8 input audio interface, best deal, choice?

[suprosuperman]

Hi all

I was wondering about these multi input audio interface with multiple inputs for mics or guitar jacks, so you can sit down and jam and capture a couple of people playing all at once with even a bit of drums and record each of them onto their own track...

there are some budget minded products out their for arround 400 dollars that have ability to record 8 tracks at once onto 8 separate tracks at once.

So far the best deal seems to be the Line6 UX8, $499.99, and the Alesis io 26 , $399.00

anyone seen, heard or know of something better in this price range with as many inputs as 8,,,or more if it exists..

anyone have any opinions on the ones i mentioned above "cons" or "pros"...?????

thank in advance.
cheers.

[DerMetzgermeister]

That Alesis interface looks cool!
I don't know of other devices but if is of any help I have the UX8 and I love it. The advantage over the Alesis is that it has 2 instrument inputs and Line 6 Modeling that can be monitored with near-zero latency. It includes the VST plugin with models of guitar and bass amps and cabs, effects and mic preamps.

[SlimSter]

I have the Alesis IO26 and am still trying to decide how much i like it. It is my first real interface i've used with a computer so i don't really have anything to compare it to, but heres what i've learned about it so far.
First off it too has the 2 channels that you can switch to plug a guitar straight into, or they can be switched to plug microphones into.. It has a ton of other great features like phantom power on all 8 xlr channels, lightpipe conections, ADAT input and a MIDI input channel.
So it has a ton of features, if you are working with a lot of other equipment like midi devices and adat consoles you shouldn't run into too many drawbacks.
As far as actual recording goes with it. It works fine with Reaper on my computer. But sound quality seems to be lacking, maybe its just my lack of mixing skills or my "ok" micing skills. I can get pretty clean signals out of my io26 through my microphones when recording vocals straight into the mics and my guitar through my amplifier. But for my Shure sm57 mic i have to have the gain turned up a little past 9 and the mic has to be really close to the amp in order to capture a full spectrum of sound. I have read a few other people complaining about the mic preamps not being powerful enough.. On the other hand though my AKG Perception 100 condenser mic doesnt have to be turned up past 7 or 8 usualy.. so maybe its just my mics..
When i record straight into the guitar channel with my guitar I still need to turn the gain up to about 8/9 to in order to capture decent quality sound, but the only problem is when i turn in up past 7/8 i start picking up bad noise:/. I have tried a few things to get rid of the noise but it won't go away, so i have decided to stick with micing my amplifier since the sound quality is usualy better anyways....
I have recorded quite a few songs just to play around with while i figure out how best to use my IO26 and how to mix my songs after i record them. My songs sound really good while listening with headphones through the IO26, but after i render them with reaper into wav files they generaly will not play near as loud. Now this part could be all my fault since i am still learning how to mix and that can have a lot to do with how loud the final product comes out as but i don't know... I really want to hear what other people have produced using an IO26 to see what kind of potential it has. I can post some of what i have recorded using it so far, but i'll have to run home and grab the files so... i'll get those for you in a while and you can sample some product to help you decide

[bullshark]

If you need mobility, the Edirol FA-101 is a pretty good choice. The unit is made of sturdy aluminum, it's compact and light yet very sturdy; The overall latency is very good, so is sound quality (from both the AD/DA and pres), the driver is solid, has very good S/N ratio, it features direct monitoring and can be switched from buss power to included external PSU. I got mine for $374.00 Canadian, which makes it one of the lowest cost 10in/10out Firewire audio interface on the market. Oh, and it looks very sexy

On the minus side, you can't switch sample rate on the fly like most of the others, there's only one high Z input, the driver is minimalistic at the extreme (entirely devoid of any creature comfort that one usually take for granted), there's no facility to rackmount it and, like most, if not all, interface in this price range, the pres can get a bit noisy if pushed very hard.

[Baer]

I’ve got an iO26 as a more portable alternative to my RME FF800 for those situations where I don’t want to lug around the 60 lb rack. For the money I think it’s a great little unit. Quiet and sounds good; very flexible with lots of inputs and outputs and gain/level controls on everything. I had a little trouble getting a good one (search the forum for iO26) but I attribute that more to MusiciansFriend screwups than the iO26. It doesn’t provide extraordinary amounts of gain, but it is certainly as good as anything else in its price range. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it.

