Looking for a new audio interface (again)

[_tom_]

Hope this is the right forum, dont know how many responses I'd get in any others. Anyway I have a Presonus Inspire 1394 now and its good until it messes up. I think its the vista drivers or my firewire chipset. I cant really be arsed with changing to a new firewire card only to have it be shiteeeeeee again so I want to go for something more reliable. What I like about the Presonus interface is that its really simple and uncluttered and sounds fairly neutral/flat. I also like the software control panel. There are a couple I'm looking at but just cant decide between them:

Edirol UA-25EX

TC Electronic Konnekt 8

The TC looks nice but takes up a fair bit of room from the looks of things. The Edirol has seemed the best but I hear the mic pres are a bit metallic and sterile sounding. Was looking at M-Audio but the plasticcy look puts me off a bit, doesnt seem very stable. Any other recommendations?

All I need/want is:

Stable Vista drivers
2 (switchable) phantom powered xlr inputs
a hi-z guitar input for DI guitar/bass and amplitube
USB 2.0 connectivity

[roland_rat]

I keep toying with geting one of these :-

http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/PowerStudio/

price is £140 its ment to be based on the first one you listed. 

[_tom_]

Yeah I was looking at that before but I dont really want all the bundled software, I'm really happy with Reaper and dont really see any need to change and have to relearn the program again. Could be worth it though as the new Edirol is actually more expensive than that and the cakewalk one is pretty much guaranteed to work in vista..

[roland_rat]

Im not seeing the Edirol UA-25EX much cheaper than the bundle. Unless it is much better I would opt for the bundle and just use reaper.  At a later date the newer software might get some use you never know.

[_tom_]

Yeah.. I think the EX has some improvements over the UA25 thats with the cakewalk stuff though so its probably worth the extra money. It's usb 2.0 for a start, I think the standard 25 is just 1.1.

[MDV]

I wouldnt hesitate to get an EMU 0404 with your requirements.

[_tom_]

Thats what I was originally going to go for but a load of reviews on musicians friend and sweetw@ter music said that it doesnt work too well in Vista. As well as that apparently the input gain controls are too sensitive and so are fairly useless as you cant always get it just right :\

[roland_rat]

I can understand your logic now Tom in going for that one instead of the bundle.  I just had not realised there was so much difference.  I will be very intresed in hearing how it is if you do go for it. Im still tempted with the bundle thoughmy situation and yours are different. You already have software that you like where as I need the lot. I am also tempted with a guitar thats on the bay.  One thing is for sure I cannot buy the bundle till I rule out geting the guitar.

[ailean]

Install XP?

[_tom_]

Nah I hate XP after using vista for a bit. Cant be arsed to defend vista but I'm definitely not going back to XP :)

[AndyR]

Nah I hate XP after using vista for a bit. Cant be arsed to defend vista but I'm definitely not going back to XP :)

That statement's actually a pretty good defense of vista :lol:

[ailean]

Nah I hate XP after using vista for a bit. Cant be arsed to defend vista but I'm definitely not going back to XP :)

A fair point well made. Can I suggest a dual boot system?

I'm not here to tell you how to spend your money, but it seems odd to do so when you have a setup that works to your satisfaction now.

I have an EMU 0404 (on MDV's advice) and I like it, have you looked to see if they have any updated firmware / drivers for Vista?

[_tom_]

ok this is really weird. I was playing along to some backing tracks today, with my guitar through amplitube 2 (plugged into the Inspires hi-z input). The backing track started making that crackly distorted noise thing, but the guitar sounded fine :\ I read that I can disable my onboard audio through the bios, reading the manual that doesnt look hard to do, seems like I just enter setup, go to integrated peripherals then disable the OnChip audio controller. Does that sound about right? I know going into the bios can seriously mess up the system so I dont want to break it, but if that sounds safe I'll give it a go.

Presonus tech support said to make sure the onboard audio is disabled but didnt say whether to do it just in windows or in the bios as well..

[prozacbear]

Yeah that sounds about right, or you can disable it in the hardware manager within vista too.

Yes you can screw up your system in the bios, but as long as you don't mess with anything else you'll be fine. Also most BIOS's have a 'Restore Default' option to save you from disaster :)

[_tom_]

Ok I've done it in device manager for now so will see how it goes with that. I just had it disabled in the sound properties "playback devices" bit before so hopefully there wont be any conflict now.