Helping my buddy set up a recording studio. Introducing him to the world of ASIO. Any low-mid range audio interfaces out there that you guys have experience with or would recommend? Not trying to drop more than $200 or so but I'm sure if it's a little more he won't mind. I mentioned the Emu-0202 to him but I had a similar thread and I read someone saying the 0404 catches on fire. He was looking at one from Mackie.

The only choice on a Mac (which is Core, not ASIO afaik) in that pricerange would be the Apogee Solo.

Saying that if he's working all ITB do you even need an external card on a MBP? The only reason I can think of is a higher headphone output level as I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that Core audio worked just fine on Macs.

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The solo is not a bad little unit but I don't think it's terrific value as it's every limited.

You should look at the Echo Range, specifically the Audio Fire 2 or 4.

Stay the fuck away from EMU. Just think of Rodd Hull - you know what happens if you get too close to EMU.

Seriously, they're shit quality (just a tiny step up from their other brand soundblaster), the drivers aren't great and I have literally seen one catch fire when we installed it in to a PC (yes, I posted that).

I picked up my Echo AF4 for $175 second hand (I did get kind of lucky though so you should expect to pay around 200-250 second hand) but it;s been absolutely flawless and fantastic value. Decent mic pres and midi built in as well, not to mention a very simple patch mixer/router included in the software.

i've had this multiface 2 sitting around with pcmia card. If anyone has this which i know is kinda rare, well i will sell it to you for nothing, 1400 soundcard used twice for like well name a price. Unless i don't like you. If i do like you, and you actually have this interface and you arne't jsut saying you do to get something for free ie send me a picture of your setup and i will actually give it to you,

thats how awesome i am. And no i don't run some like underground black market for stolen goods. People tend to pay in cash or equipment and since alot of people get alot of stuff for free, they tend to just pass it off to who ever is there. I tend to always be there.

The funniest is that all these endorsed people don't actually use the products. They say they o but really, they just use them as stocking stuffers. My boss got that new arturia synth and was upset because like, he had to out of courtesy call the company and say thanks and get a quote on how awesome it is. Never opened the box. Endorsements are such a crock,

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Last edited by Looney4Clooney on Feb-11-2012 at 22:34

a quick search will give you the answer but ill help you: Echo Audiofire 4.

quote:

Originally posted by clay a quick search will give you the answer but ill help you: Echo Audiofire 4.

this guy right here ^ total newb

Thanks a lot everyone!

He has a Mackie Blackjack, but would that perform as a sound card, where you can fire up Ableton and choose it in the preference as ASIO? The Emu0202 I had was USB and it would let me choose asio with really low latency. this looks like it's just for recording.

quote:

Originally posted by tehlord The only choice on a Mac (which is Core, not ASIO afaik) in that pricerange would be the Apogee Solo. Saying that if he's working all ITB do you even need an external card on a MBP? The only reason I can think of is a higher headphone output level as I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that Core audio worked just fine on Macs.

Latency... and ASIO.

Last edited by Evolve140 on Feb-15-2012 at 03:54

CoreAudio is the native audio API on OS X, not ASIO. Any class-compliant USB device should work to the fullest potential of the hardware, in which I mean buffer sizes (latency) and sample rates, out of the box essentially. Extra features such as system wide volume control may require vender supplied drivers.

I'm not as familiar with Firewire as far as drivers go. The USB board has a standard for Audio devices, among many other devices types, I'm not sure about Firewire. That being said, Firewire will most likely give you the least amount of latency simply due to how the protocols work. USB has an "at best" latency of 10ms each way just to transfer data from the USB port to the device. Plus being CPU bound and a shared channel means high CPU usage or a saturated USB hub can cause additional delay or drop outs.

Finally, yes, the Blackjack should show up as a regular CoreAudio device that you can pick ins and outs for in any DAW. You could just plug it in and see that for yourself. I'm not sure that would make a difference with latency or quality over the internal sound card of the MBP though. I think mine supports 24bit/96khz natively and is connected through either the PCIe bus, thus in theory giving it less bus related delay. The port is noisy and unbalanced though if that's a concern.

If you're not familiar with OS X and audio devices, you can plug in the Blackjack and go to System Preferences -> Sound -> [Output] and see the device listed. You can also go to /Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup and from the Audio Devices panel (under the window Menu) can select the default output in input channels, bitrate, samplerate and finally channel gains if supported.