It’s not only problematic for Mac users. I am on Windows and I was a happy user of Sapphire Pro 40 which I bought around 2015 or earlier. It worked great until 2022 when Focusrite decided to discontinue the support of drivers starting from some specific version of WIN 10. So in the end you have a choice to stay with old system or to update and risk that the interface won’t work properly.
And I had to buy a new interface. Good thing is that the Saffire can be still used as ADAT I/O. But anyway, I really dislike the idea of discarding the device which could be used for next 10 years only because there is no will to update the driver. And this is why i switched to RME
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 : honestly had no complaints. I found everything pretty easy to use. Sound quality is fine - but ime there is a noticeable difference when you step up to more expensive interfaces
Komplete audio 6 mk2: i wanted more i/o and smooth compatibility with maschine plus in standalone. It worked well for that but I’d only recommend it for that specific use case. There’s a weird limitation of the direct monitoring where you can’t hear it through the main outputs. Sound is nothing special. Perhaps on par or slightly worse than the Scarlett
Apogee boom: moving away from dawless and back itb - i wanted better sound quality and direct monitoring. I did not need much i/o. Sound quality is incredible and my favorite from any interface. To me it was noticeable in terms of clarity and dynamic range. Connection was a bit finicky at times when connecting/disconnecting from my laptop. Sometimes it wouldn’t detect but not a huge issue or enough to be a deal breaker.
Rme fireface ucx ii: really nice sound quality and never had any connectivity issues. The drivers are as stable as everyone says. I think i actually prefer the sound of apogee a bit more but still, it’s a clear step up from the Scarlett/ komplete. Staying with this for the time being but considering swapping for an apogee with similar i/o in the future
I’ve been on a bit of a journey with Firewire that started with buying a cheap, near new condition Saffire Pro 40 last year which I bought it purely to be used as an ADAT expander for my Push 3. Luckily I had a Mac Mini 1,1 from 2006 that had a Firewire 400 port. Unfortunately I’d forgotten the password, so I had to reinstall the OS (not straightforward). All of this just to change the ADAT clock and routing settings on an interface.
Despite all that I still like keeping defunct tech running, so I was looking into whether I could get Firewire audio working with my main 2020 Intel iMac, with Ableton 12, on a modern OS. Here’s what I’ve learned:
Monterey ticks all the boxes - still contains support for Firewire audio, compatible with Ableton 12, and is by far the most stable of the most recent releases of MacOS.
Scarcity has sent the price for Thunderbolt to Firewire adaptors through the roof, including some of the more popular Thunderbolt docks. You can still find Thunderbolt docks with Firewire ports for cheap if you look at brands other than OWC.
Don’t buy one of those cheap TB2 to TB3 adaptors on eBay, they’re only for displays and won’t transfer data. You will unfortunately have to buy an official Apple adaptor, luckily they aren’t obscenely expensive.
I’m posting this because it’s interesting and I enjoy digging into this stuff, but Firewire is absolutely defunct and not worth it. Switchmode said it best:
I’m also a sucker for trying to keep old gear going as long as possible. What I find frustrating is that FireWire is actually part of the Thunderbolt spec, so in theory there should be no issue updating drivers to support these older devices on newer operating systems with the right adapter. MOTU can clearly do it, but Focusrite not-so-much.
Yeah - I picked up a Belkin one a few months ago. Works a charm with my MOTU Traveller Mk3 with Focusrite Pro 40 in standalone ADAT expander mode. Sixteen channels of AD/DA goodness for not much money at all as people are basically throwing these out because of the FireWire port.
Komplete Audio 6 MKII is also great for M+ because it has a digital output, allowing one to completely bypass NI converters, while still having improved performance on the M+ compared to using an ext USB Class Compliant audio interface. This is the strategy to use when you want the best possible conversion quiality for the M+ running in standalone mode
I haven’t measured specifically, but I’ve had no issues personally playing guitar through Guitar Rig etc.
I really like the products they put out in theory, but I haven’t had much direct experience other than one of their older midi interfaces. People seem to have mixed success with them. Another interface I came across recently that lets you connect two computers is this one from Antelope:
It’s actually pretty reasonably priced for what you get. Four preamps, standalone operation with onboard DSP fx.
I love this sort of thing, thanks for sharing. I have some old PCs around I could get a firewire interface going on, but it would just be doing it for the sake of it.
Forgive my dumb ass, but why do all these interfaces always have huge input numbers but far fewer actual inputs? Youll see an interface that’s like “28 in 24 out” but it only has 8 mono inputs on the back.
I want basically a dumb box with almost no features that has like, 8 stereo inputs, so (16) 1/4" mono inputs that can be linked in daw. I want my synths all plugged in always and able to be recorded simultaneously and immediately, all stereo.
That’s their total supported I/O through all of the interface types.
My MOTU 828 is 10 analog in, 2x ADAT (each x8) + 2x SPDIF… 28 in. Same with the outputs.
To get that, however, you have to have ADAT expanders (like AudioFuse 8 IN) and something that sends S/PDIF (like a Virus TI or a digital mixer or something).
This is entirely reasonable and it shits me too. It’s to do with ADAT and how many channels of audio the interface can support over USB when expanded via ADAT. There’s probably a smarter and more correct explanation than that.
