sr1200
Well-known member
What about that new Apollo thing from UA? Looks pretty solid. Dont know if thats over your price range, but their stuff always impresses.
Audio interfaces in the mid range (Echo Digital Audios audiofire)?
- Thread starter pepe
- Start date
Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:
riggler
Well-known member
I have an Audiofire 12 paired up with a Lynx AES16e PCIe card. Initially had the aforementioned irregular buffer delay issues. I emailed Echo for the latest drivers (OS X) and they emailed their latest drivers to me. Been very smooth since then. I absolutely love this box. No junk I don't need. Nice that it has basic metering and sounds just fine. I do clock mine to the Lynx card though.
Mbira
Well-known member
I love my Audiofire 12. I use it live, and I have done about 200+ gigs with it. I have had problems with with soundcard twice, and both times were remedied by turning off the unit and turning it back on. I'm happy.
Autophase
Well-known member
fabriciom said:
I have to comment on this as I had the problem my self, and can confirm it is not a problem with the card.
I was getting noise on mine, it was simply a case of checking the motherboard grounding, my case had only one metal motherboard pillar, the rest were plastic, however my motherboard was only using 2 of the 6 fixing holes as grounding points. In this instance, neither were alligned, so i took the motherboard out, swapped the metal pillar to a differentposition which alligned with one of the motherboard grounding points, secured it down. re assembled the system, and now, no hiss or interference even when amplification is at max.
True I didnt have problems with usb interfaces, but I would say that a high quality pcie card such as the AIO is not necessarily prone to hiss and interference, I would argue that they simply expose weakness' in motherboard design and system configuration.
other things to consider with any internal sound card is, proximity to other cards, expecially graphics card, and internal cables, a good system should be nice and tidy in side, in a tower run all of the cables as far away from the sound card as possible, im sure any self respecting DIY'er in the forum would appreciate.
The simple fact remains the AIO is on of the best PCIe cards on the market, and in terms of lateny, no external interface can compete.
if in doubt see here http://www.dawbench.com/win7-v-osx-5.htm
fabriciom
Member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2012
- Messages
- 8
From my personal experience I would recommend the OP to go with (buy used) RayDAT + ADI 2, RayDAT + ADI 8 Pro or my case RayDAT + ADI 8 DS if you need 96k. I had to buy the RayDAT new but I got a second hand ADI 8 Pro for 500€ on ebay. Later decided to go with the 96k unit and sold my Pro and bought a DS. Way better converters than the AIO. The ADI 8 Pro is an awsome converter for 500€. Also, I get the same latency as I did with the AIO, its a rock solid setup.
On another note you could go AES for future upgrades but I looked into this and it just goes way out of my price range.
-Cheers
On another note you could go AES for future upgrades but I looked into this and it just goes way out of my price range.
-Cheers
ramshackles
Well-known member
You mentioned echo but not many people have replied about it, so I'll give my 2 cents.
IMO, the echo layla 24 is a great unit. The only downside is that they are discontinued. On the plus side they are fairly cheap on ebay. I got mine for ~£90 including the PCI card. It's in great condition.
I'd like to get another layla converter to up my number of channels to 16, but that means I'll have to start looking into PCI card options...unless echo did/do a pci card to handle more than 1 converter...
IMO, the echo layla 24 is a great unit. The only downside is that they are discontinued. On the plus side they are fairly cheap on ebay. I got mine for ~£90 including the PCI card. It's in great condition.
I'd like to get another layla converter to up my number of channels to 16, but that means I'll have to start looking into PCI card options...unless echo did/do a pci card to handle more than 1 converter...
pepe
Active member
Why not first go with an Echo AudioFire8 and maybe later upgrade the system with a RME PCIe? Because the manual for the AudioFire units says that it supports standalone operation. This could then, if I got things right, act as a reasonable priced AD/DA converter interface (8ch in/8ch out).
