RME vs competitive alternatives

Hi!
 
I apologize if this been discussed a lot before, but I'd still be happy to get some feedback with respect to my personal requirements ...

• I currently run Roland interfaces (VS-700 + OctaCapture + Presonus OctoPre MkII via ADAT), which gives me 20 pic pre inputs, ability to run 4 different headphone mixes (using zero latency via OctaCapture DSP) and roundtrip latency of 8.1 ms @ 96 kHz - which is good
• But Roland drivers are NOT the most stable (no longer supported, either) and some Sonar builds work better, some crash more often, Kontakt 5 is often painful when pushed - so that's not so good

Hence, I'm considering making the move to RME, but since it's not going to be cheap I'd appreciate your feedback ...

• Can I really expect that rock solid stability that others claim to have or is that wishful thinking?
• Will there be a noticeable difference between RME and Roland converters?
• How do I get 20-22 input channels @ 96kHz? I assume I can continue using 4 ADAT channels from the OctoPre MkII @96kHz, but the UFX offers only 12 i.e. I would need another device (recommendations?) to get 4 - 8 inputs with at least some of them being mic pre-amps
• I need at least 4 separate DSP monitor mixes (including some reverb) with ability to save monitor mix settings
  
• What about using something like an RME OctaMix XT plus something other than a UFX?
• What other interfaces are worth considering (Apollo, MOTU, Lynx, etc.)?

 
Thanks

I'd long planned to go RME if my old MOTU ever died, but when that finally did happen I had no money. Should have been saving up, I guess. So I had to shop around for something I could afford. I ended up with a Focusrite, because it was cheap and there were many satisfied users here.
 
It turned out to be a lucky move, as it sounds great, has been 100% reliable, and the one time I needed advice from the company they were responsive and helpful. The Saffire Pro40 has nearly all the features of its closest RME counterpart but costs 1/3 as much. I would therefore consider Focusrite to be a viable alternative, especially if you have other things on your wishlist you'd like to spend the money on. 

There is nothing exaggerated about RME's stability and performance, and actually I find the sound quality of the newest generation interfaces to be underrated.  I pretty much abandoned any other recording gear and trust RME with most everything (with a few exceptions of a couple analog preamps and Mytek converters for expansion when needed).  I am using an XTC + UFX for recordings and a Babyface Pro in my edit studio.  The XTC sounds fantastic and is perfectly quiet up to 80+dB of gain!! 
 
Sure they are more expensive than the Chinese built brands (not that most of them are not well made and reliable), but the German build quality and sound of RME rival much more expensive options.  

Just to add a 'me too' really.

I've found RME drivers to be absolutely rock solid at sub 5ms round trip times and the sound quality is very, very good. It's not so much that they use "special" convertor chips (the UFX DA chip is also used in a Presonus interface for example), it's the quality of the electronics on the analogue side of things. The noise floor is remarkably low and the mic pres are pretty neutral.

As for controlling it, Totalmix is an absolute beast of an application, with the ability to set up multiple mixes at the same time, control over ADAT connected inputs, eq, basic fx and ckmpression you can print or send only to outputs you're usimg for foldback/monitoring. A fully functional digital mixer in itself. So if you ever need a high quality small stage or portable mixer in a single rack unit, a UFX plus the iOs version of Totalmix is very usable.

Complaints? Only two. The mic pres double up as instrument inputs, and the unbalanced jack instrument level input impedence is 470Ohms, which is maybe bit low for a guitar really, especially using a long lead. Though tube screamers are the same impedence and no-one complains they suck out treble.

My second complaint is the price, but it has to be said the engineering, design, build quality and components are excellent.

Oh, and RME stuff does have look a very German industrial design look to it. Functional rather than stylish.

Rob[atSound-Rehab]
I assume Direct USB Recording and TotalMix have full access and control also over ADAT in/out for the monitor mix?

Yes, you can apply effects to and record with DigiCheck or to USB everything that comes in the SPIDF or ADAT inputs. SPIDF is on the UCX. You can mix it all together and use parallel compression if you use the loopback feature creatively.

Using the ADAT and syncing to my Tascam 2488, I get up to 24 concurrent tracks.

I still wish I had purchased the UFX though.

I went from an Octa-Capture to a MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid (as much as my wallet could stand).
 
Better all around after I had tutoring on their Que Mix.
I always used a mic preamp with the Octa-Capture but find for most vocal the mic preamp is not needed.

Yeah, but you need converters for all but twelve and preamps for all but four.

You get sixteen in on ADAT fiber.

Four analog in on the front with pres.

Eight analog in for quarter inch inputs on the back... no pres.

The last two are aes digital input.

So practically, to record 28 inputs, you probably will need 2u for preamps and converters to the ADAT inputs. 1u for another 8 preamps to the eight UFX analog inputs. So, you are at 4u counting the UFX.

When mixing live, I would probably copy the live mix to the AES channels and set them to loopback so I could record the live mix for reference later.

Also, at double speed, the ADAT work together so you get half the channels... sixteen becomes eight. At quad, sixteen becomes four. So at quad speed the UFX only handles eighteen channels.

The analog channels are not reduced by going to double or quad speeds.

The positive gushing we read about around RME interfaces turned out to be true for me. Low latency, dependable and the surprising thing to me - the sound was much better than any other interface I used to own. Absolutely no buyers remorse, just satisfaction.

the focusrite preamps definitely do not match the pristine quality of the preamps in the babyface pro i have....
 
i've ab'd them live, and in mixdown..
 
that said, the focusrite sounds good enough as to not matter.
 
but there isn't much of an equivalent to the RME stuff,
and i cannot attest to the focusrite AD/DA conversion, but the RME is perfect.
also, cannot attest to the  focusrite drivers, but the RME has been extremely reliable.
 
have not worked with any of the MOTU stuff,
but that had been second choice to me when i was shopping.
 
 

Old thread alert Observe low post count of #20. 

Yes old threat alert. I asked the original question long time ago.
Meanwhile using several MOTU AVB devices networked over LAN. Something I could not do with RME ... had some hickups initially. But meanwhile really happy with setup