New Interface: M-audio Fast Track Pro vs Focusrite Saffire 6 vs ???

First make a list of features. here's my wish list. 

1. Good Pre Amps. What are the reviews saying. 
2. Phantom Power 
3. Blend control Computer output / Input signal 
4. How many inputs. ( XLR and 1/4" ) 
5. How many outputs. 
6. SPDIF 
7.MIDI in out
8. LOUD headphone output with control
9.Monitor control room control
10. most important - GOOD ASIO DRIVERS check and make sure others using your software and OS have no issues. 

Read reviews from trusted scources , do not trust the reviews posted on the on line shopping sites. There are to many idiots who do everything wrong so can't get it to work. You want a reveiw from someone who does know what they are doing. 


I had a Fast Track pro. It never worked very well for me but it might have been just my unit was defective.  It would just stop working.  even when playing music from WinAmp or WMP. Did this on a bunch of different computers and OS.
The pre amps were not very good either.

Look for the best Pre amps your money can buy. Example, The pre amps on my Tascam are just as good as the ones on my $3,000 Yamaha Digital Mixer.

You might want to post in the hardware forum. Beagle has a list on his web site but he's missing a few products. He didn't recomend Tascam as they did have issues in the past under XP.  

Chris S


I would get the Focusrite.

Ditto.

I recently went on an interface hunt that led me through several interfaces, including the Fast Track. I wound up keeping the Saffire Pro 14. The preamps were far superior, the latencies were pretty good, and it worked flawlessly with my laptop. Their Mix Control software is very flexible for routing things.

There is one caveat, though, that you need to be aware of: Focusrite strongly recommends that you use a firewire port that is run by either a TI or a VIA chipset. Anything else, and they come right out on the website and say it may or may not work right.

Bristol_Jonesey


Generally speaking you're right, but the Saffire 6 isn't Firewire, it's USB only, at least according to the spec.

You are right, and I stand corrected. I got my Saffire's confused. The Saffire 6 was one of the ones I took back. Look closely at the specs, you'll see that this unit is only USB 1.1 compliant. I couldn't get the round trip latencies out of it that I thought I should be getting, and it was only after I bought the unit that I noticed this. I took it back and went with the Firewire unit, and it dropped my round trip latency almost in half.