Fireface 400 or Motu Ultralite?

mohler · Post by **mohler** » Sun May 04, 2008 9:10 am

Hiya,

Sorry for the comparative post, I know we have a million of them before. I'd love to hear how the users of these lovely devices are getting on.

Here's the deal: I'm looking for new, slimline sound card. It's gotta be firewire. I'm looking at the FF400 and Ultralite because I'm trying to reduce the space that my gigging kit takes up (carry on restrictions and so it won't screw up my back too much).

I currently have a Metric Halo ULN/2 for the road which has been solid and sounds great, it's by far the best soundcard I've owned but it's a full rack unit in size. Great pres but I use them only very occasionally. I'm getting to the stage that I could have an extra pair of outputs. I'm using 1 for stereo out, 1 to monitor via cans & I'm finding that I'm needing to send a click to a drummer as I'm playing with band a bit more. That coupled with the fact that my MBP has a knicker fit when i plug the ULN/2 in and won't power it via the firewire buss. (I do have a work around of a little battery pack to "jump start" it or via an adaptor). Also there's no midi on it and I'm starting to use alot more midi devices live.

In the studio I'm currently using an Appogee Ensemble, which is beautiful and very solid. It belongs to the guy I share a studio with so I guess at some stage in the future I will need my live sound card for my studio interface.

Enough rambling, I'd love to hear your experiences, how do these options stack up. how's the routing & monitoring etc. I'm a little concerned that there's no dedicated output or headphone knob on the 400, is it a problem or can the knob be assigned to anything I fancy?

kizzah · Post by **kizzah** » Sun May 04, 2008 9:36 am

I've never had the chance to use the Ultralite, but I can give a solid thumbs up to the Fireface 400. I've never had to do complex routings/different headphone mixes etc, as I only ever record one track at a time, but I'm assured that if you need to do them, they're there. The software mixer/matrix seems very comprehensive, but I've never taken the time to learn it. I try to only learn as much as I absolutely have to, to avoid head-explosions.

The two main things I love about the Fireface is that it sounds great and it's never EVER crashed on me. Which is something of a rarity in my experience. People say the preamps aren't very good, but I like them. I have absolutely no preamp pedigree though.

I thought the lack of a headphone volume knob would bother me but it hasn't. I just use the mouse. I believe the software mixer sliders can be assigned to controllers, but that's getting into head-exploding territory.

I'm on a PC, while I presume you're on a Mac (because of the Metric Halo), so I don't know if that has any bearing on driver stability issues. I read somewhere when I was doing research prior to buying the Fireface that RME tends to be more stable on PC and Motu tend to be more stable on Macs. That's probably just one of those things you read on the internet though.

Hope this helps, best of luck with your decision.

mohler · Post by **mohler** » Sun May 04, 2008 9:39 am

Hey Kizzah,

I'm honored that your first post is in reply to my query, Thank you for your input and welcome.

dazzer · Post by **dazzer** » Sun May 04, 2008 10:27 am

There were some issues with RME and Apple firewire - not sure if it's been fixed or if it even would affect you. Check out their forum

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewforum.php?id=4

My Ultralite has worked great on the 3 Macs I've used it on - a Powerbook, MBP and a MB.[/url]

mohler · Post by **mohler** » Sun May 04, 2008 11:22 am

dazzer wrote:There were some issues with RME and Apple firewire - not sure if it's been fixed or if it even would affect you. Check out their forum

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewforum.php?id=4

My Ultralite has worked great on the 3 Macs I've used it on - a Powerbook, MBP and a MB.[/url]

Wow, thanks for that it looks like there are plenty of issues there.... I'll check the chipset in my MBP before proceeding. I got around the time the issue was first raised so it could be suspect. Leaving me with 2 choices, a replace my MBP for a new one or go for the Ultralite.

mohler · Post by **mohler** » Mon May 05, 2008 6:08 am

Does any one know if there are similar ^^^^ Firewire issues for the Ultralite?

Gmaj7 · Post by **Gmaj7** » Mon May 05, 2008 9:55 am

mohler wrote:Does any one know if there are similar ^^^^ Firewire issues for the Ultralite?

hi, we've both and so we can say, that the fireface400 sounds better and is very stable. we had crashes with the motu (on the gig) but never with the ff400 (until yet).

mohler · Post by **mohler** » Mon May 05, 2008 11:33 am

Gmaj7 wrote:
mohler wrote:Does any one know if there are similar ^^^^ Firewire issues for the Ultralite?
hi, we've both and so we can say, that the fireface400 sounds better and is very stable. we had crashes with the motu (on the gig) but never with the ff400 (until yet).

Thanks, are you on Mac or PC?

Gmaj7 · Post by **Gmaj7** » Mon May 05, 2008 11:58 am

mohler wrote:
Gmaj7 wrote:
mohler wrote:Does any one know if there are similar ^^^^ Firewire issues for the Ultralite?
hi, we've both and so we can say, that the fireface400 sounds better and is very stable. we had crashes with the motu (on the gig) but never with the ff400 (until yet).
Thanks, are you on Mac or PC?

Both. Motu on Mac, FF on PC.

mohler · Post by **mohler** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:38 pm

Thanks, It's seems to be the way alot of people roll, I'm leaning towards the ultralite right about now.

Gmaj7 · Post by **Gmaj7** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:48 pm

by the way: nice music on myspace

especially "That's me"
Bernhard

mohler · Post by **mohler** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:15 pm

Hey, thank you, I was just listening the the tracks in the player on your site! love the dynamic range and that it keeps evolving so you don't get bored. Keep it up.

flippo2007 · Post by **flippo2007** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:38 pm

Hi!

I returned my Ultralite becuase it led to massive problems while using Live...

MAssive Glitches total breakdowns, extremly loud noise, crazy in- and outputs...

I´ve got a Focusrite Saffire now and im happy!

Greetz, FLip

ze2be · Post by **ze2be** » Mon May 05, 2008 2:01 pm

flippo2007 wrote:Hi!

I returned my Ultralite becuase it led to massive problems while using Live...

MAssive Glitches total breakdowns, extremly loud noise, crazy in- and outputs...

I´ve got a Focusrite Saffire now and im happy!

Greetz, FLip

Whoa! I just ordered one..

fingers crossed...

landrvr1 · Post by **landrvr1** » Mon May 05, 2008 2:05 pm

flippo2007 wrote:Hi!

I returned my Ultralite becuase it led to massive problems while using Live...

MAssive Glitches total breakdowns, extremly loud noise, crazy in- and outputs...

I´ve got a Focusrite Saffire now and im happy!

Greetz, FLip

Heh, uh oh. I was thinking of trading up my Focusrite Saffire for the Ultralite. I love the Saffire, but I'm a bit miffed that I've got to set my buffer so high - which seems to be a fairly common problem. More importantly, the Ultralite, with it's higher pricetag of course, has plenty of inputs.

Funny, but I've yet to read a bad review of the Ultralite. Wondering why you just didn't get a different unit?