What's the difference between M-audio firewire solo and the M-audio Audiofile.

[6stringbassist]

I'm looking to buy a firewire audio interface, probably one of the above.

I'm going to be recording on to garageband at the moment, but I'm thinking of getting protools in the near future, hence the M-audio stuff.

It's mainly for recording bass, plus possibly guitar and sax, possibly at the same time.

What's the difference between these two, the price is much the same, or am I best to get something else ?.

 

[hunta]

Are you on PC or Mac? Before you get any firewire interface, verify that you have a suitable firewire connection for your computer. If it's a PC, make sure you have Texas Instruments firewire. Anything else is likely to cause problems. Most Macs have TI firewire (although not all).

Those 2 interfaces are pretty different. Assuming you're talking about the firewire audiophile (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...phile-Computer-Recording-Interface?sku=709200) and not the PCI card. The "M-Audio Firewire Audiophile" doesn't have any XLR or 1/4" inputs, all it has are RCA and SPDIF inputs, so it's really meant to just be an interface between a mixer and your computer on 1 stereo channel. The M-Audio Firewire Solo has an XLR input and 2 unbalanced inputs as well as SPDIF.

I wouldn't really recommend any M-Audio interfaces though. You're pretty limited if you're sticking to $200, but if you bump your budget up to $300 you have your choice of the Presonus Firebox or Focusrite Saffire (don't get the Saffire LE, it has no onboard DSP). If protools is a sticking point for you, you're probably best off getting a digidesign interface. If you have a PC, protools is not really solid and you're better off using something like Cubase, Ableton, or Sonar.

 

[John Wentzien]

Link Removed
these work great..

 

[6stringbassist]

Thanks for your replies.

I'm using a Mac, a G4.

My budget isn't fixed, I'd rather get something good, but it's really only my bass, or a couple of other instruments that I'm going to be recording at any one time, so I only really need to have a maximum of say 4 inputs running at the same time.

Protools isn't a real sticking point, I like logic as well, I can get logic express for the same price as protools.

 

[kevinmoore73]

I just got an Alesis MultiMix Firewire for Xmas. If you haven't seen one, you might want to check 'em out. I like it so far.

 

[hunta]

Right. The thing with the cheaper recording interfaces is that everything is a trade off. You can get a budget interface with a ton of inputs and outputs and it might look like a good choice, until you realize how awful the preamps and noise are. I would rather have an interface with 1 input that sounds great than an interface with 50 inputs that sounds like you're recording on the built-in mic on an old boombox.

Based on a quick search of gearslutz (great site if you need recording info) I would not recommend Phonic. Sounds like it works but it's pretty noisy.

 

[6stringbassist]

Right. The thing with the cheaper recording interfaces is that everything is a trade off. You can get a budget interface with a ton of inputs and outputs and it might look like a good choice, until you realize how awful the preamps and noise are. I would rather have an interface with 1 input that sounds great than an interface with 50 inputs that sounds like you're recording on the built-in mic on an old boombox.

Based on a quick search of gearslutz (great site if you need recording info) I would not recommend Phonic. Sounds like it works but it's pretty noisy.

Gearslutz....great name for a site, I'd be happy with one input, as long as it sounds good.