RME Presents “Babyface” USB Audio Interface

[beats me]

I'd probably have less of a problem if the breakout cable had a thin cable running 3 to 6 feet before it branched into the connectors but on the Duet they break straight out of the connector which makes for an instant cable clutter mess on your table surface and these were designed to sit right next to your computer. It's less of an issue on a more traditional rack type interface because they are more meant to sit behind your main set up. I don't remember if the Babyface has a similar insta-breakout cable design.

[Hidden Driveways]

I don't like breakout cables either. I'm sure with a little thought that you could set up your studio to look nice and neat with either the Duet or Babyface. But the more I think about it, the more I just might bite the bullet and go with the Fireface UC.

[ethios4]

Just rewire the breakout cables so they are longer. Gawww, it's not that hard!

[Machinesworking]

Bought my Fireface off of ebay for $1,100 used at least 3 years ago.
Why on earth would you want to pay close to that for this thing??
Fireface UC or 400 is a much better deal, unless the price drops on these.

Seriously, is the rest of the world over the recession? European products keep on going up in price like it is.

[beats me]

Bought my Fireface off of ebay for $1,100 used at least 3 years ago.
Why on earth would you want to pay close to that for this thing??
Fireface UC or 400 is a much better deal, unless the price drops on these.

Seriously, is the rest of the world over the recession? European products keep on going up in price like it is.

Maybe that's RME's sales tactic on this thing. As far as I know with Apogee there isn't another one of their interfaces that dips down close to the Duet. With RME maybe they're thinking people will think "If I'm willing to shell out this much then I might as well shell out a little more for the next model up".

[leedsquietman]

Apogee now have the cheaper 'lite' version of the Duet called 'One' pretty much the same thing except maximum sampling rate of 48 Khz and only ONE input. (as opposed to 96 Khz / 2 inputs on the Duet).

http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/one.php

Mac only again. RME know that in PC world, there is nothing like the Babyface, giving excellent quality in that type of portability. For solo artists recording instruments one at a time in a basement or bedroom or whatever, or for mobile use to record a singer songwriter (something I do quite a bit), it would be an excellent solution, albeit still a pricey one.

[rikhyray]

I am surprised by so much scepticism and critic. I guess it is different when you actually see, hear, try it and of course know some more details.
First of all it is much more than Duet, not just that it is actually usable for performers (separate phone outs)but lots of other functions. The other aspect perhaps most important is that they upgraded the sound. While I always liked RME drivers, latency build quality the sound was way behind Apogee and similar, even much cheaper TC and 1616m EMU sounded much better.
Now the game changed they actually upgraded, and seriously indeed, combine it with their famous reliable drivers and latency-can hardly get better.
The rest depend on what people need, for me it is perfect- if I was free to design interface for me it would be exactly like Babyface, standalone can work everywhere,in hotel, tour bus wherever just with headphones, in studio can expand with ADAT, for performance use its own in/ots. For me personally is the most important music realted product of the decade, seriously.

[3phase]

nice unit the babyface.. mobile head to a adi 8 gives a nice modular highend setup..

what is the "high" price? betwwen 200 and 300 i would be in for one ..

but is probaly more than that?

however still great for mobile recording pros.. high end mike.. a small laptop. done

[Machinesworking]

Love my Fireface, but this thing is supposedly selling for close to the price of the Fireface UC, which is also bus powered and portable, with built in line inputs and not arguably including break out cords a better design.... Just seems like a iPad from RME, almost there, but still too pricy. Had they Released something with this feature set for under $600 it would make sense, but initial word is it will cost more than that. That is all I'm dissing on, if it's almost half the price of the Fireface UC, then it makes sense to get it, and eventually add on an RME ADAT/line converter.. So if street price is under $600, then hey, pretty cool.

[Hidden Driveways]

The Fireface UC is not bus powered.

[Machinesworking]

@Hidden, yeah, just caught that myself. Thinking of the Fireface 400.

Just another note, although I was trying to do something more radical etc. I had a RME card on a G5 with ADAT going to the Fireface ADAT, and it wasn't what I would call smooth. Now that's streaming audio from a laptop to a desktop via ADAT, but I wouldn't recommend buying third party ADAT converters, so RME will hit you with another $800 or so for more than two inputs. Or you could get this.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Multiface2d/

[twisted-space]

For a minute I thought I'd found a replacement for my Emu 1616m. Compact, bus powered, ADAT i/o, but srsly, €600?

[kronk]

So if street price is under $600, then hey, pretty cool.

According to this (first) video on their website it will be 599 EUR MSRP.
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_rme.php?page ... ikmesse_10

[SubFunk]

So if street price is under $600, then hey, pretty cool.

According to this (first) video on their website it will be 599 EUR MSRP.
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_rme.php?page ... ikmesse_10

so what? street price maybe 550,- ? that does not sound all to bad, if it holds what it promises... then i think it is a good 'gap' filler in the audio card market.

i am actually more curious how it holds up sound wise to the duet, rather then the feature set.

[Hidden Driveways]

I bet it sounds like the Multiface & the Fireface. It's all about the ADAT I/O. This forum is largely electronic musicians. The ADAT is critical for bands. I think this will do well for RME. It would be nice if they could get this to stores faster than they did with the FF400 and UC.

If this was a beauty pagent, the Duet would win in a landslide. Ugly breakout cables are one thing, but a loud blue spaceship looking thing on my desk is another. I'm just not into the look of the Babyface. I'm probably going to go with a UC. If the UC was compatible with OS X 10.4, I would have bought one six months ago.

Axel... I'm most curious if the Babyface will have the same dual-transfer firmware as the UC, where it detects if it's connected to a Mac or a PC, and loads one of 2 firmwares to take full advantage of the connected OS.