Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
taffmonster
Posts: 268
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:28 am
Location: Japan... you know, ninjas n stuff
Contact:

Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by taffmonster » Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:19 pm

OK, right off the bat, i know most people are going to opt for the motu but thats not the point of this thread. I spent an hour or so in the shop today choosing between these two. I went with the FA 66 purely for money reason. It was nearly a third of the price cheaper. Coincidently as I was looking at this 4pre some guy shoplifted the display model straight off the shelf along with the mk3, but thats a another tale for another time. Anyhow. I got home and started setting up my gear (macbook pro 2.8 i7 + 8gb ram). I followed the edirol install manual and then spent the next hour battling with low bit rate buzzes bleeps and clicks and then dead outputs and then lag and then GRRRRRR DESTROY!!!
after an hour of pulling my hair out, multiple restarts and hopeless trawling of the net, the thing seemed to solve itself. And finally it started working fine. The guitar, stopped lagging, I managed to get my cue to the correct headphone output. It was all working well.

Now my conundrum is, do I still take it back tomorrow and fork out all the extra cash for the 4pre. I can't really afford it but I am worried that it is going to be a constant struggle of "now its working, now its not". Its working fine now, but after my hour of annoying glitchy laggy crap, I am terrified that its going to just return to that state, seeing as how I don't even know how I fixed it.

I don't need more than one input at one time as I am solo musician, I do need the multiple outs though as I like to send my cue somewhere different than my master. Firewire, Ive been told, is less CPU intensive and so a better option but then both are firewire.

Any personal experience that could help me decide would be appreciated.
Do bare in mind, the wife doesn't know how much the FA 66 was let alone the 4pre!

cheers

evangelink
Posts: 78
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:25 am

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by evangelink » Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:55 pm

Maybe the shoplifter was in exactly the same situation? Unable to justify the extra cost of the better soundcard to his wife, he desparately grabbed it from the shop, and now feels a guilty pang everytime he's recording through it and can only sing the blues.

Don't be that guy, get the Motu.

skullNbones
Posts: 132
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 3:38 pm
Location: New England

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by skullNbones » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:33 pm

I have been using the FA-66 with a MBP for a few years now and it is mostly totally solid. Sometimes, and I am not sure what causes this, I will get some glitches and or a really long lag on my recording(it is like one second latency). I discovered that by clicking the audio engine off, then back on, this always sorts this. (Just click the CPU load % meter in the top right.) It seemed to start happening more when I got my APC-40, so I can't say for certain that it is the Edirol, but this seems to reset the soundcard and is easier than unplugging the Firewire cable and replugging it, which also resets it if it gets wonky. Just my 2 cents...

That being said, as soon as I feel like I can spring for a MOTU or equivalent, I prolly will!!!
MacbookPro 2.33/ Live7/ APC-40/ BCR2000/ padKontrol/ Oxygen61/ Edirol FA-66/ KRK Rokit 5s with sub/ infinite possibility...

hps909
Posts: 233
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:09 am

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by hps909 » Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:45 pm

i've used an FA-66 for about the last 5 or 6 years live. i need light portable solid interface and the edirol hasn't skipped a beat on my 2006 white macbook.. and it's been through hell. backpacks, cars, smokey clubs, beer . I cant fault it in the purpose i use it for . i do have a better recording interface that sounds alot better, but for live gigs it's awesome
macbook pro 2.5 i5 os 10.12 , TC Electronik Konnekt 48, Live 9, Cubase 9, event 20/20, Waldorf Blofeld, roland tb-03, roland Jx-03, korg mikrokontrol, novation nocturn, akai lpd8

taffmonster
Posts: 268
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:28 am
Location: Japan... you know, ninjas n stuff
Contact:

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by taffmonster » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:54 am

Thanks guys.

I havent plugged in my APC40 yet. So I am a little bit paranoid now that its going to go glitchy. But then its a whole extra 21,000 yen for the MOTU on top of the 37,000 yen I already paid.

Maybe I could track down the shoplifter and ask him for a discount ?

I guess I have to decide today. In Japan they are pretty terrible with returns.

modecai
Posts: 80
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:29 pm

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by modecai » Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:43 am

what kind of computer do you have? So did it end up working ok?

I have the edirol fa-101 and its worked fine for me for quite a long time. It's like the bigger brother of the fa-66... although its not always being recognized by ableton live... still a great interface though.

taffmonster
Posts: 268
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:28 am
Location: Japan... you know, ninjas n stuff
Contact:

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by taffmonster » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:00 am

Ive got the latest macbook pro 2.8 dual core i7 8gb ram.

it started working ok last night. got some nice latency out of it and the strange blips and weird down sampled sounding interference stopped. I am just paranoid it will start doing it again in the middle of a live set.

modecai
Posts: 80
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:29 pm

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by modecai » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:45 am

I say keep it till the last moment before you have to return it to see if you can really get to test it out.

starving student
Posts: 7129
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:13 pm
Location: right here

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by starving student » Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:31 am

where in japan?

taffmonster
Posts: 268
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:28 am
Location: Japan... you know, ninjas n stuff
Contact:

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by taffmonster » Wed Feb 22, 2012 6:19 am

starving student wrote:where in japan?
Saitama

robnotrob
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:27 pm

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by robnotrob » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:57 pm

I've been using the FA66 for 5-6 years too, on my old white macbook and now on my new MBP and I've not had one issue with it.

Make sure you set the sample rate correctly on the back, 44.1 should be ok, and make sure you turn track monitoring off when you record in ableton (this by-passes latency correction etc)

hope this help you out

taffmonster
Posts: 268
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 12:28 am
Location: Japan... you know, ninjas n stuff
Contact:

Re: Edirol FA 66 or Motu 4pre (shoplifter reckoned 4pre)

Post by taffmonster » Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:05 pm

robnotrob wrote:...... and make sure you turn track monitoring off when you record in ableton (this by-passes latency correction etc)
By track monitoring do you mean in ableton or the direct monitoring dial on the FA66?

Post Reply