Ableton Forum

It seems many people are having problems with FW cards these days.

For MOTU i read and experienced more than enough digital noise, glitches, pops, cracks and failing of ULTRALITEs than what is good for me and at the RME side i read about FW chip incompatibility issues (because Apple decided to put in cheaper chips in their systems) haunting the FF400's.

In the past two years i spent over $1000 on sound cards and neither of them worked well for more than a few months. I am starting to get the feeling that in order to have a really great sounding -and- reliable card, i should shell out more than $1000 in one go. Having considered and read more about the FireFace400 i a also reached the point where i am not so sure about FW in general anymore. So, i am considering to save up for a RME Multiface II.

I wonder, are there many people here who use HDSP cards by RME? What is your experience with these cards? Are they really worth the extra money?

So far, it seems they are, but if anyone has some really bad experiences with them, i would love to hear about it before i take the plunge.

i own a hammerfall multiface 1
Bought it in 2002 and, has been working stable since.
Good driver support.

Been using my Multiface I since 2003 with Live v3! Used it with a PCMCIA card in laptops and with a PCI card in my desktop. You can now get PCIe ane Express54 cards for the Multiface.

IMHO, it's the best card out there for the money. Rock solid converters and performance, and the best drivers out there. I can get 32 samples (less than 1ms of latency, specifically 0.7ms) if I need to. Sounds and works great.

nebulae wrote:Been using my Multiface I since 2003 with Live v3! Used it with a PCMCIA card in laptops and with a PCI card in my desktop. You can now get PCIe ane Express54 cards for the Multiface.

IMHO, it's the best card out there for the money. Rock solid converters and performance, and the best drivers out there. I can get 32 samples (less than 1ms of latency, specifically 0.7ms) if I need to. Sounds and works great.

+11111

I also have a Multiface I. Excellent in every respect. Totally solid & sounds great. Been using it since 2004 & it has never let me down. RME Bonus: Total Mix with its Matrix router is also pretty bad ass.

I'm using it with the older PCMCIA cardbus, & will be getting an Expresscard when I upgrade from a PowerBook to a MacBook Pro.

The express cards in laptops work off the same controller chip (bus?) as the firewire so if your computer has shit firewire it most likely has shit express cards.

+1 to all of the previous owners statements.

bought mine Multiface 1 in 2002 and never was let down by it. Used it with Laptops and desktops without any problems (in these times i use the pcmcia
card with a 15€ pcmcia to pci adapter in my desktop - no problem at all)

Would def. buy it again !

HDSPe PCIe aio card is supposedly being released in Europe in the next month......trying not to hold breath.

I'm dying to get this card.

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_aio.php

Has everything I need in a single slot.

happy multifaceII owner...

Happy Multiface I and FF400 owner here. Been thrown around the world by baggage handlers, the Multiface for 5 years, the FF for 2. As others have said, great sound quality and reliability, TotalMix is superb, will be buying the Expresscard32 for the multiface shortly when we retire our Powerbook G4.

Pitch Black wrote:will be buying the Expresscard32 for the multiface shortly when we retire our Powerbook G4.

Next MacBook Pro release promises to be a nice one -Montevina is looking good. Should be soon too...

Then, in 2009, we'll be getting the Nehalem processor that will kick some major heiney!

oblique strategies wrote:

Pitch Black wrote:will be buying the Expresscard32 for the multiface shortly when we retire our Powerbook G4.

Next MacBook Pro release promises to be a nice one -Montevina is looking good. Should be soon too...

Then, in 2009, we'll be getting the Nehalem processor that will kick some major heiney!

I could care less for more processing power...
give us affordable multitouch screens already !!!

(btw MBPs are totally overpriced...)

3dot... wrote:I could care less for more processing power...

To someone like me, who's been running on a 2004 PowerBook for the last four years, more processing power sounds pretty sweet.

3dot... wrote:happy multifaceII owner... :D

the same here. everything is ok.

Another happy Multiface I user...it's small but powerful,great sound,clean,clear,great converters,Totalmix rocks...

i think the thread won't bring up anything else than that it's an audio equipment classic

take it and focus on music - my advise