[SlimSter]

Here is what i recorded today with My IO26

http://www.myspace.com/gullove

I think the 2nd song turned out pretty clear and good..
But the mix on the 1st one gone away sucks... i'll probably delete when i make something else good, anyways hope these samples help...

[Sonic Vampire]

Tascam 1614 8mic pre's and 6 line ins (14 inputs) through USB 2

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ace?sku=245002

looks pretty cool, maybe in the near future for me

[Amberience]

I'd be weary of the IO26. Had one once, and I couldn't get it to work properly with the Dell laptop at the time. Nor did it work properly with my PC at the time, unless I turned the wireless off.

Point being; there's some very funny stuff going on in those drivers.

[drillbit]

I have had problems with the IO26 as well. Make sure you can return it if you have problems. I couldn't get it working with a Dell tower. When it did (for a day) it sounded super clean.

I have a new laptop and I'm looking for a reliable soundcard for it. The big catch is I am running Vista and I really would like to keep it for everyday stuff. So I'm looking for a soundcard that will give decent latencies with Vista. I like the new M-Audio Fast Track Ultra USB2 (8x8). I wonder if it actually works though.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...ltra-main.html

Probably asking for too much

[technogremlin]

Originally Posted by drillbit

I like the new M-Audio Fast Track Ultra USB2 (8x8). I wonder if it actually works though.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...ltra-main.html

I'm looking at another Fast Track Ultra myself:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...ra8R-main.html

[mpoirier]

Hi,

I am using the Alesis MultiMix8 Firewire and I like it. It's 4 preamps and 2 stereo in, etc. Have a look at the Alesis site.

Before, I used a Delta 1010 with a Soundcraft analog mixer. Too cumbersome...

This little mixer is very clean, it has effects and it is small! If you want to record small jams this would be useful.

The preamps are ok, using a SM57 and a Behringer B-1 with the 48v phantom on the mixer. The signal is much stronger than what I used to get with the 1010.

[Till]

My friend has the small version of that Alesis interface and it makes serious trouble with REAPER.

have you looked at the presonus firepod? does anybody here have any experience with that interface?

[Diogenes]

Originally Posted by Till

My friend has the small version of that Alesis interface and it makes serious trouble with REAPER.

have you looked at the presonus firepod? does anybody here have any experience with that interface?

I have the FirePod's little brother, the FireBox. It only has two pre's and a pair of line-ins plus S/PDIF input. For outs, it has six analog and S/PDIF.

The only problem I had was Presonus tech support and I could not get it to work AT ALL with my Compaq V2508M laptop. Even with the recommended Adaptec PCMCIA FW card. Go figure... It works with every other box I have plugged it into and works well. My son has it now and uses it on an HP laptop with Vista.

Since the FirePod is sort of the same family of products, I would expect it to be a nice unit as well.

You might want to be aware though, I have read that Presonus have extra buffers built-in that add a bit of latency. So if you need super low latency, it may not be the box for you. It's not been a problem for me though.

D

[simpsongb]

This is an incredibly common topic on all forums. I have the Alesis IO26, and have had it since it released last spring. I love the unit. I use Reaper exclusively. I have no purchased plugins, just freebees. I run Windows XP....

Now if you read enough you will find others who have had problems.....so go figure.

T top it off, I am using a generic firewire PCCard in a Lenovo laptop, since the laptop did not have a firewire port. The firewire card uses the VIA chipset for firewire.

I suspect you will want to buy from a local music reseller if you can...or make sure of the return ploicy wherever you buy.

For what its worth, the IO26 seems to have very nice sound...it has a turntable connection, ADAT, SPDIF...etc.....very flexible.

There are just too many choices...and no matter what you buy, in 6 months you will want more...

[Till]

Originally Posted by simpsongb

This is an incredibly common topic on all forums. I have the Alesis IO26, and have had it since it released last spring. I love the unit. I use Reaper exclusively. I have no purchased plugins, just freebees. I run Windows XP....

that's good news. disregard my comment, please!

[susbemol]

+1 for the FA-101. For all the reasons mentioned above. Certainly will be hard to beat for the money.

IMHO, you should avoid USB and only consider FireWire units.

