At the head of a studio specializing in classical music for 40 years (mostly acoustic), I went through all the intermediate steps between analog and digital pure pure.
In this studio, we were not looking for effects, since we're supposed to render as faithfully as possible the natural sound. The violinist who played on a Strad 1 million euros a desire to find the sound recording.
I had to digitize the master tapes correctly, create the master. After acquiring an Alesis ADAT and a Mackie 24 track, I found it necessary to be able to transcribe more than the usual 2 track stereo.
It has been nearly four years, after research on the net, read some advice (even rare at the time), I acquired the Hammerfall including design, ease of implementation and compatibility with the I had material relevant to my needs.
All entries (except MIDI) are used alternately, depending on the type of work, and I can work without problems with my old tapes (at remaster) Recordings made in the last 96/24, stereo or multichannel.
I will not strictly technical considerations of computer language, but I was able to pass easily from one PC to another, from Pentium 3 to 4, from Windows 98 to XP Pro without difficulty.
Current provision: PC, Pentium 4, 2.5 GHz, ASUS P4T, and 800 GB of memory in HD, 1 Gb of RAM.
Software: Soundforge 7.0 (after 6.0 and 4.0) and Adobe Audio 1.5 (after Cooledit Pro 2.0).
In certain circumstances difficult acoustic I happened to work on 8 tracks, without further work with Hammerfall not detect any problems.
Particularly attentive to the quality of sound reproduction, the Hammerfall I finally made it possible to digitize my tapes mothers, recovering nearly the punch of the original sound. I must say I was spoiled in analog, working with Stellavox DP9 ... and the digitalization until then had always been quite painful ...
My studio is mobile and I do not use the Hammerfall in the records, it is useful only in "laboratory" for all treatments and studio work.
At the time, apparently more expensive than today, this interface already had a price / quality ratio with virtually no competition. Its extensive use and varied during these four years has never presented any problems, and was able to connect all devices purchased from.
As for the program totamix! like everyone else apparently, I stayed a few minutes before my screen to understand its structure. But to use, it has instead been very effective and practical. An evident lack of simple and clear information is correct, but not the program itself that allows all possible routings.
In conclusion, if there is a purchase that I was not disappointed, this is it, that four years later is still a good figure. As for the appearance of the box, for those who know the wiring inherent in a studio as specific as mine, there really will be a lesser evil. This works very well and even.

UTILIZATION

Very simple, after printing the manual ...
found no conflict.
simple operation, after a few scrapings from the skull before the TotalMix ...
The manual is inadequate in this area

GETTING STARTED

My computer is not on the net, but in the lab. Thus, I turn with the original drivers.
I do not know how I get lag, and most fluently I am working on two tracks. So no problems on that side

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for almost 4 years and after comparisons that I could do it later, I would not change no choice, as the standards do not change course.