Where can I go to get reviews of interfaces?

[elpelotero]

I have done a lot of searching and reading on here, but there's just way too many opinions and options for me to form a valid opinion as to which interface is the best one for me. Nothing wrong with that, but we all know that musical tastes and gear choices are subjective.

I need to read some objective reviews. Where can I go for that?

[Black86]

the best thing to do would be to buy it and if you don't like it, return it

[elpelotero]

i don't have the resources for that unfortunately

[thecount_x]

Originally Posted by elpelotero

I need to read some objective reviews. Where can I go for that?

Greetings

Give Harmony Central a try. It is not the be-all and end-all of objective analysis, but it can be quite useful.

Computer Recording Interfaces Reviews: Harmony Central® - User Reviews


Hope this helps.

Clifton

[gio.vanni]

A search on Gearslutz and then reading the results is better than any review you will find anywhere. You might even learn a thing or two about the gear you were looking at that you didn't know.

And as thecount_ said above, brows around HC and their forums for even more info.

[Tibbon]

Originally Posted by elpelotero

i don't have the resources for that unfortunately

Find a professional gear dealer. And by that I mean NOT guitar center.

I'm fairly certain if a certain interface that I'd purchase from somewhere like Mercenary turned out to be complete rubbish then they'd swap it out for another one. I was impressed at the service offered when I was even just in line for purchasing an Ensemble. The Guitar Center guys wouldn't even call me back, but at Merc they would get off the phone with me, call Apogee, and call me back within 5 minutes.

Any reputable gear dealer should be able to set you up with a good system.

All reviews online and in magazines will have either opinion or bias involved almost certainly.

Anything by RME, Digidesign or Apogee should generally work just fine however.

[Jay-]

If its ok, I posted a mini review as I tested out several units.


I could recommend These FireWire DAW Control Surface and Audio/MIDI Interface.

I was in the end able to retire this from my home studio:

16 channel analog mixer
PCI 24/bit sound card
USB midi interface.

The benefit was I lost ALL my older outdated PC interface equipment in favor of an all in one DAW controller with "motorized flying memory faders"

TO boot I have like 11 channels now all working in my studio, no more unplugging to make room for my acoustic or second Mic. I have FOUR XLR microphones working at once now and my Guitar effects rack has an amazing 6 channels and two digital so I am able to select for what ever output I need from within my DAW.

For me again, its a major advantage to have a single kit working as, mixer, fader bank, midi interface, sound card.

Try the interfaces I listed. A few people had some complaints about each of the ones I listed and they simply returned to guitar center or what ever. So what works for me might not work for you.

I looked over the Aleisis MultiMix 12 FireWire , M-audio M-powered projectmix and the Tascam FW1884. I settled for the M-audio projectmix and its rock solid on a DAW. IF your after protools then check out the Digidesign 003. (almost expensive)

You wont get fantastic pre amps on any of these and the Aleisis at $400 would have the worst, but do like me and save up for a good converter or lunch box and use a virtual desk modeller to warm up the mixer. I cant afford waves so I own and use Blue tubes and looking at Voxinego until I can afford my own API rack.

I am however thrilled with my Projectmix and how its a FireWire DAW Control Surface and Audio/MIDI Interface all in one.

Cheap but it works. (I paid $750 used for my projectmix with out protools M-powered)

Note: some wont function as a mixer with out a computer so take that into consideration.

Watch out for driver complaints for what ever you decide if your going Vista or OSX 64 bit although I have zero complaints and used on XP, Vista and OSX, Sonar, Nuendo 4, Live, Protools Maudio and Reaper with 100% perfect results on pro audio setups, zero crashes..

I recently did a 4 hour DVD and the faders worked wonders for the automation.
Touch sensitive, the works.. amazing...


(looks like something for every budget)

TASCAM FW-1082 10-Channel FireWire Audio/MIDI Interface $599
Yamaha N8 Digital Firewire Mixer $999
M-AudioProjectMix I/O - $1,249.99
MOTU828mkII FireWire Audio Interface - $749.99
DigidesignDigi 003 Factory Pro Tools LE Workstation - $2,195.00
M-AudioFireWire 1814 Computer Recording Interface - $499.99
MOTU896HD Digital Audio Interface - $994.99
RMEFireface 800 FireWire Computer Recording Interface - $1,499.00

[warhead]

Originally Posted by elpelotero

i don't have the resources for that unfortunately

If you don't have a way to check things out in advance, I would seriously consider starting a thread here and other popular recording forums and outline what you need and let users chime in. That would net you real world experiences and allow you to interact with users to maybe flush a few loser choices that might be lurking out there.

It all depends on your needs, how many channels you need, what you already own, etc.

War