Is there anybody here who can verify the AudioFire8’s routing options? Is it possible to configure it as an A/D-D/A ADAT, i.e. to route the 8 Analog Inputs to the ADAT Optical Outputs and the ADAT Input to the Analog Outputs?
Is there anybody here who can verify the AudioFire8’s routing options? Is it possible to configure it as an A/D-D/A ADAT, i.e. to route the 8 Analog Inputs to the ADAT Optical Outputs and the ADAT Input to the Analog Outputs?
kato
Well-known member
In agreement with previous posters; if you want out of the Echo/Focusrite/Presonus bracket, you've got to save up for RME or similar. Anything less will sound like what you've already got.
For affordable quality also look into Metric Halo. Similarly priced to rme.
For affordable quality also look into Metric Halo. Similarly priced to rme.
dmp
Well-known member
You can connect another 8 channels through the ADAT to have 16 channels. The only limitation is the 48khz max bandwidth of ADAT.
I have been recording this way with 16 channels, 44.1khz, 24bit, for years.
manulaudic
Well-known member
I am not sure what you will connecting it to but my Audiofire 2 doesn't work most of the time.
Clicks and pops everything. Impossible to work with unless you are playing piano samples during a gig and that's it...
The sound is good when there is no clicks and i have tried every sample rate available plus all the drivers from Echo,
it's a very know issue, Pops and Clicks due to Firewire mostly but i believe more due to their gear cause i have never had this problem with my Mbox2 pro which is no good sound but still works like a charm...
Stay away from Echo if you going for something durable.
It's only my opinion though
Manu
Clicks and pops everything. Impossible to work with unless you are playing piano samples during a gig and that's it...
The sound is good when there is no clicks and i have tried every sample rate available plus all the drivers from Echo,
it's a very know issue, Pops and Clicks due to Firewire mostly but i believe more due to their gear cause i have never had this problem with my Mbox2 pro which is no good sound but still works like a charm...
Stay away from Echo if you going for something durable.
It's only my opinion though
Manu
sethinspain
Active member
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2011
- Messages
- 36
I give +1 for Echo.
I had researched tons of units and I mean tons for a long time before I finally made a purchase. I read reviews, complaints, suggestions, everything that I could find related to audio interfaces all over the web.
I went with Echo because RME specs very similarly yet is much more expensive. I have never had an issue with support either. Yeah, some may say specs are just specs and each company is trying to sell you on their own product, but the quality to price point was as clear as day for me with the audiofire. To me it seemed like Echo was an honest company doing their thing with not spending a lot on advertising. No other interface except the Emu 0404 USB (discontinued) specs the same for the price.
I only wish I had bought one with more inputs because I realize now I will be using this thing for a while.
Good luck man.
I had researched tons of units and I mean tons for a long time before I finally made a purchase. I read reviews, complaints, suggestions, everything that I could find related to audio interfaces all over the web.
I went with Echo because RME specs very similarly yet is much more expensive. I have never had an issue with support either. Yeah, some may say specs are just specs and each company is trying to sell you on their own product, but the quality to price point was as clear as day for me with the audiofire. To me it seemed like Echo was an honest company doing their thing with not spending a lot on advertising. No other interface except the Emu 0404 USB (discontinued) specs the same for the price.
I only wish I had bought one with more inputs because I realize now I will be using this thing for a while.
Good luck man.
useme2305
Well-known member
the Audiofire 12 is a very good sounding box. very nice and clean concept with no bullsh*t you don't need. fairy stable too....but there will be some issues from time to time.
as soon as it comes to integrating your outboard with your daw it's pretty much useless due to the weird latency irregularities.
i don't have a UFX yet but i'm planning to buy one with spring....all the converter tests and comparisons i've heard were very very good. it beat the new UA Apollo in a mass blind test on GS.
as soon as it comes to integrating your outboard with your daw it's pretty much useless due to the weird latency irregularities.
i don't have a UFX yet but i'm planning to buy one with spring....all the converter tests and comparisons i've heard were very very good. it beat the new UA Apollo in a mass blind test on GS.
ramshackles
Well-known member
I'm running 2 Echo Layla 24's now.
