All user reviews of 4/5 for the RME Audio Fireface 800

The characteristics that motivated my choice are quality preamps, stable drivers and possible extension with ADAT.

I use it with a mac book pro, and four additional amps Fireface Quadmic

I use it for recording (up to 12 tracks for the moment) and mix (routing the 10 tracks on a Soundcraft M12)

UTILIZATION

The drivers are stable, no problems in 2 years of intensive use. Nothing to say about updating drivers, RME clearly does not seem to be the kind of box that abandons its customers once the paid invoice.
I use Logic in macosx and it is stable nothing to say, that my not let go once during the same live recording of two continuous hours 12 tracks.

At the latency .... I usually drive directly through the internal mixer of the card feeder for returns, and a priori the latency is very close to 0. For routing through the DAW .... I do not know I do not use.

GETTING STARTED

Easy installation, easy config general, damn good, and really complete.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 2 years, I test PreSonus interfaces (digimax 8 and Focusrite) and stability level, overall quality, and quality preamps Fireface than justifies the additional investment. With the experience I do it again this choice without hesitation.

I travaiille logic on a mac pro and I needed at the time to record 20 tracks simultaneously. This card was the best value I found at the time. With some additional purchases (2 OCTOPRE focusrite and clock) I piu reach my goals.
This is a good Swiss army knife audio level, stable with 4 preamps correct that color the sound slightly but it is very clean.

UTILIZATION

The drivers are very stable, I've had no problems with. We must dive in to understand their system, but once it is understood ca roule alone. This is also in my opinion a future standard interface with their MADI RME uses the same software.
I was able to record up to 23 tracks simultaneously in 24 bits/44.1khz
Be careful if you want to save in higher frequencies is no longer access to the same number of tracks ...

GETTING STARTED

the manual is clear, easy installation, no incompatibility problem ...

OVERALL OPINION

I used more than 5 years, I had tried edirol, value for money and motus I found much more interesting fireface 800 for the needs I had at the time.
What I liked most usability, compatibility, a small laboratory vra audio walking.
What I liked least not much ...
If I changed it to improve the quality of analog / nnumérique not on this model at the level of systems digidesign or metric halo apogee but obviously it is not in the same budget ....

Purchased primarily for making digital sound in concert. Used with a custom made console with 6 inputs, microphones Neumann and Schoeps, MSI laptop with i5 processor, Seagate Barracuda 1TB external HDD and firewire connection via Express Card LaCie

Rating: 9

UTILIZATION

Excellent stability. Used with Samplitude 11.3. Few updates, with very low latency 256 samples. Max number of simultaneous recording tracks: 10.

Rating for this item: 9

GETTING STARTED

No problem installing via the CD or to install RME website. No incompatibility. The manual English / German is very clear, but beware TotalMix can dérouter.Notation for this item: 8

OVERALL OPINION

How long have you been using: I used it for 15 months to my fullest satisfaction. I tried 2 other models before I decide, and Echo Audio Focusrite.

What is so special that you like most and least: the Firewire connection

Very good value for money, especially preamps built. If it again (and I did) I would buy the UFX rather for its USB connection.

Rating: 9

Without special knowledge and after reading the forum in the opinion of "experts" seem to be onboard components of quality. To the ear, the sound reproduction is identical to the sound that comes out of my synths.

UTILIZATION

Remember not crash except after installing an express card capricious. This is a crucial point to watch at the time of purchase of the Fireface 800 to connect it to the PC without any problem.
IT Chiset recommended and it is not rubbish!
Driver therefore very stable.
Digichek is capricious since I switched to Windows 7.A update is online .......... see for a correction.

GETTING STARTED

Nothing special for who knows how to use his PC and also handle the installation from the Windows Program Manager.

OVERALL OPINION

Honestly just read the forum and chat with the audio connoisseur to understand that this interface is a very good quality / price ratio.
Make a purchase with your eyes closed if you want a homestudio equipped with a sound card at the border of the world pro. Attention, however firewire 800 port to install on the PC.

The reputation of the brand and the use of RME cards from friends has greatly motivated the choice of sound card for my home studio.

I had a lot of entries for racks and micro synth, low latency software and a management processor to release a little computer.

And of course the highest quality sound to hear as clearly as possible faults mixing with my monitor speakers and have fun on all types of music.

UTILIZATION

I had problems on PC. Freezait sound after a few seconds randomly despite the precautions taken and the readings to anticipate forums! In short, this is the coup that gave me Mac. And then no problem, it works nickel. I'm running Mac OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.

