is m-audio fast track pro the best?

[korbbit]

im about to buy the 'm-audio fasttrack pro' to record electric guitar and vocals, but before i do, just wanna know what some of you guys think about it, and is there a better thing out there that does the same sort a stuff?

[Migra]

You bet there's something much better, but FTP is cheap, I own one and woks fine, haven't tried other options so I can compare, but for me FTP is good enough for it's price.
BTW it's drivers doesn't works with HP laptops, believe me I suffered a lot with that!, works great with Toshiba and Mac

[mholloway]

M-Audio stuff is often widely disliked......problems/cheapness/etc....I'd say look into Audio Kontrol 1 from Native Instruments. MOTU makes good stuff, too.

-M

[doc_dave_dy]

Don't know if it's the best thing but I use a FTP with my Mac and it works fine. Records my guitars fine and I like the phantom power for my condenser mic.

[distaudio]

I have both a FTP and a Fast Track Ultra.

The Preamps in the Ultra are much nicer and it has a nicer control panel and just seems to be easier to manage.

If you can afford the extra $ go for the Ultra.

But the FTP is nice for portability and is the only reason i own one.

[leedsquietman]

+1 - pres are definately nothing special in the FTP.

the drivers used to be like sh*t in the FTP too, but they seem to have remedied this somewhat.

Depending on how many inputs you need, The Audio Kontrol's Cirrus pres are definately better.

MOTU should be better, it's cheapest interface with USB2 is triple the cost.

[RonaldDumsfeld]

I own both an M-Audio Fast Track Pro and MOTU Ultralite Hybrid.

They are not directly comparable products. The ULH has ~3x the # of I/O options and accordingly costs 3x as much.

Provided you can manage with the number of channels on the FTP (2 anaolog in, stereo S/PDIF in, 2 analog out, stereo S/PDIF out) I think you will do very well with it.

M-Audio gets a bad press from some but that's as much to do with snobbery as it is the do with audible or build quality differences. After Berhinger (no don't go there - see I'm just as bad lol) they are among the cheapest and it's normal for people to want something that bit 'better' even if they couldn't really tell in a proper ABX comparison.

M-Audio also have a good returns reputation should you need it, a very active forum where M-Audio staff answer all posts within 2 working days and they are not anally suspicious about access to manuals, drivers and what not. That's valuable peace of mind if this is your first interface.

The ULH is potentially a superior product but not worth the dfference in price if you are not going to use the extras. Mac users rave about the AudioDesk s/w but even windows users get 2 s/w compressors, 5 band parametric EQ and a very basic reverb as part of the deal.

MOTU have an appalling reputation for customer service, no officially supported forum and the fan site is very quiet and a bit depressing as what posts there are mainly go unanswered as the number of disgruntled users vastly exceeds those able to help. Also if you lose a manual or a driver CD it's notoriously difficult to obtain a replacement.

I'd offer you my old FTP at a good price as I meant to sell it on when the ULH arrived but I've had to put that on hold as the MOTU currently will not support USB2 on my Vista 64 bit/ASUS P6T Deluxe system and I need it for backup( XP is no problem btw and the firewire connection works great on all operating system variants provided you have the correct chipset). To give you some idea it took me 3 weeks to obtain any response for MOTU at all. Although to be far since then they have supplied 2 beta driver downloads for me to test with no luck as yet.

Audio Companies and musicians are generally relatively conservative and slow moving on the technological front compared to computer manufacturers and drivers for the newer, most up to date units are always going to be a bit of a punt when they first appear. Stick with the tried and tested and you will be fine.

[SubFunk]

M-Audio gets a bad press from some but that's as much to do with snobbery as it is the do with audible or build quality differences.

i don't think so, m-audio always made pretty decent hardware (delta 1010 anyone?) but since avid took them over drivers and basically everything around the hardware went to totally hell... they are however lately on a good way to deliver stabler drivers and service again...

[leedsquietman]

+1

this would be my understanding of the situation too. Around 2 years ago, M-Audio were copping a lot of flak on their drivers and product build, both of which seem to have improved markedly since then.

I think the FTP represents decent value for money, but there are a LOT of decent products by others too, especially in the next 50-100 dollar bracket above which can make a difference to your recordings with better preamps and converters.

[SubFunk]

^^^ yep.

and the driver issue[s] are from extreme importance... that is why i personally don't get why many manufacturers not seem to care much... and some users that purchase certain products not either, i am even that extreme that i rather sacrifice a little bit of sound quality for a rock solid performance...
what is a super card worth, if you can't run it without headache and problems on your system... in todays audio world any card will interact (needs to interact) with a computer... bad drivers make an audio product completely worthless, no matter how good the box is.

[zsazsa]

it's an ok box. I owned one. I switched over to an echo audiofire 4.
The echo sounds better and has lower latency but it is firewire.
The lower latency is good for me because I like to play guitar through ableton with effects.

It all depends on your budget. But for the money I would probably go for the native instruments ak-1.
If you want 'better', look at RME, prism, apogee or Metric Halo.

[lanno]

You bet there's something much better, but FTP is cheap, I own one and woks fine, haven't tried other options so I can compare, but for me FTP is good enough for it's price.
BTW it's drivers doesn't works with HP laptops, believe me I suffered a lot with that!, works great with Toshiba and Mac

i have ftp since 2 or 3 years, never had a problem with it. i've had an asus laptop before, now i have a hp. with both it works like charm.

[oddstep]

I rate the fast track pro. Low cost, midi and audio interface with spdif i/o. Seems stable so far. Decent volume output and easy to use gain control on the front panel. Sort of prefer it to the fw410 I've got on another laptop - probly in terms of convenience, less power supply hassels... although the ftp seems louder as well... which counts for live pas. Haven't done any objective pepsi challenge on them tho'

[lunabass]

there is a known H/W issue with Fast Track Pro's that can cause some users (including me) to experience audio dropouts that have nothing to do with drivers etc.

the issue has been acknowledged by m-audio.

a detailed post with replies from m-audio can be found here:
http://forums.m-audio.com/showthread.ph ... ue&p=41884