| I have an Alesis MultiMix 8 FireWire.
When I first got it it took a while to get installed and running. But then an IC chip blew (for some unknown reason). Alesis payed for shipping and fixed it for no price and since then it's been working completely fine. After I got it back I reinstalled the drivers and it has been working fine since then. I regularly record 8 tracks at 16/44.1 with absolutely no glitches, instability, etc. (On Windows XP Pro SP2). Though most of the time I use it as a mixer, not a recording interface.
The preamps are okay, I wouldn't call them dull but they are noisy. It does have 99 built in effects (reverbs, chorus, flanger, delay, pitch and combinations) which sound better than I thought. The pitch shifter is pretty horrid, but I don't mind the reverbs. The EQ is +/- 15dB at 12khz, 2.5khz and 80hz, and the first 4 channels have a switchable high pass filter at 75hz and an extra gain control. It has FX sends and returns which again work fine.
The build quality seems good. Mostly metal. Never had any of the knobs or buttons coming loose or falling off or anything like that. Never had any problems with the inputs/outputs. No noisy pots. So it's all good there.
Overall it's pretty much what I expected for the price. If it got stolen or something I don't think I'd replace it with another Alesis MultiMix, but probably try something else, just for the sake of trying something else.
At the end of the day those FireWire interfaces (M-audio, Mackie, Alesis, Yamaha) all have their pro's and con's and I'd say you get what you pay for. |