The card has been tested on different software Audacity, Cubase Le, Live 8, Sibelius 7, Harmony Assistant, Logic, Renoise. It is rather amazing as quality. Level latency, we do not even talk. I often rule the buffers between 128 and 256 according to the most ambitious projects without a crack and I do not have mac pro, just a single iMac.

On a project 16 tracks Audio + Midi, with 4 occurrences Kontakt open, 3 Eq and Reverb effects, I have a latency of 5 ms input and output because I usually work in 44 Khz to not take up too much space disk. But the higher the frequency the card, the more latency decreases. A 96Khz I drops below 3ms input and just above 3ms output. The processor is held at 10%.

The drivers are updated regularly even if it is not instantaneous. In the year, you are almost sure to have the update for the following operating system but it may take 3 to 6 months.

GETTING STARTED

Worry-free installation. The drivers are easily found on the RME site and packages are installed easily on Mac.

I'm a little more reluctant about their software management card. It is probably improvable. Nothing to say about the "Fireface Settings" allowing you to choose different card options: SPDIF frequency, on / off the phantom power supplies on 4 XLR inputs on the front, on / off effect on the instrument input 1 facade (Drive, Speaker emulation and limit), choice of taking into account the inputs and outputs (eg there are two entries both 1.7 and 8, we suddenly chooses to activate the inputs 1,7,8 Facade or 1,7,8 entries from the rear of the rack or two).

on the other hand, their software "Fireface mixer" is not great in my opinion. I preferred instead of many I / O routing virtuellesun simplified its internal computer says "Playback", that is commonly known on the other cards, the "Full duplex". That is to say, its just consider the Internet or any player as INPUT and not as an output but nobody thinks to do that. So, it is necessary to use another kind Soundflower routing software ... In fact, it is quite possible but not very easy to do. Yet there is a matrix system which enables such entry as output (note the closures of its time!)

Proper and comprehensive manual, nothing more.

OVERALL OPINION

If this is the connection format, firewire which is rare now on the machines, this is an outstanding menu. I recommend choosing a rather fireface UFX is USB 2 and has just one remote control option that simplifies the setup I mentioned above. But RME is definitely a career choice. Nothing to do with MOTU about the quality, I can assure you having heard the difference. The real competitors would rather Digidesign ...

Price / quality
I use this card (in duet with a TDIF-1) to animate my Home Studio.
I go out on a 16-track mixer Chandler Limited on 16 channels (analog)
Then I go into a compressor Manley before recording in stereo in my mac.

UTILIZATION

Very stable
I use mainly LOGIC
16 tracks
Very low latency
-> Filled

GETTING STARTED

I'm not super good at technical and I admit I sometimes qq trouble me out with the interface on the Mac to find my I / O But it is a matter of habit, that I do not necessarily make more history than his zik ...

OVERALL OPINION

Use for over 5 years.
I had many sound cards but not in this category, therefore difficult to compare in my set-up.
Very good price / quality ratio, of course find the opportunity

My choice was motivated by the reputation of RME, especially at the pre amps
I turned on the ff800 for the number of analog inputs
I have a small family-type PC with winXP ... lol
Purpose: to include models with good sound for local bands
One can "pair" up to three 800 ff, use it as a Standalone Mode pre amp and pre amp fuck what!

UTILIZATION

besides, it's the computer, no worries of drivers
I use it with Cubase
Latency level, the manual says between 3 and 0.068 ms following software, computer, connection, ... I'm not a pro, never had the idea to calculate it ...
The ff800 can simultaneously record 10 tracks analog, 16 track ADAT and SPDIF 2-track. Personally, I've only record from analog inputs, there's a routing system killer that I have not had the courage to really understand, I block a bit, but a friend who is not pro swears by it (TotalMix) routing for his studio.
entry and exit south are quite useful for updates stuff (my Line 6 M13 has become even more interesting)

GETTING STARTED

The only concern I had was an Acer PC ... compatibility problem Acer / RME parasites which created sharp style "cracking twiter," infernal brief
With an HP PC: no problem, there's just that I'm sick of PC, I switch to Mac vai
I have a manual in French, so I made my little brain work and I got there fast enough for what I wanted to do

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 5 years, this is my first real sound card, i like death to these pre amps (there, I think it's clear) and the autonomous mode is frankly quite handy for me (I requisitioned and used in small coffee-concerts)

The downside: it's been in, because then when you got a good map, you wanna bah good mics, you buy a good amp, a good instrument, you throw your PC to a Mac so you change your apps ...

