All user reviews for the M-Audio Fast Track Usb

The M-Audio Fast Track USB is very small, so its characteristics aren't so amazing, but it was great to start off with. I bought the M-Audio Fast Track USB so I could use Pro Tools pretty much. I use the M-Audio Fast Track USB with Pro Tools 8 M-Powered and i connect my headphones, microphones and turntables to it.
You have 1 XLR Input, 1 Line instrument input, 1 L/R Output and the USB Connection. I use it to start my Pro Tools and record with it. I use it with a MacBook Pro and it's very useful.

UTILIZATION

The M-Audio Fast Track USB is updated a lot and the latency is normal. Nothing big, nothing out of this world. The drivers are very stable though. I downloaded the driver once, and never had to change anything, just stayed perfect. I always use Pro Tools and rarely GarageBand. The M-Audio Fast Track USB can record just 1 track at a time, but I'm a beat prodcuer, so i do things at once. You can have over 100 tracks in Pro Tools so it's not so big of a deal.

GETTING STARTED

It was kind of hard to get it started because the driver CD wasn't working, so I had to find the site and download it there. But after that, it was all good. The manual was confusing and hard to follow. I had to go online and check things out myself which wasn't very convinient. The setup is very simple. You just connect it and you're ready to go. It's typical functions are easy to access as well. Once you connect it, you're done.

OVERALL OPINION

I like that it was cheap and good for what I wanted which was just start up Pro Tools. It has good quality sound a no hiss at all. It is very small and has 1 of everything, there's no variety but that's why it's cheap. The price was excellent and reasonable. I had no problem purchasing it. The sound quality is the best. It has a great sound and has no mass sound or hiss when connected. This was the first model I got and I'm happy with it. You should start off with this one first.

(Originally written by purplehaze91/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
This is my first "high-quality" sound card. I tried to use the integrated sound card of my PC but I gave up because the latency was much too high.

Considering it was my first sound card I decided to take it easy on the bill. Depending on the performance I'll decide what will be the next step...

Good manufacturing quality and nice plastic housing considering the price.

PC: Q6600 CPU, 2 GB Ram, SATA 500 GB HDD, integrated RealTek sound card on a GigaByte motherboard.

Instrument: Electric guitar directly connected to the Fastrack, guitar amp with effects section and line output directly connected to the Fastrack.

UTILIZATION

Installation under VISTA 32 bit: I downloaded the drivers from M-Audio's website (version 5.10.0.5114), installed them and connected the FastTrack to the PC. It went smoothly.

Notice: I hadn't installed any other Fastrack drivers before.

If you did that Windows might use the old drivers instead of the new. To solve the problem, check the current driver version in the Windows device manager and click the update button in case it is necessary to change them. Then select manually the latest driver version.

The drivers also add a small program that runs automatically as soon as you start Windows. Double-click on the icon next to the system clock to adjust the buffer size (latency, from 128 to 1096 samples) and the sample rate (44.1 or 48 kHz).

I find the user's manual (12 pages) is comprehensive enough.

GETTING STARTED

The sound card comes with the M-Audio Session software. Download version 1.6.3 from M-Audio's website for the software to work under Windows Vista (otherwise you'll get a system error message).

I've had no problems up to this day (six months of use). I use this sound card in my home studio and as PC sound card.

OVERALL OPINION

Review to be updated...

I purchased the M-Audio Fast Track USB when I first began toying with a home studio idea. It is an entry level USB-connect preamp and, while it isn’t even close to industry level preamps, it does it’s job for someone just starting out.

UTILIZATION

My biggest concern with this preamp is how it CANNOT operate with any condenser microphone that requires phantom power (which is pretty much all condenser microphones). This information is not noted anywhere on M-Audio’s official website, nor the box that the product comes in. For someone wanting stereo quality recordings, you cannot achieve anything close using this interface and a dynamic microphone.

My secondary concern was the compatibility with Windows VISTA. I used the SESSION USB microphone for pod casts, which ran slow and the latency levels were extremely high on my laptop. The microphone recording through Fast Track USB gave me the same issues.

GETTING STARTED

Shifting toward the positives about this product… The Session software that comes with almost any low-end product on the M-Audio market – including this one – is worth the price alone. However, if you’ve purchased any of the USB connected interfaces from M-Audio already, you probably have gotten the software in some sort of “package deal” already.

M-Audio should bill this exclusively as a tool for guitar recording, because the plug-in here is probably the simplest I’ve ever used. For all the hassle of trying to connect a microphone to this device, such hassle can be overlooked because of the user-friendly guitar connection. You also have to applaud M-Audio for continuing the use of the 1/8 inch headphones input – so users can plug in their commercial headphones or ear buds without the hassle of purchasing the sometimes expensive studio monitors.

OVERALL OPINION

Neither the retail price suggested by M-Audio ($129.95), nor market prices (ranging from $88-99 at different online retailers) are worth the price of this USB component. If you are lucky to score one on eBay for 50-75% retail value, then add it to your collection. If not, look elsewhere!