[Erroneous]

I am a big fan of the Presonus firepod (now called the FP10 I think)... nice crystal clear preamps, sturdy enough to lug around to on-site sessions, pretty no-nonsense all around. Mostly it just works. (And, i've never tried, but apparently you can use it as a standalone 8-channel mic preamp, there are direct outs.)

BUT--- beware of motherboard chipset incompatibilities, they announced (after i'd struggled for a couple months) that it was incompatible with the motherboard of my computer (an amd shuttle i'd built out just for this). It still works, but only when the graphics display is set to fairly primitive levels-- no games for me. (Which means I get more music done, so it all works out ok).

[carbon]

Originally Posted by saulopv

IMHO, you should avoid USB and only consider FireWire units.

Why?
A gut feeling or a specific shortcoming?

[Winfield]

For what it's worth, I was in a very similar situation as the OP a little month ago. I ended up buying a firestudio project (450ish $) and so far it works just fine on my system -Reaper in XP.

simpsongb wrote: "...and no matter what you buy, in 6 months you will want more..." Well within 14 days I'm wondering if I ever will have the option to daisychain the FSP (some talk of a driver update).

My advice would be to really consider something you could daisy chian if/when you in 6 months want more!

-W

[technogremlin]

Originally Posted by saulopv

IMHO, you should avoid USB and only consider FireWire units.

afaik, USB2 has higher data-troughput than Firewire.

[tspring]

My son has an Alesis IO26, and I have an Edirol FA-101, so I have worked quite a bit with both.

They both work very well with our Dell laptops. The main difference in use is that the I026 has eight microphone pre-amps, whereas the FA-101 only has 2. So you have to have external pre-amps for channels 3-8 of the FA101 if you need lots of mics. One more small item: the Alesis has two headphone outputs, which is sometimes convenient.

Also the Alesis has level meters for each channel, so you can set levels more easily in a multi-mic session. I have not noticed differences in latency, stability, or sound. They both sound great to my very non-golden ears.

From what I have read on this forum, there does seem to be something about the IO26 that makes initial setup fail on some systems, but I have no idea what might cause this. If it works on initial installation it's a pretty good performer.

Midi works a treat on both systems, but there are lots of features that we don't use that might be of interest to others. Our use of the systems is pretty basic, so I can't tell you anything about use with ADAT/SPDIF/word clocks, etc.
T

[nerdfactormax]

Originally Posted by technogremlin

afaik, USB2 has higher data-troughput than Firewire.

"Although high-speed USB 2.0 runs at a higher signaling rate (480 Mbit/s) than FireWire 400, typical USB PC-hosts rarely exceed sustained transfers of 280 Mbit/s, with 240 Mbit/s being more typical. This is likely due to USB's reliance on the host-processor to manage low-level USB protocol, whereas FireWire delegates the same tasks to the interface hardware." - if you believe in wikiwisdom

I use a Delta 1010LT PCI card. 8 analodue in, 2 mic pre's, no phantom power. I use a cheap crusty mixer as my mic pre's (and gain control). I'm in the process of designing a pcb for a set of 8 mic pre's with phantom. I hate to think how much time i've already spent on it. My justification is that I'll build it into a 1U rack along with 4 headphone amps with some basic mixing (and maybe direct monitoring) to become the sexiest piece of diy gear i own (and forcing my self tuning guitar to second place)

[technogremlin]

Originally Posted by nerdfactormax

"Although high-speed USB 2.0 runs at a higher signaling rate (480 Mbit/s) than FireWire 400, typical USB PC-hosts rarely exceed sustained transfers of 280 Mbit/s, with 240 Mbit/s being more typical. This is likely due to USB's reliance on the host-processor to manage low-level USB protocol, whereas FireWire delegates the same tasks to the interface hardware." - if you believe in wikiwisdom

Great info, thanks for that. My PC has firewire as well, but I get this nagging feeling that the firewire interface might 'delegate' tasks to the main CPU as well, it being an onboard option of the mobo in my machine. I could dive into this more, but I already set my sights on a USB2 interface (the one I mentioned earlyer in this topic). Besides, in my case I don't think I will ever record more then 4 channels at once. I just want the inputs as I like neat cabling

[susbemol]

Originally Posted by carbon

Why?
A gut feeling or a specific shortcoming?