In short music is a sports town, but must know what you want, the RME ff800, if I need a second, I'll buy it without hesitation

The Fireface 800 is a very powerful firewire interface, one of the reasons I chose to use it is because it has the fast technology for a firewire interface. It has real time sample rate lock and sample rat control during playback and recording. Most interface don’t have all of those features either, they mainly have one or the other. Also, I used it on a windows computer for service pack 2 and it worked great because they created an upgrade which fixed some of the lagging and not syncing problems.


UTILIZATION

The FireFace 800 has eight line inputs and outputs which was just enough for what we needed to use it for at the time. We used 7 of them though which left one open for something maybe we wanted to add on later down the road but at the time we only needed 7.


GETTING STARTED

Another great feature is the Steady clock technology. You can synch reference everything for the whole studio and session with it, I havent had another interface that could do that so it was big for me to be able to do that on this. It includes a midi option as well for those who use a lot of midi set ups.


OVERALL OPINION

There are other versions of the FireFace like the 400 mode which is a step down from the 800 if you are really arent in need of all the inputs and it can basically do the same thing as the Fireface 800 and its cheaper so check that one out if you don’t need this much inputs and outputs. Actually the 400 might be a better fit for a home studio that the 800 is because at home you really don’t have the need for that many ins and outs. But all in all the FireFace 800 is one of the best firewire interfaces out.

External firewire audio format 19 ", 1 unit.
The power supply is 220v intgre (ya right! I do not like the transformer).
Construction heals.
FireWire 800 or 400 (cable supplied)

Connectivity complte (I / O jack symtriques, asymtriques, preamp with XLR, HiZ simulator with drive and amp, ADAT x 2, SPDIF)

For CHARACTERISTICS compltes, see the website builder and doc (including diagrams on pages functional trs instructive possibilitsreles on the map)

Current config: Nvidia Chipset, Athlon 1800, 256MB RAM, 2xHDD 7200 (1 OS, 1 Data), so small config (Firewire Controller VIA PCI card)

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I use this card for the purchase principaly analog (I do not use it - for now - its ADAT ports, SPDIF, clock, etc. ..)

On this last point (I / O analog), I find that the markting RME is not extremely clear, in fact, I thought this card possdait 8 Analog I / O (including 4 XLR with preamp). It's not quite a. .. (Better actually)

In order:
analog in 1 - jack and jack symtrique the arrirre asymtrique forward SETTING THE gain (between HiZ) note the two inputs can operate at the same time. .. What has served me tell you, in the end it shares the same track on my squenceur ... certe. But at the connection, it is very practical because conncetiques UNUSED (branches, but no signal) off automatically below a certain threshold ... basically, you can have almost all branches of physical inputs (one front scraper, and a direct out behind the console and use one or the other without dplugger every time and especially without spurious signal when either produces no signal)
analog in 2 - jack the symtrique arrirre
analog in 3, 4, 5, 6 - jack the rear symtrique
analog in 7, 8 - symtrique jack or XLR with the rear preamp (power supply and 48v) forwards. Same functionality of using the connection between one, so for example if you plug a synth STREO arrirre the times and from time to time, you use microphones, you can use the XLR inputs without dpluguer drriere. In short, a sort of patch.
analog in 9, 10 - with XLR preamp (and 48v power supply) before the

Analog out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 - jack the rear symtrique
9.10 out analog - or even adjustable headphone headphone out using 9 / 10 (jack STREO non symtrique)

What about the preamp (level I would have AIM functionalist a low cut and a phase inverter in addition to the 48v power supply (by soft dclenchable is this dernire) and why not a limiting enclenchabe or not ... but between the good, the one eyeing the ct of DDIS caractstique of preamps and not sound card ... but all the same ...

Numrique level, I do not control much, but I think that both ADAT port are made for the future (at least for mine, and the future addition of such converters Kroener ADI8 or RME)
For these Functions: 8 / 10 (the preamp could be better provided)

UTILIZATION

Installation: 5 minutes no problem at all.
I have all of the same install the latest firmware and drivers in the crowd. So I work with the last date (date of the notice sf)

I met the incompatibility with Cool Edit Pro. So I'm looking for a soft more "pro" that works in ASIO (I currently test in samplitude demo ... the choice is not made)

The config for RME driver is very well done. All parameters are ditables in real time (buffer note, it is convenient). A global pitch numrique lends the DAW other instrument, ca can be useful for that registers trs old instrument ...

The manual is in English only (though I bought my card in France ...) is not a concern, but all the same ... a could be included.

GETTING STARTED

For the moment the drivers are stable.
I have not had it better to light the card before the PC ... From the unwavering stability.

I use this card for now with vesrion samplitude demo. I'll see later in the choice DEFINITIONS.
I get easily 5 ms latency on my little config. Not bad.

