# Which audio interface?



## stephendbarnes

Hey everyone. I'm in the prep stages of setting up a small home studio for my personal recording projects. I do not not need high I/O count and will not be recording entire bands at one time. My preference for connection due to mobility needs an low latency requirements leans toward firewire. I am currently looking at two units and would like an honest opinion of which one is a better unit based on you personal experience. The two devices I am considering are:

PreSonus FireStudio Mobile 10x6 FireWire
or
Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 

Does anyone have any input as to the quality or "sound" of the mic pre's in these units? I know the built in pre's are not going to be anything like dedicated pre's but I'm on a TIGHT budget and need to select something that will do the job in a respectable manner. Also, can anyone tell me about ease of setup and possible driver issues?
Please note that I do realize not everyone has used these things, but if you have, and can share your experiences, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Steve


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## planetnine

I have the previous generation of the Focusrite unit, the Pro10 and the Pro26. The mic preamps are very good, esp for the price, and I understand they may have got better. The direct monitoring certainly has, and can be used when recording live instruments and vocals without worrying about latency. If you don't need the channel-count of the Pro40, the 24 looks a nice buy with the only downers I can see being the non-rack format (personal thing) and needing the external PSU (Pro40 is IEC lead). 

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## stephendbarnes

planetnine said:


> I have the previous generation of the Focusrite unit, the Pro10 and the Pro26. The mic preamps are very good, esp for the price, and I understand they may have got better. The direct monitoring certainly has, and can be used when recording live instruments and vocals without worrying about latency. If you don't need the channel-count of the Pro40, the 24 looks a nice buy with the only downers I can see being the non-rack format (personal thing) and needing the external PSU (Pro40 is IEC lead).
> 
> >


Thanks for the reply. I've been on the road for a few weeks and did not see this until today. I appreciate your time..thanks.


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## rokus666

I would go with focusrite. Better preamps and overall better sound quality IMHO


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## yuasa

did you made you choice yet?

consider a m-audio mobile pre 2 gen usb audio interface
bundeled with avid pro tools 9, low noise, mic preamp and phantom P


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## planetnine

Or buy a focusrite and use REAPER for better quality for less money.



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## ArnoldNL

Focusrite all the way on this one! Presonus builds great stuff for awesome prices, but Focusrite Saffire-series have always had the better functional interfaces. I absolutely love mine! Good buy for a good price!


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## reibian

A complete newbie to this forum, but I have been tinkering with DAW for sometime. I've been saving for RME myself. It seems quite a few people who are in DAW seem to think RME is the right stuff especially considering the latency. Apparently, they are the only ones make their own controller hardware as opposed to using OEM parts. 

"RME are unique not only in the level of development that they apply at both controller and driver level , but also in the level of performance that they have achieved across all of the available protocols." - From dawbench 

My two ￥


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## hlaudio

Hey! You guys should visit the gearsluts website... http://www.gearslutz.com/board/ you will lots of stuff here.


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## reibian

Yes, I've been snooping there...
Lynx looks great and seems many people consider it a bottom-end professional, but way too much for this pair of mediocre ears of mine. 
(1ms or less latency would be great, but...)
So, back to RME... :sob:


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## maximumav

stephendbarnes said:


> Hey everyone. I'm in the prep stages of setting up a small home studio for my personal recording projects. I do not not need high I/O count and will not be recording entire bands at one time. My preference for connection due to mobility needs an low latency requirements leans toward firewire. I am currently looking at two units and would like an honest opinion of which one is a better unit based on you personal experience. The two devices I am considering are:
> 
> PreSonus FireStudio Mobile 10x6 FireWire
> or
> Focusrite Saffire Pro 24
> 
> Does anyone have any input as to the quality or "sound" of the mic pre's in these units? I know the built in pre's are not going to be anything like dedicated pre's but I'm on a TIGHT budget and need to select something that will do the job in a respectable manner. Also, can anyone tell me about ease of setup and possible driver issues?
> Please note that I do realize not everyone has used these things, but if you have, and can share your experiences, I would appreciate it.
> 
> Thanks,
> Steve


If you are considering a Firewire device for "mobility", you should think again. Firewire is almost non-existent in todays laptops. Just a thought.


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## Trine Records

I have tried many converters in my studio, Roland, M-audio, Presonus. I am now using a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 and it preforms great. Latency is very low and acceptable for tracking. Great output configuration as well.


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## fletch44

maximumav said:


> If you are considering a Firewire device for "mobility", you should think again. Firewire is almost non-existent in todays laptops. Just a thought.


It's trivial to buy a cardbus firewire card to run your interface through. It's actually a good idea to, because you can specifically buy one with a Texas Instruments chip which is known to be stable for recording, as opposed to relying on the onboard firewire which may not be usable due to dropouts.


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## fletch44

I know this is an old thread, but in case anyone is searching for info and stumbles across it: Presonus are pretty poor quality, as are M-Audio. In that price range Focusrite is definitely the way to go, and if you're willing to spend more, RME are a great choice, as someone else mentioned.


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## planetnine

Just a note about FW obsolesence -with the Focusrite interfces you can use a Thunderbolt laptop with the TB FW adapter, so FW devices should not be considered unsupported...


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