M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R OR New Behringer Firepower 1616

[Tunaman]

Multitrack recording 8 channels on a Win 7 64 bit laptop (Dual Core Intel with 2 GB mem) with Audacity 2.0

Could get employee price on a M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...ckUltra8R.html

OR wait for the Behringer Firepower 1616fca which is designed to run on Audacity 2.0

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/FCA1616.aspx


IF the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R multitracks with Audacity 2.0 well then I'll go that way otherwise I have to buy Protools MP9 or 10.

Any thoughts? I did TONS of searches on this site & others

Heres one
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewto...17366&hilit=8r

That were kinda vague about how it all ended up with the 8R.

[tsverrir]

Just out of curiosity; If you are willing to throw a few dollars in gearing up for home recording, why do you use Audacity? You can get a personal licence of Reaper for $60.

[Tunaman]

Does Reaper work with either unit? I could get Protools 10 at the employee rate as well

[nick98338]

8 tracks simultaneously... with USB 2.0... good luck!

[Tunaman]

Originally Posted by nick98338

8 tracks simultaneously... with USB 2.0... good luck!

Not going to happen?
Whats the problem... the USB 2.0, the computer specs?
Even with a huge i7 quad core & 8 gigs of RAM it wouldn't work?

Found out I can get protools 10 pretty cheap... but I need this stuff to do 8 tracks at a time

2 singers, guitar, bass & 4 drum mics

Am I wasting my time & money? Is the technology on a laptop with USB 2.0 just not there yet?

[Hellbastard]

8 tracks with USB, yeah it is possible. My experience with M-audio has been very good and they usually cover the promises they make.

Are you planning to record live?

[Tunaman]

I'd like to record the full band live, yes. EQ each track individually later, especially drums. Recording Mono or Stereo sucks!

[Hellbastard]

What I meant was, is it important for you to record everybody playing at the same time, or can you do more takes (overdubs) and records every part by itself?

If you can do overdubs, you can have more channels for the drums or any other instrument.

[Tunaman]

Little bit of both

I just want to see if the M-Audio Fast Track 8R was any good & if it worked with audacity for multitrack recording as well as if my computer could do it.

[tsverrir]

Originally Posted by Tunaman

Does Reaper work with either unit? I could get Protools 10 at the employee rate as well

I'm using Reaper with M-Audio. I guess it will work with any ASIO device.

I'm by no means an expert in recordings, but Reaper is by far the best recording software you can get in that price range IMO.

I've never liked pro-tools, but that's just me.

[Hellbastard]

Originally Posted by Tunaman

Little bit of both

I just want to see if the M-Audio Fast Track 8R was any good & if it worked with audacity for multitrack recording as well as if my computer could do it.

What I'd do is record the band live to have the overall feeling of the song and then use that as a guide track to record overdubs. That way you have the whole 8 tracks available to record drums.

[Tunaman]

Originally Posted by tsverrir

I'm using Reaper with M-Audio. I guess it will work with any ASIO device.

I found out that Audacity 2.0 does NOT have ASIO so I'd have to rebuild Audacity & put it in their source code, or WHATEVER.

I also just found out that Protools 10 has some sort of locking mechanism called iLok which means you must have this USB attached to your computer to get it fired up & its a REAL pain in the ass (Just go to the forums)

So... I dunno here. I can get the Fast Track Ultra 8R for just a hair under the Behringer but would have to buy Reaper at this point. I may wait to see what the Behringer offers

[charlie monroe]

I use the FT Ultra, but have a Mac and Logic.
I have never tried more than two tracks simultaneously, but it handles two like a champ.
I have no experience with any Behringer devices.

[nick98338]

Originally Posted by Tunaman

Not going to happen?
Whats the problem... the USB 2.0, the computer specs?
Even with a huge i7 quad core & 8 gigs of RAM it wouldn't work?