Gives a total of 16 TRS I/O. One unit is slaved to the other and they are each in seperate PCI slots. Echo have updated the drivers for windows 7 and runs great, no glitches.
Not high end, but at about £200 for the pair (ebay, bought seperately), it's awesome IMO.
Gives a total of 16 TRS I/O. One unit is slaved to the other and they are each in seperate PCI slots. Echo have updated the drivers for windows 7 and runs great, no glitches.
Not high end, but at about £200 for the pair (ebay, bought seperately), it's awesome IMO.
dmp
Well-known member
I uselayla24s as well, with expansions, 32 channels.
I just upgraded to win7 last weekend and things are working really smoothly. Immediately better than XP. And I do not have latency problems with outboard gear.
Echo is a great company. I think the firewire interface is the weak link, and causes people problems. Sticking with the layla24 via PCI is very robust.
A friend has audiofire12s and he was having continual problems until he got a good firewire card.
pepe
Active member
Firewire is apparently on its way out making a usb solution more interesting and future proof. I'm at the moment leaning very much towards the RME Fireface UC. It looks very interesting. The ins and outs on this interface is more than enough for my home studio recording needs (also smallest buffer under Mac OS X is 14 samples!). I am now running a Mac mini quad so the option is usb or firewire.
AMZ-FX
Well-known member
manu, increase the size of the buffer for the Audiofire and see if that fixes the problem. It is common to get pops and other issues when the buffer size is too small.
I have an Audiofire 4 and it is rock solid and sounds great.
Also, not all firewire interfaces are created equal, and it is known that some of the firewire chipsets used on low end motherboards have a problem with high speed audio.
Best regards, Jack
I have an Audiofire 4 and it is rock solid and sounds great.
Also, not all firewire interfaces are created equal, and it is known that some of the firewire chipsets used on low end motherboards have a problem with high speed audio.
Best regards, Jack
bobtheninja
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2010
- Messages
- 29
I would reccomend going for a used Metric Halo 2882. http://mhsecure.com/metric_halo/products/hardware/2882.html
It's a good little card, and if you're hanging around here you probably make your own preamps anyway (the pres on the Metric Halo 2882 is decent, but don't have enough clean gain for ribbons and such). They released it in 2001, a long long time ago in the age of digital audio, but they released a big hardware update for it in 2008 if memory serves me. That's pretty amazing, and you can buy the update (or buy one with it preinstalled) and just install it yourself. None of the planned obsolence stuff that seems to be so tempting for a lot of companies.
I have one of these and I can really reccomend it. Check it out.
It's a good little card, and if you're hanging around here you probably make your own preamps anyway (the pres on the Metric Halo 2882 is decent, but don't have enough clean gain for ribbons and such). They released it in 2001, a long long time ago in the age of digital audio, but they released a big hardware update for it in 2008 if memory serves me. That's pretty amazing, and you can buy the update (or buy one with it preinstalled) and just install it yourself. None of the planned obsolence stuff that seems to be so tempting for a lot of companies.
I have one of these and I can really reccomend it. Check it out.
mulletchuck
Well-known member
Apogee Quartet. $1295
it's replacing the Ensemble ($1995)
it's replacing the Ensemble ($1995)
Hi
I'm looking for a higher io count for a modest budget too and spotted a pair of echo event laylas on ebay. I know they're over 10 years old now (1999 I think). But I was wondering whether anyone's used these units much and what their opinions/experiences were.
Cheers, tom
I'm looking for a higher io count for a modest budget too and spotted a pair of echo event laylas on ebay. I know they're over 10 years old now (1999 I think). But I was wondering whether anyone's used these units much and what their opinions/experiences were.
Cheers, tom
Similar threads
