Tascam FIREONE Firewire Audio Interface Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I recently upgraded to a MacBookPro with Logic 7 on it. I needed a control surface that was Firewire based and would allow good functionality and portability. This audio interface/control surface provides a nice touch. I went from an Ozone Midi controller to this because this one was Firewire-based AND I never was into using the keyboard. For my purposes, plugging a mic, guitar, bass and electronic drums this was a great option. It took a little bit of fiddling to work with a MacBookPro (with Tiger and Leopard) and involved a rollback of Firewire drivers/firmware which is available on the Tascam website.
Without the rollback, the control surface will not work (or will work unpredictably). This is a Mac/Logic 7 issue. Anyway, I'm pleased. It looks great, works great (after Fix for Mac OS X 10.4.10 FireWire) and seems very durable.
Time will tell.

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2-Channel FireWire Audio Interface. Large weighted backlit Jog Wheel. Programmable Function Keys. MIDI I/O. Includes recording software

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Edirol FA-66 6 x 6 FireWire Audio Interface Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been using this product for about a year now and it has some real strengths in terms of audio fidelity and everything being in the one unit. I shared some of the difficulties of the last user initially, using a Dell Inspiron 8600, but was able to resolve them. The FA-66 can be resource fussy - not much extra needs to be going on with the computer before there is skipping. Maxing out the buffer fixes this, but this is devastating in terms of latency. The Windows that ships with Dells is less customisable than plain-vanilla Windows, and does have lots of things running in the background. I eventually identified that the anti-virus software was launching a separate app to check for updates (every 10 minutes!) and that this was causing skipping. Audio programs themselves - despite being resource intensive - don't seem to cause the problem. Once I disabled this app everything was good and I could operate at latencies of about 4ms without any problems.
There are a lot of good external units out there of which this is one. It really comes down to what you want and what software is packaged with the unit. 192KHz is overkill since consumer products like these have too much DAC jitter for this to be relevant. 96KHz is probably pushing it. But for straight-forward home or field recording where you don't want to bother with a mixer or a separate midi box, this is hard to look past. The inclusion of an analogue limiter sets it apart from offerings from M-Audio and the like, it is solidly built and having phantom power is very handy.
November 2007 Update - I've been using this with a MacBook Pro for a year now and its a dream. My recent purchase of Apple Logic Studio completes a really solid set up, exposing me to the harsh reality that any remaining limitations are user-based.

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6 x 6 FireWire Audio Interface

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