I think the Audient EVO 16 does what you’re after, seems pretty no nonsense and has all the I/O on one side of the box.
Edit - you’d need two EVO 16’s for all those inputs, or an EVO 16 and an additional interface for ADAT expansion (Audient has the SP8).
The Evo 16 seems to be one of the best offers these days. It’s reasonably priced, has enough physical inputs and lots of ADAT I/O.
I’ve been looking for an interface for a while (not anymore though, since I’m out of money and have to keep using the KA6 mk1 with it’s 4x4 physical I/O for the foreseeable future), and these are the best ones in my opinion:
Focusrite Scarlett 16i16: affordable, not much I/O out of the box
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20: not that cheap, but has loads of I/O even if you don’t expand it
Audient Evo 16: affordable, enough I/O plus 2x ADAT, now that’s
MOTU Ultralite mk5: relatively expensive, but fancy
Something from Presonus, I don’t remember exactly, but they had some reasonable priced interfaces as well
Others are either lacking in terms of inputs, have poor support, or are too expensive.
Yeah, this bugs me too, because often things like midi i/o get included in the total count.
I get it, you can’t list all the numbers and qualifications in the product name, but it’s a pain when you specifically want to search by analog audio i/o. The thomann website used to let you filter by the number of analog i/o, which I always thought was considerate for them to go into that level of detail with their site and inventory system.
If you don’t want to go to ADAT to get the channel count the Arturia 16rig has the number of inputs you want. There was also the Motu 16A, and then there’s things like the Behringer/Midas XR18 digital mixers which seem to be a solid choice. There’s a few other digital mixer options in rack format that double as audio interfaces as well, Presonus, Zoom livetrak, some soundcraft and A&H options.
I have a Soundcraft UI24r and it works well as an interface and it sounds quite good. Recently did some multichannel live recording with it and I was very pleased.
There are a couple of things to consider (that may or may not matter)
-It only operates at 48K
-22 inputs but only 10 of them are quarter inch
-the only real way to expand I/O is to add another unit
no digital I/O
-there are no hardware controls and you will need to even set the input gain via a web connection
I would personally lean toward the Arturia if I were doing it today.
they offer an upgrade path so the system is modular in nature and can be user serviced
really good support, and it has on board dsp to run all the MH plugins (included for free) on board like the UAD system
the mixer UI is outdated and a bit clunky but super powerful and achieves everything i need once i learned the routing system
i have a burl b2 adc and dangerous dac connected via AES, and eventide h9k over adat (8 in 8 out) along with my apollo gen 2 over spdif. everything clocked and routed through the Lio-8 with ability to switch my burl b2 to master clock with word clock. you can setup alot of virtual host channels but it does cut down your sample rate from 192khz to lower once going past like 24 i/o
sound quality is great, and i love the IO since it has 8in/8out over aes, regular 8 in out over dsub, with a pass through dsub out, 1/4 inch monitor out and 2 front DI inputs. i have spdif and adat edge card expansion which i use for 4x adat and 2x spdif.
the midi ports are not recommended for instruments and just for controlling the mixer, i do think at this price you will be ok spending a couple hundred on a dedicated midi interface though.
my other recommendation would be the RME ufx line, definitely hard to beat price wise especially if you’re in europe
if i ever stumble upon copious amounts of money again through various risky investments (lol) i’ll probably upgrade to something like a prism dream chassis and go all out. but 'til then i’m quite happy with the metric halo lio 8
According to BJ, this was only true for the FireWire interface. Since they upgraded to the 3D, the midi ports are as good as any when you connect via USB, which is the only way they’re actually addressable.
Something ti do with the FireWire being an”polling” interface and USB is a push model… anyway, he described them as 1st class MIDI interfaces that show up in CoreMidi.
I just happened to ask this very same question on the mailing list this past weekend.
looks neat. for me, it feels like a waste to get something that has 8 XLR-only inputs on the front that i won’t use. I guess i’d expect the market to offer something specifically for eletronic music, with all line-ins.
I’m not in a hurry to make a purchase, but I’ve been doing a bit more exploring of options to suit my quirky setup.
I’ve decided I would like to have at least 16 outputs from the interface if I decide to do some mixing on my mixer. This is just a nice to have option really.
To get this in a desktop format, the options seem to be:
Audient Evo 16. Best bang for buck, probably slightly bigger than I want. 16 outs could be a combo of adat and analog (although the cost of the trs snake is probably on par with another ADA8200). It also means all its preamps are not in a useful location for me, not a big deal but seems a waste.
Audient id44mk2. Pricier, too big still but a bit smaller than the evo16, controls on the top which I like. Hardware inserts could be useful. Would still need another adat converter at some point for 16 outputs. Really like the dual 3.5mm and 1/4 inch HP jacks.
Presonus Quantum HD2. I like this one because it’s a bit different. Size is good. 16 adat io is good. Only 2 preamps so doesn’t feel like a waste of analog io where I don’t need it. Instrument inputs and reamp outputs on the front. Comes with Studio One Pro which I’ve been considering trying out anyway. Still need extra ADAT converter.
Tbh, the best approach is probably the EVO16, rack it, and just keep using my Audient id14 where it is, and just change the active device in windows when I need to.
