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Hatsubai « Great interface card »
Published on 06/19/11 at 20:07M-Audio has always been one of the leaders in creating affordable and fairly nice interfaces. They also make cards for those who don't want to deal with a separate box. This features an 8 x 8 analog IO with 2 mic pres, S/PDIF with 2-channel PCM, special copy protection, supports AC-3 and DTS pass-through, has MIDI, can control 7.1 surround audio, has 36-bit DSP mixing/routing which is done internally, can switch between consumer and professional/line level gear, contains a world clock for proper I/O syncing and even includes Ableton Live Lite.
UTILIZATION
I was never a huge fan of these interface cards. My biggest gripe about them is that they always have some sort of breakout cable to get all the features of the device. You simply can't include all these features without some sort of multi pinout breakout cable. First of all, they strain the actual connector because of all the devices hooked up to them. This can cause wear over time, although most of them seem to have combat this. The cables themselves are a bit flimsy, so there's also that issue. Finally, it becomes a tangled mess, and switching stuff on the fly is a bit more difficult for me than if there was a central device in one area.
GETTING STARTED
The device is very easy to use. Install the drivers, hook up the correct devices and you're good to go. It should work with just about any DAW and roughly any computer that has the appropriate computer port. I never read the manual, but I didn't feel there was a need to since it's a pretty straight forward install. Everything is simple to setup, so no issues there.
OVERALL OPINION
I'm not a huge fan of the breakout cable aspect of this device. It's the #1 thing that kills it for me. However, the device itself sounds great, and the mic pres are fairly clean sounding. It has tons of features packed into a small device, so if you're into the whole PCI card interface thing, it's worth checking out.
UTILIZATION
I was never a huge fan of these interface cards. My biggest gripe about them is that they always have some sort of breakout cable to get all the features of the device. You simply can't include all these features without some sort of multi pinout breakout cable. First of all, they strain the actual connector because of all the devices hooked up to them. This can cause wear over time, although most of them seem to have combat this. The cables themselves are a bit flimsy, so there's also that issue. Finally, it becomes a tangled mess, and switching stuff on the fly is a bit more difficult for me than if there was a central device in one area.
GETTING STARTED
The device is very easy to use. Install the drivers, hook up the correct devices and you're good to go. It should work with just about any DAW and roughly any computer that has the appropriate computer port. I never read the manual, but I didn't feel there was a need to since it's a pretty straight forward install. Everything is simple to setup, so no issues there.
OVERALL OPINION
I'm not a huge fan of the breakout cable aspect of this device. It's the #1 thing that kills it for me. However, the device itself sounds great, and the mic pres are fairly clean sounding. It has tons of features packed into a small device, so if you're into the whole PCI card interface thing, it's worth checking out.