All user reviews for the M-Audio Firewire Solo

What characteristics have motivated your choice?
Firewire, the price!


With which instruments or systems (console, preamp, DTD ...) and you use the connection with what? Connected to the Firewire port of the Macbook, HS80M output (Jack 6.5 sound card side, XLR side monitors)


For what purpose? What is your config (Motherboard / CPU / Ram / Disk ,...)?
Home studio, connected to a Macbook 2007, 2.16Ghz, 2GB RAM, 160DD, MACOS X.6.7

UTILIZATION

The drivers are stable?
RAS, even at low latency.


What software do you use most often?
Logic Pro 9, Ableton Live 8.


They are often updated?
No idea, I have recently.

GETTING STARTED

The installation is done it without problems?
Yes, under MacOsX we insert the CD, it installs, it works.

The general configuration is easy?
Very simple, the software is fairly succinct.


Have you experienced any incompatibilities?
Not at the moment.


The manual is clear and sufficient?
Clearly yes, plenty enough ...

OVERALL OPINION

For how long have you been using it?
Two days ...


Did you try many other models before getting this one?
That incorporated into the BCD3000 which I used to do anything other than sound card backup (Even though quite bulky as sound card if you know what I mean ...).

What thing do you like most/least about it?

+ The price (199 euros at Energyson)
+ Firewire
+ Fairly compact
+ Power Phantom
+ Quality of preamp
+ Audio Quality

- Unable to use the connector on the front in addition to the rear facade
- No balance on Outputs
- The simple design (which can also do its charm)


What is your opinion about the value for the price?
Good.


Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice?
Everything depends on the number of In / Out that is desired, it good enough for me personally.

See other reviews

UTILIZATION

The drivers are stable with my faith magix music studio (versio sill samplitude): Reading April 6 VSTi + 4 10 audio tracks and recording a stereo track over this small world.

Little or no latency.

But it was the only crouchcougnasse .... MIDI tracks have a base latency inoperative and "unchangeable"!
Suffice to say that recently prs 6 years that I use, I abandoned the use of the south. Fortunately, VSTi work well and are of better quality than midi sounds: indeed, they operate on the principle of sound and suddenly sank all cool without latency.
May be my PC config but addresses another problem ...

The days are made expressly studied and operate GENERALLY.

GETTING STARTED

Then the other point is wrong with the beast: for it makes little 3 or 4 manip unconventional, bah ... the PC to know more, or that it is the sound card!
Example of manipulation: I tried my sound card on my new macbook pro and when I tried plugging the firewire on the PC, the card DTECT silent but impossible to AUse as map basic sound (mp3 or wav file playback on media player, more sounds systm). Fortunately, magix still running with.

Today is deuxime has happened to me once and the first time I have to format my BCAN as far to say that I spend some days in any reinstall PC and I'm starting to want me dbarrasser my m-audio.

OVERALL OPINION

6 years that I use. This is my first sound card.
I did not change gear by lack of budget.

I try to remain objective despite my msaventures which are related certainly raise the use of PCs IN GENERAL (config too DIFFERENT same type on a PC) but I 'm really time I lose because of drivers who do not always work according to the BCAN connected.

Today I would look may be to another brand as M-Audio because of these concerns but they propose the installation of power for not very expensive and when it works, it works well.

GOZ 'What

Purchased in order to make the taking of good quality and rere at home: guitar via DI in AmpliTube
taken acoustic micro + di
taken a few voice
for use in portable stereo recording

preamps are excellent for the price and collect fairly
HI-Z is a blessing to play with the amp simulation style or AmpliTube guitar rig ... and it is indispensable

acien on my config (Pro Xeon Dual-generation S604 SURT pc-dl + 2 GB RAM) I had to go back many buffers to mix without problems

with the new config (on p5wdh E8400 + 4 GB ram) I play and I do not lag up the buffers when the project is already very busy: good point.

It is a perfect tool for msusiciens soloists, guitarists singers, nomadic or not you can make recording at home and send your tracks to the studio without getting burned by the sound engineer for the preamps are very good.

