Suggest A Good Usb/fw Interface, Help beginners find affordable quality Options

[MoonDark]

hello , I have like 550 bucks

And I am planning to get a new interface ( since I sold my M-Audio FW 410 , what a piece of crap, not returning to M-Audio anytime soon ... )

I was thinking on the MBox 2 , but now that I have read here, are there other options available ??? I need strong driver support, I want to record synths , maybe little vocals and guitars... but not too much of those..

Suggestions?

[mortalengines]

I hear nothing but good things about the presonus firepod- I myself have a Mackie 1220 mixer with firewire option & like the heck out of it, but that would be about 650 bucks (worth every penny though).

[arvidtp]

if you need strong driver support, stay away from anything that says Mbox. my experiences with the Mbox 1 have been nothing but trouble. From what it looks like, the Mbox 2 doesn't seem much different. I saw the video - they say it uses USb 1.1 - then the guy, looking like he needs an excuse says "...for the widest compatibility..." Its almost a joke how much the thing has not changed, and how ugly it looks. [Sorry digidesign, i just have bad memories from those early OS X/pro tools LE/Mbox days.]

This post has been edited by arvidtp: Sat 17 Sep 2005, 23:27

[MoonDark]

Thanks a lot , I think that I may go with MOTU stuff, it can cost more, but the drivers seem to be very solid ,

maybe ill go with a 828 MkII

[SadPandas]

For what it is worth. With the Presouns products you don't need drivers. I have the FIreBox and it uses the core audio frivers native to OSX. Good luck.

pandas

[mortalengines]

the same is true of the mackie onyx firewire card- The Mac audio drivers automatically recognize the onyx. very cool if you have 10.3.5 or higher.

[rickenbacker]

Moondark: the destinies of Mbox and M-Audio are now inextricably entwined, what with the Pro Tools tie-up, so personally I'd stay away from both. All other recommendations here seem wise. I like the FireBox very much, didn't enjoy the Saffire like I hoped, and can vouch for the non-falling-over capabilities of the MOTU 828. I actually sold mine and switched to the FireBox, but that was more of a portable/space-saving issue than performance.

[groovey]

I''m also in the middle of buying an interface. Guess I'll also be going for the Firebox. But why the heck does it have such high requirements?? I have an iBook G4/800, which is just on the edge of being enough. What kind of machines are you Fireboxers using it with? My baby just can't be THAT old! Also what about those CPU usage peaks I read people are having with Firebox. I hope it's just a rumour...

[rickenbacker]

From what I can tell, the only real requirement of the FireBox is OS X 10.3.7, as the drivers for it are contained in the CoreAudio of that particular update. It has worked on my iBook G3 600MHz as a basic I/O audio interface. I don't record on this machine, but I'm happy with its performance on my PowerMac

[groovey]

Thanks, rickenbacker! I guess it is going to be FireBox. The specs are just what I need, and the price isn't that bad either.