Found out I can get protools 10 pretty cheap... but I need this stuff to do 8 tracks at a time

2 singers, guitar, bass & 4 drum mics

Am I wasting my time & money? Is the technology on a laptop with USB 2.0 just not there yet?

IME it's the USB. First, all of those track signals pass in and out of the computer on just 2 wires. That's a lot of data flowing through just 2 wires. Things start to lag and data bits get jumbled, or dropped. The higher the bit rate and sample rate, the worse it gets. You get more problems if you try to record at 24 bit/96kHz than if you record at 16 bit/44.1kHz

Second, you really need one USB 2.0 controller dedicated to your audio interface. That's so that other USB devices don't interrupt the signals from your audio interface while you're recording. That means you really need 2, or more, USB 2.0 controllers in your computer. That's quite common with desktop computers. Not always there with laptops.

Bottom line... 8 tracks, simultaneously is really pushing USB 2.0 to it's limits. I've done 4 tracks, simultaneously, just fine. More than 4 tracks I use a desktop computer with firewire. Much better results IMHO.

[Tunaman]

Honestly, I've never tried to multitrack on a laptop

If you're saying that the USB 2.0 is problematic I gotta believe you BUT there are so many USB 2.0 multitrack interfaces they all can't work.

USB 3.0 is around the corner & maybe NAAM 2013 will bring that to the table. Thunderbolt is still a ways off.

If I could get into some recording for LOW money & wait until 3.0usb & a new laptop I may be better served?

[3506string]

Your are not even close to bottle-necking USB 2 with 8 tracks. If your computer's hard drive and processor are capable and you have enough ram, you can easily record 8 tracks over a usb 2 interface.

All of Presonus's new interfaces are USB 2 including the 1818VSL which is a 18x18 interface. Tascam also offers 16x4 USB 2 interfaces. Behringer's X32 is supposed to be a 32x32 and offers both USB 2 and firewire(we'll see how that turns out)

I record 8 tracks when tracking drums on my laptop with a tascam US800(6 analog 2 digital). My system is a compaq cq60 2.4ghz dual core, 4gb ram. Not exactly a hot-rod of computers, but it gets the job done just fine.

[jarrydee]

reaper will work with everything cubase or PT works with. If I was not so used to PT I would go another route, it is to picky, has been since I started using it in the 90's. I would go with the m-audio, behringer sucks pretty bad in the recording side of things. I can bet that the preamps are crap.

[jarrydee]

Originally Posted by Tunaman

Not going to happen?
Whats the problem... the USB 2.0, the computer specs?
Even with a huge i7 quad core & 8 gigs of RAM it wouldn't work?

Found out I can get protools 10 pretty cheap... but I need this stuff to do 8 tracks at a time

2 singers, guitar, bass & 4 drum mics

Am I wasting my time & money? Is the technology on a laptop with USB 2.0 just not there yet?

I had a crappy mbox 3 usb crap out on me after 5 tracks in PT..get firewire, people can argue all they want but I have never had good luck with USB. the best thing I have found for cheap recording is the Focusrite liquid saffire 56 and pro tools 9, I would not update to 10 yet, always tons of bugs being worked out!


PS. I built an up to date kick a** computer with USB 3.0 for recording and USB still sucks. YES people that use it will tell you different, but it is your choice!~

[Tunaman]

Originally Posted by jarrydee

PS. I built an up to date kick a** computer with USB 3.0 for recording and USB still sucks. YES people that use it will tell you different, but it is your choice!~

If the interface is only 2.0 then your can't say you're computers 3.0usb still sucks right?

[kanonfodr]

For anything past 2 tracks at once I'd rather not take the risk on USB and go firewire. Way more throughput, and plenty of devices out there utilize it. A good firewire card can be had for 30 bucks so it adds little cost and a LOT more certainty to your recordings. And at that point you can have a 16-channel interface and still not be pushing firewire to it's limits.

Peace,
Greg