Advice on multichannel audio interface

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luispa
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Advice on multichannel audio interface

Post by luispa »

Hi,
I'm looking for a multichannel firewire audio interface, I need at least 8 mic preamps, ADAT ports are desirable but not required. I do prefer full Linux support. I could locally buy these used units:
- Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 I/O
- M-Audio Profire 2626
- Apogee Ensemble (It has only 4 preamps but AFAIK better AD/DA)

Eventually I could add these units:
- PreSonus Firestudio
- Mackie Onyx 400F

Which one do you recommend?
Thank you very much in advance
j_e_f_f_g
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Re: Advice on multichannel audio interface

Post by j_e_f_f_g »

My first advice is: forget firewire. It's deprecated. You'd be buying into a technology for which support is slated to be abandoned.

Get a device that attaches via usb, and conforms to the USB Audio standard (ie, is USB-Audio compliant).

My second advice is: forget about using more than one interface simultaneously unless they are designed to be hardware synced (for example, both support word clock sync). The linux audio stack does not do any sort of attempt at syncing the streams of devices via software algorithms.

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luispa
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Re: Advice on multichannel audio interface

Post by luispa »

Thank you very much for your reply. I don't plan to use more than one device, the interfaces I mentioned are alternatives, I'd purchase only one of those.
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Largos
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Re: Advice on multichannel audio interface

Post by Largos »

What jeff said. I have a focusrite saffire 40. It mostly works, except the midi input. I need to do some thing where I put the computer into suspend mode off and on to get it to work. It requires a pci card for the firewire port because motherboards no longer have them. I spent the money years ago, so I don't mind dealing with the faff but I wouldn't recommend anyone to spend on firewire now when there are USB class compliant options available.

Unless you enjoy the faff or are going to have it on a non internet connected machine with obsolete everything on it.
luispa
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Re: Advice on multichannel audio interface

Post by luispa »

Thank you for your reply. I already have firewire stuff, a Yamaha GO46, I'm more than happy with it. I have a Firewire card on my desktop (TI chipset). I just need more inputs.
luispa
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Re: Advice on multichannel audio interface

Post by luispa »

Largos wrote: Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:56 pm What jeff said. I have a focusrite saffire 40. It mostly works, except the midi input. I need to do some thing where I put the computer into suspend mode off and on to get it to work. It requires a pci card for the firewire port because motherboards no longer have them. I spent the money years ago, so I don't mind dealing with the faff but I wouldn't recommend anyone to spend on firewire now when there are USB class compliant options available.
I bought a Saffire Pro 40 which I can't make to work because is the revised version, there's no way to make ffado-mixer to work, I'm selling it for buying a compatible interface with similar specs.
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