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Audiofanzine FR
Published on 12/05/08 at 09:10
(Originally written by purplehaze91/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
This is my first "high-quality" sound card. I tried to use the integrated sound card of my PC but I gave up because the latency was much too high.
Considering it was my first sound card I decided to take it easy on the bill. Depending on the performance I'll decide what will be the next step...
Good manufacturing quality and nice plastic housing considering the price.
PC: Q6600 CPU, 2 GB Ram, SATA 500 GB HDD, integrated RealTek sound card on a GigaByte motherboard.
Instrument: Electric guitar directly connected to the Fastrack, guitar amp with effects section and line output directly connected to the Fastrack.
UTILIZATION
Installation under VISTA 32 bit: I downloaded the drivers from M-Audio's website (version 5.10.0.5114), installed them and connected the FastTrack to the PC. It went smoothly.
Notice: I hadn't installed any other Fastrack drivers before.
If you did that Windows might use the old drivers instead of the new. To solve the problem, check the current driver version in the Windows device manager and click the update button in case it is necessary to change them. Then select manually the latest driver version.
The drivers also add a small program that runs automatically as soon as you start Windows. Double-click on the icon next to the system clock to adjust the buffer size (latency, from 128 to 1096 samples) and the sample rate (44.1 or 48 kHz).
I find the user's manual (12 pages) is comprehensive enough.
GETTING STARTED
The sound card comes with the M-Audio Session software. Download version 1.6.3 from M-Audio's website for the software to work under Windows Vista (otherwise you'll get a system error message).
I've had no problems up to this day (six months of use). I use this sound card in my home studio and as PC sound card.
OVERALL OPINION
Review to be updated...
This is my first "high-quality" sound card. I tried to use the integrated sound card of my PC but I gave up because the latency was much too high.
Considering it was my first sound card I decided to take it easy on the bill. Depending on the performance I'll decide what will be the next step...
Good manufacturing quality and nice plastic housing considering the price.
PC: Q6600 CPU, 2 GB Ram, SATA 500 GB HDD, integrated RealTek sound card on a GigaByte motherboard.
Instrument: Electric guitar directly connected to the Fastrack, guitar amp with effects section and line output directly connected to the Fastrack.
UTILIZATION
Installation under VISTA 32 bit: I downloaded the drivers from M-Audio's website (version 5.10.0.5114), installed them and connected the FastTrack to the PC. It went smoothly.
Notice: I hadn't installed any other Fastrack drivers before.
If you did that Windows might use the old drivers instead of the new. To solve the problem, check the current driver version in the Windows device manager and click the update button in case it is necessary to change them. Then select manually the latest driver version.
The drivers also add a small program that runs automatically as soon as you start Windows. Double-click on the icon next to the system clock to adjust the buffer size (latency, from 128 to 1096 samples) and the sample rate (44.1 or 48 kHz).
I find the user's manual (12 pages) is comprehensive enough.
GETTING STARTED
The sound card comes with the M-Audio Session software. Download version 1.6.3 from M-Audio's website for the software to work under Windows Vista (otherwise you'll get a system error message).
I've had no problems up to this day (six months of use). I use this sound card in my home studio and as PC sound card.
OVERALL OPINION
Review to be updated...