For now, I recorded 8 tracks simultanment (drums) and do a payback of 10/12 tracks.
Everything is going well for now. I do not force the plug either. Some EQ, dynamics and reverb or two to ...

Its level: it's clean! no background noise, the preamp is of good quality. They are dynamic and appear transparent (compared to a goldmike Tfpro and P2, I think respect the overall gear cohrence)
I see (or hear) a significant difference with my old config:
- Front console behringer preamp for mic -> Map Hoontech ADDA2000 -> behringer console -> Behringer speaker monitoring
- Now: SPL or TFPro preamp (or preamp Intgr map) -> RME Fireface -> Behringer speaker monitoring.

I agree there were too many changes at once to issue all the good points the card only (the path has been shortened, I no longer use the behringer console for playback) ... but the overall feel of pure sound skips to the ears ... in short I'm happy and I have the feeling of being without something more mid-range with my old config.

a note on the HiZ between simulator and drive and cabinet. It's convenient, may be of service, but all the same gadget ... to record an ide in 2 minutes (you click on two buttons in the software of the RME and it's done ...) but good for just less time and much more ism, soft as AmpliTube trash or do better ... much better ...

OVERALL OPINION

I had this card in December. So trsrcent.
However, need several months to apprcier its functionality and its quality.
It is hard to see on the reliability (contrustion physical drivers)

I could compare my Hoontech (I always) is clearly not the same CATEGORY (not the same price either)
The ratio quality price is good I think. It is a card much, but from direct competition (MOTU) She is doing well plutt (I / O supplmentaires note and better quality preamp seems there ...) quality in price, there are any quality Vant ... so you must be a certain amount to prs to audio with a reliable product that sounds as fine tuning plutt computer and concsions (compared to my Hootech)

In short, an investment, but I am satisfied with my purchase.
J'espre did not make another choice of sound card before many years (I plan on notemment between ADAT supp)

For the price, a regret, a software bundle could well apprciable t (compared to the Digidesign 02 Rack for example) ... I do not know me, a bundle version of Sonar or Samplitude?

A completely professional grade interface. I track live instruments with Neumann M149 tube, AEA R84, RE20, Rode and modified Shure SM 57s , all in a real studio through high end tube pres and 1950s vintage mic pres etc... This interface has phenomenal sound quality even at 44.1.

The multiple connections allow me to connect a Lexicon hardware digitally via SPDIF. I also use all my vintage tube gear - not only to track- but to mix as well in Logic pro in the same way as you use plugins..except they are the real thing! and with the same flexibility as a plugin. So if you desire to be able to use all your analog gear to mix in the box alongside your plugins simultaneously, this interface makes it happen and Logic pro 9 is set up for it, so it is very easy.

UTILIZATION

The clock is so good it has become the master clock in the studio. Clocking makes an audible difference in terms of audible phase shift harshness. I have not yet used the mic pres, as I have plenty of amazing vintage ones by Altec, UA, UREI, and a Buzzaudio MA2.2.

The headphone monitor volume is very powerful and clean. The overall sound -if coupled with Logic pro 9- approximates the sweetness of 30 ips Ampex tape in general character and vibe (at 44.1). At higher rates it becomes more" Hollywood soundtrack" in detail level and vivid transient response as well as dynamic range perception.


GETTING STARTED

getting started was simple, it actually suprised me with how easy it was.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, I am shure it will sound very different depending on what DAW you have ( protools, nuendo, cubase all have their own sound character due to differing algorithms and design priorities.

But the great news is it's superb -smooth non ear-fatiguing- performance at CD quality 44.1.

I hope this gives an idea of how this unit performs in strictly professional circumstances (the studio has a IT 20 series II Furman balanced power supply conditioning) for very long hours at a time.

I was interested in the 2-Port ADAT to record a concert that was a part of a digital table. The Firewire 800 was indispensable because the 400 was not enough with my Vaio (cracks) at low latencies Used now with a mac book pro, so exclusively with Firewire 800. Very stable

UTILIZATION

The drivers are the most stable on the market. So I dare to use instead of a console for live (with cubase5 Pro9 and logic). Never had a problem until today.

GETTING STARTED

The total mix is highly efficient but quite confusing ... It still takes me 30 seconds to put the ideas in place before each use ... even after 4 years .. 

OVERALL OPINION

I love the quality converters ... the choice of the level of inputs and output (-10dB, 4dB, HiGain), the number of runs, the total power mix, especially the stable DRIVERS 

I like less the coldness and hardness of the preamp microphones (catastrophic when taken together with  a Neumann TLM 103) ... On the other hand, it gives definition to a live SM 58.

The quality / price ratio is very good given the confidence we have in the gear (it's so rare) during the various sessions