. The Tascam for example had XLRs which wouldn't release on your test model!!! Anyone bought one/know if this is fixed? (Having said that, altought the Tascam has the most ins, I'm very unimpressed with their support as per my OP. Don't want to get another one which becomes redundant almost overnight). Don't need 8 mic amps, necessarily. Currently have 4 line ins (one stereo, two monos), three mics and one channel for DI guitars. Why is the Mackie £100 cheaper than the others for a v similar spec?

[Skerrick]

i have a scarlett 2i4 and the quality of the unit is immense, based on that id go for focusrite or motu or presonus. trust the industry standards.. given that a lot of other companies buy parts made by focusrite to go into their units, that should speak volumes on what your final decision should be.

look at focusrite rednet (not sure of the price) but that uses ethernet to pretty much eliminate latency.

having said that the 2i4 obviously wont have enough inputs for what you want but company/brand/quality wise i did a lot of research before buying it and focusrite cameout on top... theyve also teamed up with novation recently just by the by so im expecting big tings.

[The_BPP]

I have the focusrite unit you're referring to, and it is of excellent quality. If you only require 4 inputs, you could also consider the Roland Quad Capture.

[Skerrick]

I have the focusrite unit you're referring to, and it is of excellent quality. If you only require 4 inputs, you could also consider the Roland Quad Capture.

almost bought a duo capture.. heard lotsa good tings about roland too.

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

look at focusrite rednet (not sure of the price) but that uses ethernet to pretty much eliminate latency.

One look at the prices and I had to go and lie down in a darkened room!

[pa28]

I have the Focusrite Pro40FW can't recommend it highly enough.

[The_BPP]

I have the focusrite unit you're referring to, and it is of excellent quality. If you only require 4 inputs, you could also consider the Roland Quad Capture.

almost bought a duo capture.. heard lotsa good tings about roland too.

I have both the Roland OctaCapture and the Focusrite 18i20, and the Roland has slightly better pre-amps. Both have an onboard DSP mixer, but the Roland has latency-free reverb, and compression on each channel.

[chris...]

Do you need eight mic inputs, or just line ins? I think all of your short listed interfaces have been reviewed, but you could also check out MOTU, Presonus, Roland, Steinberg and Echo in that price range.

MOTU 8pre might be worth a look.

( has mic inputs, not just line ins )

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

Thanks for the suggestion but it doesn't have an instrument DI.

[Leo Janssens]

After careful select, I went for MetricHalo. Never regretted it. Check it out.
All the best.

Leo

[chris...]

Thanks for the suggestion but it doesn't have an instrument DI.

According to p10 of the manual the 8pre has:

"Eight rear-panel combo (XLR/TRS) jacks with
preamps, phantom power and 20 dB pad let you to
connect a microphone, guitar or any quarter-inch
input. The XLR jack serves as a low-impedance mic
input, and the TRS jack serves as a high-impedance
guitar/instrument input."

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

Well researched, Batman, I stand corrected. But a guitar input on the back of a rackmount unit is about as much use as..well, a guitar input on the back of a rackmount unit. Unless you have a patchbay, or course, but I dumped mine about ten years ago! Looks like a nice piece of kit though.

[chris...]

I'm gonna need something similar in the not too distant.

I don't need guitar inputs, but would prefer all the mic inputs on the back, which the MOTU has, whereas the Focusrite 18i20 has 2 on the front, and only 6 on the back.

[Skerrick]

look at focusrite rednet (not sure of the price) but that uses ethernet to pretty much eliminate latency.

One look at the prices and I had to go and lie down in a darkened room!

hahaha yeah man! seeeerious business, cant be beaten though in terms of latency and quality man, cant wait for ethernet tech to become cheaper haha!

im a hobbyist man so i cant afford/dont need anything more than the ability to capture more than two inputs at once..
ergo, i only went for the 2i4..
really want a VRM box just for the portability..

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

I don't need guitar inputs, but would prefer all the mic inputs on the back,

Yes, I don't really get interfaces with 8 mic inputs on the front. If it's in a rack it's just not practical and looks a right mess too. I'm sure there must be a good reason to do it but I can't think of one at the moment.

[mhaigh]

maybe add in the Fast Track Ultra 8R - around £325, has 8 preamps and is USB - I know the PC drivers have had pretty good reviews for low-latency...

[Pete Kaine]

Not sure who's handling the Profire these days, they kind of split the range between Avid and Inmusic when the brand change hands, so you may want to look into who holds it and what support is like currently.

Focusrite FW since MixControl 3 (when TC did the driver rewrite) are top notch now. I'd probably go for either the Scarlett or the Sapphire out of that list just for the UK based support team although I do like the Onyx from the admittedly limited time I've spent with it.

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

maybe add in the Fast Track Ultra 8R - around £325

Yes, cheers, that fits the bill. Looks like it's discontinued as it's not on the M Audio site anymore. Makes a bit nervous after my lack of support issue causing the forced purchase in the first place!

[mhaigh]

maybe add in the Fast Track Ultra 8R - around £325

Yes, cheers, that fits the bill. Looks like it's discontinued as it's not on the M Audio site anymore. Makes a bit nervous after my lack of support issue causing the forced purchase in the first place!

ah sorry didn't realise that,it's a shame as that was a good product. it's on the Avid site under legacy products so unlikely to get further OSX updates, so i'd leave it....

[Russell B]

Well I recently invested in 2 Steinberg Yamaha interfaces and I am extremely happy with them. They might not be the best DA/AD converters on the market but the advantage of the Reverb that comes with them has made a big difference to my mixes, my 4 outboard reverbs stand idle in the rack.
The quality of the sound in my studio took a big leap forward (IMO) when I changed from Motu to Steinberg

Just my 2cents worth

Cheers Russell

[mhaigh]

They might not be the best DA/AD converters on the market
The quality of the sound in my studio took a big leap forward (IMO) when I changed from Motu to Steinberg

Cheers Russell

lol

[Ben Asaro]

I had been using the Tascam US1641 for about 4 years with Cubase4 and then Cubase6, and after I changed my OS to Windows 7, the driver was starting to show signs of age and the unit started acting a bit wonky.

I preordered the Focusrite 18i20 as soon as it was available and received one of the first units shipped -- what was that, 5-6 months ago? Combined with my OctoPre, it gives me 16 channels of mic/line inputs and 10 out (though I will be getting an ADAT line expander soon).

The Mix Control software has a couple of very minor annoyances with my system, nothing that I would classify as a deal-breaker.

Sonically, the 18i20 BLOWS AWAY the older Tascam unit (I always felt the Tascam's preamps were kind of weak and thin sounding). The build quality is also superb and the signal routing is really versatile.

I currently have all 10 line outputs feeding a Mackie 1604 desk for analog summing/mixing. This piece is still waiting for vocals, but here is a quick sample of what I have achieved using the 18i20 thus far.

[ROUGH MIX], https://soundcloud.com/as-follows/p1-analog-test-mix6