I have one and it is by far the best interface I've owned! It replaced a MOTU Ultralite and I've never been happier. The build of it feels very solid, the mic pre's sound really good, and it offers an extremely flexible routing matrix in its control panel. You can also have up to 3 separate stereo monitor mixes. The 2626 as well as the new Profire 610 are definitely a huge step up from the previous M-Audio interfaces.

I havent tried this specific interface but i own the saffire pro 10, and for a lower price you can get the saffire pro 26, which has the awesome preamps of focusrite and on/off HP filters for mics and doesnt come with all that softwares and stuff, its just that interface, which lowers the price and i personally like to pick my tools alone so i rather have a low price and spend the difference on stuff i do want...

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Thanks for the replies guys. Any other opinions on this or other various audio interfaces would be great!!

Question time again... I've been doing some research and I've come to realize that whether or not your AI is decent or not, you can always still run into trouble.

I don't fully understand this though, I mean if I have an AI running on a good system, whats the problem? Is it Drivers that can be a problem or what? I don't wanna buy something only to find that it doesn't work properly on my system Basically, is there anyway of knowing that something will run well on your system?

Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by Alan2008 Question time again... I've been doing some research and I've come to realize that whether or not your AI is decent or not, you can always still run into trouble. I don't fully understand this though, I mean if I have an AI running on a good system, whats the problem? Is it Drivers that can be a problem or what? I don't wanna buy something only to find that it doesn't work properly on my system Basically, is there anyway of knowing that something will run well on your system? Thanks!

That is caused by various reasons, I was worried too about stability as you were about those new firewire cards vs. the good ol' PCI cards... and there was a good basis to my hesitations, firewire is a less stable format then PCI, BUT! firewire cards have breakout boxes (you know... a box with connectors ) and have quality pre-amps while PCI cards usually don't have these sort of things, and with current state of monstrous computing i feel comfortable to say that the problems you may stumble upon during use of a firewire interface are minor compared to the quality you get.

now, ill explain for you some of the reasons why people run into problems with AIs today (common stuff) -

In windows you got those windows sounds of clicks and whatnot, to play those sounds your AI needs to run at 44100hz/16bit, while usually when working on audio this will be set to a higher ratio like 48000hz/24bit, that jump in rates causes pops and crackles as well as sometime stopping the sound of your DAW... you solve this by removing windows sounds offcourse...

the problem is that essentially your AI is a different technology from your computer, think about it, your computer and AI communicate between each other, as they both aren't the same technology and the same manufacturer it can lead into crashes.

and at last it all comes down to the human ingredient, as not all musicians knows computers inside-out, they make "stupid" high CPU loads without noticing, running other programs in the background, etc.

so with all that said, yes, any DAW actually will sometimes run into stability problems for many reasons, and wont be that stable like you want it sometimes.

but, that two minuets when my DAW (AI/Comp/whatever) crashes and need to be solved someway really was worth the money and quality recordings and sounds coming out of that piece of can

oh, and most cards today are compatible with anything really, i just head that the motu stuff are not that great with PCs but all the others seem to be OK.

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quote:

Originally posted by Vortex_SA That is caused by various reasons, I was worried too about stability as you were about those new firewire cards vs. the good ol' PCI cards... and there was a good basis to my hesitations, firewire is a less stable format then PCI, BUT! firewire cards have breakout boxes (you know... a box with connectors ) and have quality pre-amps while PCI cards usually don't have these sort of things, and with current state of monstrous computing i feel comfortable to say that the problems you may stumble upon during use of a firewire interface are minor compared to the quality you get. now, ill explain for you some of the reasons why people run into problems with AIs today (common stuff) - In windows you got those windows sounds of clicks and whatnot, to play those sounds your AI needs to run at 44100hz/16bit, while usually when working on audio this will be set to a higher ratio like 48000hz/24bit, that jump in rates causes pops and crackles as well as sometime stopping the sound of your DAW... you solve this by removing windows sounds offcourse... the problem is that essentially your AI is a different technology from your computer, think about it, your computer and AI communicate between each other, as they both aren't the same technology and the same manufacturer it can lead into crashes. and at last it all comes down to the human ingredient, as not all musicians knows computers inside-out, they make "stupid" high CPU loads without noticing, running other programs in the background, etc. so with all that said, yes, any DAW actually will sometimes run into stability problems for many reasons, and wont be that stable like you want it sometimes. but, that two minuets when my DAW (AI/Comp/whatever) crashes and need to be solved someway really was worth the money and quality recordings and sounds coming out of that piece of can oh, and most cards today are compatible with anything really, i just head that the motu stuff are not that great with PCs but all the others seem to be OK.

Thanks dude! My understanding of it is far better now Just one thing though...What exactly do you mean by "Windows Sounds" and how do you switch them off? Thanks again!

quote:

Originally posted by Alan2008 Thanks dude! My understanding of it is far better now Just one thing though...What exactly do you mean by "Windows Sounds" and how do you switch them off? Thanks again!

when you double click an item it does this "click" sound... go to control panel - sounds and devices - sounds tab - select the "no sounds" scheme...

and then you are good to go...

other good tips you can find here in the focusrite site:

http://www.focusrite.com/answerbase/

there are some articles about how to optimize your computer for DAW purposes...

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