I now feel a boundary with the XLR only because my skills were better that 5 years ago I feel the need to refine my acoustic and taken to use several microphones.

The other drawback is that the headphone output is driven by the same knob that monitor outputs: clock at night, fancy a bit of his I plug my headphones j sends the high impedance level and there ..... aaarg my monitors that I had forgotten to turn off wake the whole house ... and it is especially peinible damage to the mix when you switch from headphones to monitors.
So many small console routed quality essential.

The big downside is the lack of midi interface. If you are equipped with a USB keyboard but do not worry if your keyboard dude comes home with his gear or you need a live sync you should invest in an external interface which significantly reduces the side nomad machine ...

UTILIZATION

I'll respond to some opinions that talk about problems with the drivers: the firewire card (which also supports the PSU) is not hot-pluggable, so it is normal that after a bet Standby or re-connection of the card it is no longer recognized by the system.

but frankly that takes the risk of seeing his project planting in the making with his standby in windows activated??

The updates are regular.

Buffer adjusted to 128 samples I work with 4 ms latency without problem.

GETTING STARTED

Installation is not very clear: we must let the software install multiple components and wait for Windows to recognize them and you often have to try several times even if you always follow the same procedure.

OVERALL OPINION

So I used it and it made me so many services that would be hard to note too severely.

To have worked on 410 of the same brand more upscale, I confirm that the audio quality is identical and very good.

The high input impedance Instrument is a blessing and is essential for direct take on pain of being left with a sound all rikiki.

Think twice before buying these two points:

- I'm fairly sure that jaume need more than one XLR input?
- I am sure never need MIDI?

... And make your choice.

The price / quality ratio is excellent, especially on the second hand market. The companion

(Originally written by elco7/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
Instrument and mic source signals.

SPDIF in/out, headphone out, 1/4" line out

48v phantom power

Very sturdy die-cast housing

Firewire

UTILIZATION

During installation Windows will warn you that the software is unsigned. Click on accept.

Shut down your computer, connect the Firewire cable and try to configure the Asio driver.

System crash.

Try again.

The update was not compatible with Windows XP in September 2008... I don't know why!

Three system crashes within one year, two successful updates and one update I didn't understand....

GETTING STARTED

Firewire is perfect when you don't want to share a USB port already in use.

I use it at home: good sound quality, easy-to-use interface, sturdy housing... It makes a good impression on other musicians. I've recorded tons of short demos with it. I loved it in the beginning and had no compatibility nor driver problems.

Notice: the clock is sometimes synchronized with synch software like palm or dictaphone... and then you can't make music anymore.

OVERALL OPINION

Mine is one year old.

I did a full cleanup of my computer and I never touched this device again. It works, I just have to reinstall it along with Cubase but I don't feel like doing it!

I'm tempted to say that the preamps don't count as a feature, if they don't work well. Kind of annoying since I was considering that as a feature when i bought it...

Price paid: 200 and change USD

UTILIZATION

I had a hard time installing it on my windows xp system, i think mainly because i've been avoiding the sp2 update. I was able to copy the needed files out of my girlfriends laptop and eventually install it fine though. The unit itself works like a charm, and the software control panel is cute and works very well.

GETTING STARTED

It's not low-quality in a needs repair sense, but I'm a little bit annoyed at how it handles the firewire interface. I was under the impression that firewire was "hot-swappable" like usb, and have been able to do that with other things. Not so for this... if it loses power or is unplugged while you're system is on, you will crash instantly. Additionally, it has an extra firewire pass-through on the back. Cool I thought, and plugged in my ipod to transfer some new tracks to it. Everything freezes when you do that. Can't even use the other firewire port on the computer itself when using this soundcard!!! What's the point of the extra port on the back of the unit???

OVERALL OPINION

The output is great, as is the input from the line-in. The mic and instrument preamps are seeming kind of weak though... although i haven't given them too much of a shot.

All this aside, I can't help but love the thing. I really just got it for the low-latency, which it delivers (between 5 and 8 ms usually). That alone has me feeling all mushy towards the thing. The super clean input and outputs also tend to make my heart race sometimes...

Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
Posted by: elevated ( 3-, 2006)