Best Low Cost Interface?

MR Coogs · Post by **MR Coogs** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:53 pm

I'm looking at the Edirol Firewire model, and the Alesis.

Anyone working with these on a mac?

swishniak · Post by **swishniak** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:51 pm

yes - ive been working with the FA 101 for close to 2 years now, and just recently getting bugged my some of its weaknesses. the mic pre's are shitty, and i think compared to some RME or even MOTUs the AD converters are not that hot.

all that said, it did get the job done for me for 2 years (recorded 6 records with it), and it wasnt until i got some better mics until i realized where the weakest link was.

if its all you can afford now - go for it (that was the case for me and i dont regret it). but if you have another 100 bucks or so, i would go for a motu or RME or whatever the next level is.

oh - and my machine is a g4 12" 1.5 ghz - 1.25 ram

MR Coogs · Post by **MR Coogs** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:13 pm

swishniak wrote:yes - ive been working with the FA 101 for close to 2 years now, and just recently getting bugged my some of its weaknesses. the mic pre's are shitty, and i think compared to some RME or even MOTUs the AD converters are not that hot.

all that said, it did get the job done for me for 2 years (recorded 6 records with it), and it wasnt until i got some better mics until i realized where the weakest link was.

if its all you can afford now - go for it (that was the case for me and i dont regret it). but if you have another 100 bucks or so, i would go for a motu or RME or whatever the next level is.

oh - and my machine is a g4 12" 1.5 ghz - 1.25 ram

I think the Edirol is out for me as it looks like the optical inputs are just 2 channel, not adat 8 channel. I might get one of the Alesis interfaces to tide me over. Though the Metric Halo interface looks nice but is costly.

Apparently I could also get a Digi002/003 and use that as an interface. I'd like to get my PT rig updated anyway…

Unfortunately there isn't anything really promising in the $500-$600 range.

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:47 pm

I use the Behringer FCA202 : http://www.behringer.com/FCA202/index.cfm?lang=eng
coupled with a MX802A mixer and it works fine. Latencies below 10 ms, especially at 48/96 Khz and 64/128 samples.

- Best
- Pasha

mtec · Post by **mtec** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:47 pm

Focusrite saffire le works great and it wont break the bank. check it out.

Jaan · Post by **Jaan** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:55 pm

the firebox has done the trick for me and I got it for $200

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:21 pm

Ultralite is in the $500 range.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:52 pm

any of those will work, at least you're not going with M Audio. I run Edirol but a different USB model on a PC.