Echo Audiofire 2 or 4

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:20 pm

Just wondering what anyone who has either of these thinks of the unit.

They are very attractive for the price for someone who has religiously used the Indigo DJ, and is looking for something with a possible switch to Macbook coming (my old laptop has been doing strange things recently, and I am a little scared).

Thanks in advance. Please don't say "Get an Ultralite or Fireface 400". As much as I would love one of these, they are easily out of the budget.

Also, if you could say something re. latency and CPU usage that would be greatly appreciated.

Bye now.
Best,
AB

ciw · Post by **ciw** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:30 pm

tried the 4, can't get it to work on the laptop but that's because the laptop's broken. very clean sound. hassle free setup.

only difference between the 2 and 4 is the extra inputs with mic preamps on the 4. unfortunately it has no extra outputs, ie they both have 4 outputs.

can't comment on latency as I can't get it working with the laptop yet!

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:42 pm

2 is really good , latency even lower then Indigo. Very flexible great design.

kineticUk · Post by **kineticUk** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:24 pm

Just got a 2, get in...
Its been delivered to my mates, can't wait to try it out. Its good to see others are having good things to say about it too.
For the price I think it seemed like a very good interface, its got everything I need and a seperate monitor (DJ) thingy which is gonna be great...I can start to do some digital mixes now.
Lookin forward to getting it set up this weekend.

BDS · Post by **BDS** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:52 am

anti-banausic (& others) -

enthusiastic user of an AudioFire 8 here - much impressed with it. Although it's been a couple of months since I've even been able to use mine (general sloth + grad school = not working on music much), a friend & I had 8-in/6-out silliness going with no drops, gliches, or whatever.

I think I said that I'd post my settings (a couple of months ago) - anyway, I've been using the Echo @ 44.1kHz, 146 samples, w/10 ms of overall latency, and for the stuff that I've been (sometimes, and not recently) working on, this thing rocks. I use Live 4.1.4 as a drum machine/sound effects box, and haven't experienced any sort of trouble with the unit.

If I have any complaints about anything - I wish that the digital console was manipulable via MIDI - but I just haven't tried to do anything to see about a way to do this. That being said, and I think that's a minor quibble, I don't have any other issues with the unit at all.

I recall someone saying that Echo's problem is marketing, not the hardware, and I have to agree. Good support staff, too.

Buy one. You'll be glad you did.

Later,
BDS
15 " PB, 10.3.9, Live 4.1.4, Echo AF 8, bass, guitar, & some MIDI stuff

stealth1 · Post by **stealth1** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:26 am

Could you use the smaller one to pre-listen tracks?

kineticUk · Post by **kineticUk** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:27 am

Deleted.

robin · Post by **robin** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:37 am

stealth1 wrote:Could you use the smaller one to pre-listen tracks?

Yeah, I got the audiofire2 last weekend. I've not had a thorough play with it yet but it's a great little device. Super-solid build quality, not much more cost than the pathetic maya44 usb that i had before, nice hot signal coming out (on headphone and outs...I had trubs with the maya not being hot enough when going into a dj mixer). I've played with how low I could get the latency but while I was doing that I had other problems (not related to the device) so don't have a full feel for this yet.

Yeah well pleased, more info when I've had a proper play.

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:43 pm

Thanks all.

I think this is the way I am going to go, though I do worry a little about chaining a soundcard and an external drive through firewire, but with the Macbook what other option does one have?

I have been extremely happy with the IndigoDJ, so it would seem staying with the same company would be advantageous. Perhaps not as high quality as MOTU or RME, but for the price, hard to go wrong.

I would love the 4, but the 2 seems like such a good deal as well. It's really only marginally more expensive than the DJ, and you get two analog ins!!!! Finally.

Best,
AB

Thanks again!

stealth1 · Post by **stealth1** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:47 pm

robin wrote:
stealth1 wrote:Could you use the smaller one to pre-listen tracks?
Yeah, I got the audiofire2 last weekend. I've not had a thorough play with it yet but it's a great little device. Super-solid build quality, not much more cost than the pathetic maya44 usb that i had before, nice hot signal coming out (on headphone and outs...I had trubs with the maya not being hot enough when going into a dj mixer). I've played with how low I could get the latency but while I was doing that I had other problems (not related to the device) so don't have a full feel for this yet.

Yeah well pleased, more info when I've had a proper play.

Are you running Mac or PC mate?

Think i'll plump for one of these too for my mac powerbook.

How much are they + are they available in the UK yet?

thnks

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:38 pm

I only see them on audiomidi.com right now.

US$195 for the 2
US$295 for the 4. (This really does seem the better deal).

Don't know any UK resellers.

silverfilter · Post by **silverfilter** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:48 pm

just need to clarify coz im interested in getting one.

in essence, there are 2 stereo outs am i right? one pair belongs to the stereo out at the back and the other for the headphones for monitoring?

so It's like i can assign my main outs in ableton to the main outs and do my monitoring SEPEARATELY on the headphone out much like how the Indigo DJ works?

robin · Post by **robin** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:19 am

stealth1 wrote: Are you running Mac or PC mate?

12" powerbook (like you?). Funnily enough the box matches the powerbook nicely...typically I've just got a new macbook.

Think i'll plump for one of these too for my mac powerbook.

How much are they + are they available in the UK yet?

Yeah I got it here:

http://www.thereactor.co.uk/index.asp?f ... uctid=6323

I'll be raving on about how good the thing is over the weekend probably. Even with only a small play I'm very pleased with it indeed, just the audio device I've been hankering for.