Simply bandwidth... (and experience)

[susbemol]

Originally Posted by technogremlin

afaik, USB2 has higher data-troughput than Firewire.

See above.

[norbury brook]

I bought and sent back an alesis io 26, it wouldnt sync to my ADA8000 via adat and there's no word clock so I just got a refund.


MC

[hardplay]

Originally Posted by suprosuperman

Hi all


there are some budget minded products out their for arround 400 dollars that have ability to record 8 tracks at once onto 8 separate tracks at once.

anyone seen, heard or know of something better in this price range with as many inputs as 8,,,or more if it exists..

If you do serious audio and want some advanced routing and don't want to sell your soul i reccomend the Terratec EWS88MT,it's the first version of the Phase 88. I got one on ebay for only 150 euro's and that's a bargain, i've always seen them on sale up there !

The EWS88MT is a fantastic solution, it has 8 channel (RCA) analog I/O with 24-bit, 96 kHz , digital in and out, an indipendent windows sound system solution, a breakout box and many other top notch features, another great thing is that you can cascade another 3 cards under a master/slave configuration.

Last but not least it has ASIO 2.0, GSIF Multiclient support and Reaper had no problem with my two master and slave ews88mt cards

follow the link and read the review:

http://www.pcrecording.com/ews88review.htm

[AME06063]

You're all paying WAY too much. Check out the Multicord USB interface....

affordablemusicalendeavors.net23.net

[nerdfactormax]

umm... 7?
Everyone knows that odd numbers mess up the feng shui of a studio.
A few tips:
-you may want to actually say what bitrate/frequency your product is cabable of.
-Are the inputs balanced/unbalanced?
-can multiple modules be used concurrently?
-does it work with any software that regular people use?
-purple makes me want to vomit
-use a tripod if you can't hold the camera still.
You've obviously spent a lot of time developing your products. A couple more minutes to think about web presentation/content/layout/etc would be worthwhile.

If you're going to post on the reaper forum, you could at least say whether your product works with reaper.

[daal]

As for me, I got a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and it's quite a good interface. Like all of them I think, it has pros and cons.

In the pros, you got 8 jack/xlr, the preamps are very clear, the routing/mixing options are really impressive (can create 8 different mixes to route to 8 differents or same outputs etc.).
In the cons, the buttons look cheap, the software part is quite complicated (but powerful), given VST are quite useless.

Latency is well under xp (3-5 ms), in vista it's hard to go under 6.5ms.

For the price (400€), i'm really really happy with it. I'm producing a cd with it and reaper and for now it goes well. On vista it's a lot more stable than my previous firebox.

[robg]

For firewire (which, as discussed above, and elsewhere ad nauseum) gives the best throughput & latency), MOTU & RME FireFace are the way to go.

I love my MOTU 8pre.

[AME06063]

> umm... 7. Everyone knows that odd numbers mess up the feng shui of a studio.
Heh, yeah I know, it seems random. The story behind that is that the USB circuitry is based around a USB hub controller chip, which for some reason is always a max of 7 channels, not 8. Hopefully the functionality of the product will make up for the lack of studio feng shui

> A few tips:
Absolutely! Always open to constructive criticism.

>you may want to actually say what bitrate/frequency your product is cabable of.
It has a max sample rate of 48Khz. Not top of the line, but not too shabby. Thanks for that though, that really should be on the website.

>Are the inputs balanced/unbalanced?
Wow, I left a lot of stuff out of the product description on the website...they're 1/4 inch unbalanced. props once again for an important detail I overlooked

>can multiple modules be used concurrently?
Theoretically, yes, but only if your computer has the USB bandwidth and system resources to support 14 audio devices simultaneously. I'm going to do some system requirement benchmarks on the units I have, see if I can get 2 units running on one computer, and get back to you on that one.

>does it work with any software that regular people use?
I don't know how you define "regular" but it works with any multi-track recording software that allows the simultaneous recording of multiple audio devices. I personally use N-track, my band's drummer has the package from adobe, adobe producer I believe it's called. But yeah Cakewalk or any of those mainstream multi-trackers will work with this.

>purple makes me want to vomit
I suppose I should do a study to find out what the most common favorite color of musicians is so that I can increase my earning potential.

