M-Audio's Best Firewire Interface?

M-Audio Profire 2626 Interface

So what's so great about this particular audio interface? It's made for a large market which M-Audio knows very well: professional and amateur musicians and songwriters and home and project studios.

If you do have a budget of say about 2 thousand bucks then you could find a better quality interface than this one. Unfortunately, if we all had to spend that kind of money for every component we need our recording studio's would never get finished.

M-Audio made it with an almost perfect balance between the number and type of features and it's quality. It goes for about $700 but you can probably get it for a little less than that.

There are audio interfaces for one to two hundred bucks less than this one that sound as good but don't have the same features, most importantly the number of inputs, outputs and amount of recordable tracks¦ which brings us to it's most important features:

Twenty six recordable tracks. If you're using the highest sample rates this may not always be the case..

Using the onboard DSP mixer with the 24-bit 192kHz setting will lower your track count. Lowering the sample rate to 92 or 88.2 will also increase your track count. Depending on individual setups and setting there will be slightly different results.

it's got Firewire connectivity making for very low latency. A preamp on every one of the 8 input channels and every type of connection any studio would need. ADAT, S/PDIF, world clock, and MIDI.

Actually, you can use it as a standalone pre-amp for up to 8 microphones as well as a standalone 8 channel audio to digital and digital to audio converter.

As handy as it can be in these standalone applications, one of the best features is the on-board mixer with which you can preset and store up to 8 stereo mixes. It acts as a router as well sending audio to it's 26 hardware outputs from it's 52 audio streams.

Should mention as well that it's comparable on Mac or PC and get along with all the top recording programs such as GarageBand, Logic ProTools Cubase etc.

As you can see, the M-Audio Profire is quite versatile.. from a mic pre, A/D converter to a full recording studio if that's what you need.

Maybe you've heard about a debate that is out there saying that Firewire will be replaced by USB 3.0.. that will be a good thing if and when it happens but for now this firewire technology still rocks!