The M Audio ProFire 610 has 6 by 10 simultaneous analog and digital ins and outs with 2 preamps. The cost of this interface is 500 dollars. If you are just starting out then I don’t suggest purchasing it because that will probably be out of your budget. But if you are a veteran in the music game then this interface will work perfect for your home set up. The reason that I purchased this interface is because of how good everyone said the preamps are. I have used several different microphones and a ton of different synth keyboards with the ProFire 610. All audio is transferred almost immediately and not latency is detected. UTILIZATION I have received an updated for it maybe one time (when they came out with the windows 7 update), but I didn’t even download the update because I didn’t need it. The ProFire was working great on my Dual Core PC and my Mac book at the time. I was using it as my main interface for a while and it was one of the best ones that I have ever used. You will capture some great live performance with the ProFire 610 in stereo too. All 8 of the line outs are great and the interface is very easy to set up and use. It does come with Ableton Lite just in case you need a DAW to record with and don’t own one. But I used it in Cubase and in Logic. It all works perfectly and has never caused me any problems or issues. GETTING STARTED I have had no compatibility issues with the ProFire 610, it has worked great on two different systems and with Cubase and Logic. The manual is a rather small book, but its pretty to the point just in case you need it. OVERALL OPINION I have used several other interfaces by M Audio but none like the ProFire 610, don’t waste your time getting those cheap USB interfaces , if you have the money you mine as well just get the ProFire 610 because you will need it at some point or another. This is definitely one of the best interfaces that M Audio has made.
M-Audio is usually known for their small mic pres, but they also have some very high quality rack gear that works great. This device features 24 bit/192 KHz audio, 8 analog inputs, 8 XLR mic inputs, 8 TRS inputs, 2 TS inputs, S/PDIF, 16 x 16 ADAT, 8 TRS balanced line outputs, 2 headphone outputs, MIDI, a proper world clock for setting up I/O, master volume knob, an onboard DSP mixer, and it should work with pretty much any of today's DAWs. UTILIZATION M-Audio did a great job setting this whole thing up. The interface itself is nicely laid out, and everything is easy to use. I'm especially happy that they used Firewire for this. While they make comparisons on the USB page stating how USB is theoretically faster than Fiewire, that's not the case in real life. There are some major flaws with USB 2.0 when compared to Firewire, and I always found it a bit dishonest when they tried to claim USB 2.0 was faster. Keep in mind that you'll probably want some sort of rack to mount this in. On top of that, it has a few breakout cables for some of the features, and I'm not really a fan of breakout cables. GETTING STARTED I never had a single compatibility issue when using this device. It's a very easy to use and straightforward device. There's no need to even read the manual because everything is laid out in an easy to use and understand manner. Simply plug in the devices to their corresponding ports, and you'll be good to go. I was able to use this in Logic without any hiccups, and it sounded awesome. OVERALL OPINION If you're one of those people who enjoy rack interfaces and want one of the better ones out there, check this out. This has some really nice and clean converters that sound great. It also has MIDI and tons of other features. I just wish it didn't have all those annoying breakout cables for certain features, but then they'd have to make it 2U, so I can see why they did it.