>use a tripod if you can't hold the camera still.
well, I CAN hold it still, but not after 5 cups of coffee like I had right before I took the picture.

>If you're going to post on the reaper forum, you could at least say >whether your product works with reaper.
Wow. I'm really beginning to feel the sting here. I don't even know what reaper is yet. I stumbled upon this forum in an opposite fashion of the way you apparently did, looking for support for reaper, whatever it may be. I saw the logo and figured reaper was just the name of an audio equipment forum.
Ok let's see....yup. This would work fine with Reaper. Pretty much any standard multitrack recording software will do the trick.

[nerdfactormax]

Sorry if my response seemed a bit sharp, but we're not used to blatant self-promotion here in reaper-land. As a general rule, the inhabitants are a little more modest.

while you're here, a few more points:

is it 16bit or 24bit?
if two more modules are used simultaneously, is there any way to clock them from the same source?

[pixeltarian]

Tascam FW-1082
cheap. decent. has motorized faders. yum yum.

[cootcraig]

No recording with it yet. I'm hopeful that this will be useable given the $400 price. I'm a newbie recordist working with some local musicians that are not otherwise getting recorded. I'm also switching from Audacity to Reaper for my next session. The bottom line is I read a number of reports from happy users and can't afford any more right now. By the way, I'm running Vista 64.

[Magoostus]

For $200, the delta1010lt is a pretty good bargain. I put 3 of these cards in my computer for 24 channels. but sadly, your going to have to find your own set of mic-pre's

have any of you guys used the Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 16-channel Interface+Mixer? i know its not cheap, but its feature list is astonishing

[battla]

if you only need two of your eight inputs at a time to have preamps behind them, consider the emu 1616m over the ux8 or the io26. for about the same price - i they sell for $400, but the cardbus ones are getting harder to find. you'll get:

1) superior pres (just 2 of them) - the xtc is a pretty decent all rounder if quiet and transparent is what you want - they're very versatile. they're vastly superior to the preamps on the io26. i actually like some of line6's vocal preamp models (blush), and i'm sure the ux8 comes with all of them, so i guess that's a taste thing.

2) vastly superior conversion. unless your gonna spring for big budget pro adac , the 1616m is amongst the best sounding interfaces out there. the line6 and alesis stuff isn't even in the same class. personally i prefer what i hear from the 1616m to more expensive prosumer kit from rme and motu.

3) pci or cardbus - either way with the 1616m you've got a much better audio interface than any usb2.0/1394 option. pci and pcmcia are lower latency higher bandwith io than usb2.0 or firewire no matter what anyone tells you. all usb/firewire soundcards are kludges built on a standards that were never intended for realtime high bandwith applications like audio.

obviously 1 and 2 are very subjective opinions, but you asked for input so there's my 2 cents.

[forgotten g]

From Someone who sells all kinds of interfaces I would say be cautious with the alesis I have had a ton of customers with compatability issues. Right now I think the best option on the market is M-Audio Profire 2626. This piece is light years ahead of the old M-Audio stuff. The D/A converters are the same chipset that RME uses in their pieces. I have two of these and they have been trouble free with Reaper.

[AME06063]

Sorry if my response seemed a bit sharp, but we're not used to blatant self-promotion here in reaper-land. As a general rule, the inhabitants are a little more modest.

Yeah, I was afraid it would come off as an advertisement. However, if people in the forum are in a thread where they are looking for something, and someone tells them that there is a currently un-advertised product available, I didn't really think it would be offensive, more helpful.

The point of my business is not to make money hand over fist. It covers parts, my time (a lot of it), and it gets the bills paid. Other than that, my interests lie in helping people out and giving them a break instead of charging insane markup. Sorry if I came across as pushing my product.

is it 16bit or 24bit?
16 at 48 khz, so the audio quality is not as high-end as a lot of other interfaces.

if two more modules are used simultaneously, is there any way to clock them from the same source?
this is something that I'll have to look into as well. I believe this would be dependent on the software, but as far as an actual test to see if it actually functions will require me to finish building a unit so I can run two units simultaneously just to be sure.

thanks once again for your questions and comments

[Vinz Clortho]

I use an Echo Layla24 for studio and live recording, and an Echo Gina3G in my home computer for mixing. Nice clean converters.