Cycling 74 » Topic: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

[OT] portable multichannel interface advice

Brad Garton — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:00:32 +0000

Hey gang –

I’m looking at a smallish/portable multichannel firewire interface
for my MacBook. These seem to fit the need (and budget):

Edirol FA 101
M-Audio 1814

I’m also considering the Alesis io 26 (it’s an external mixer
interface). One other possibility is to daisy-chain a couple of
Presonus Inspire 1394 boxes, but that seems a little flaky.

Anybody have any experience with any of these? thanks-in-advance…

brad

http://music.columbia.edu/~brad

Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

nick rothwell / cassiel — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:32:23 +0000

On 26 Apr 2008, at 18:00, Brad Garton wrote:
> These seem to fit the need (and budget):
>
> Edirol FA 101
> M-Audio 1814

I’ve used the Edirol units and like them; I have a somewhat biased
distrust of anything from M-Audio.

I’m not sure if the Edirol can deliver a separate headphone mix for
cueing – this is the main reason I went for the MOTU UltraLite (more
generally, to have the CueMix system).

– N.

Nick Rothwell / Cassiel.com Limited
http://www.cassiel.com
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Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

kjg — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:47:25 +0000

I have an RME FireFace 400 and I like it a lot. Sound and build quality are very good. It also has an very flexible, very low latency mixing system built in (TotalMix).

regards,
kjg

Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

Patrick Delges — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:02:05 +0000

On 26-avr.-08, at 19:00, Brad Garton wrote:

> Hey gang –
>
> I’m looking at a smallish/portable multichannel firewire interface for
> my MacBook. These seem to fit the need (and budget):
>
> Edirol FA 101
> M-Audio 1814
>
> I’m also considering the Alesis io 26 (it’s an external mixer
> interface)

I wasn’t happy with the alesis interface I tried in the past (not this
one, it was a small usb keybaord with audio i/o), but I hope it changed
since that time. I’m very happy with my motu ultralite.
BTW, I have a m-audio 1410 running 12 hours a day for an installation
since 2 years (or is it 3?) and it’s still running.

Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

btovsky — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:03:43 +0000

i’ve used the m-audio firewire 410 as my main live audio interface
for several years, and generally i have been happy with the sound and
operability of the unit, plus it was inexpensive. not sure if it is
made anymore. like others, i do have some minor quibbles with the m-
audio drivers – there have been some odd bugs over the years – but it
has never failed during a show and is pretty robust overall.
best
b

On Apr 26, 2008, at 1:00 PM, Brad Garton wrote:

> Hey gang –
>
> I’m looking at a smallish/portable multichannel firewire interface
> for my MacBook. These seem to fit the need (and budget):
>
> Edirol FA 101
> M-Audio 1814
>
> I’m also considering the Alesis io 26 (it’s an external mixer
> interface). One other possibility is to daisy-chain a couple of
> Presonus Inspire 1394 boxes, but that seems a little flaky.
>
> Anybody have any experience with any of these? thanks-in-advance…
>
> brad
> http://music.columbia.edu/~brad
>

bruce tovsky
http://www.skeletonhome.com

“Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.”
Philip K. Dick

Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

jln — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:38:50 +0000

Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

Nano59 — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:05:08 +0000

im looking at getting the focusrite saffire pro 10 i/o to use with max and recording.

Anyone know anything about this ditty?

Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

Marcos — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:24:29 +0000

I have the firebox, works nicely here with my ibook.

Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

mj.pedersen — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:29:33 +0000

I have a focusrite saffire pro 26 i/o – very happy with it – clean sounding
mic pre’s – plays happily with max- not exactly small, but it’s certainly
portable – I took it to india for a recording project, and it was very handy
to have 8 channels of mic pre running on bus power.
I’d seriously recommend you consider the 26 i/o over the 10 i/o – I only
paid about $100 extra and I can already see the option of ADAT expansion is
going to be handy.

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 7:05 AM, Toiletmuck
wrote:

>
> im looking at getting the focusrite saffire pro 10 i/o to use with max and
> recording.
>
> Anyone know anything about this ditty?
>

Re: [OT] portable multichannel interface advice

zoid — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:23:00 +0000

i have the m-audio 1814 and it annoys the hell out of me. it’s really pernickety about firewire issues (not hot-pluggable, sometimes drops out if laptop goes to sleep). also, it has 8 analog inputs and 4 analog outputs, so the extra in/outs are only available through the ADAT option, which is a pain if you don’t have a digital desk or some such device.
i should have got the Motu ultralight instead. i think it has 8ins and outs,and pretty much the same size. and cheaper.