Hi All!!!
I was wondering if guys can help me out a bit. My Presonus 2626 has had issues recently with noisy noise. Basically if you turn up the gain on the pres to record an sm57 for example it has a lot of digital style chattering. My only solution to fix this was to remove the case which acts like a heatsink to a power transistor. - not a good solution really. So basically its fucked as far as I can tell. Presonus suggested it can cost £400 to fix HAHA same as a new one.
I am a bit tight for cash and could do with just getting a good clean 2 input interface. One thing I am annoyed with is I have the Presonus MSR which I loved for the control of speakers. I don't want to spend much as I find other than RME I have not had much luck with other slightly higher mid priced units, so as long as it sounds reasonable I dont care, I want is cheap but usable. Something I can use and when it dies or the company decides it no longer wants to support it I dont cry.
I must have at least separate Phones and Monitor pots. I use a box for flicking between my speakers so thats not an issue. It needs to be able to do instrument in, I do use DIs sometimes but I am happy with just a Hi-Z input that works well for Actives. Something that doesnt fly of the desk by being too light (ie Apogee duet) would be good.
Anyway I have seen the following. I will add what I have understood so far, maybe you can help. By the way I use a Mac OSX 10.8 so no windows worry's for me. USB/Firewire - do I care?
Focusrite Scarlett : -Never liked the Platinum stuff, and I hear the 2i2 cannot handle Guitar DIs very well, but I hear good things about the 2i4 and up.
Mackie Blackbird Onyx 2x2 : This one peaked my interest a lot, but its got conflicting information about the convertors. However I love the idea of a solid little box. But are Mackie up themselves these days or are they still a good company?
Presonus Audiobox range : I am a little upset by my presonus experience but I dont hold it against them yet (my presonus was second hand after all). The little box looks good though.
Behringer UCA204 - or the new firewire stuff: These look interesting - I know Behringer has a bad rep but they are changing things around a lot - if anyone has one own up and tell me your experience.
A few others I saw are the :
Native Instruments Konnect 6 - looks promising is it worth the extra dosh?
Steinberg stuff ??
Tascam - Cheap but any good?
Any others ive missed?
Im not interested in these but just to add why for others who might be interested - these are just my views dont "slate" me, others may have had more luck with them but I wont touch again.
Mbox 3 : Just to add these are crap I had 2 and both developed the same faults after 6-8 months with the Volume pot dying- I have read all over that they are not well made. Great stuff inside but bad build quality - a real shame as I loved the idea of them and they sound good too.
Apogee Duet: I had no joy with these 2 died on me (Apogee confirmed with me the first line had an intolerance with the mic pres and they could fail but the new ones were to resolve that) - they are bit too pricey for me at the moment. I loved the idea again, but the breakout cable to be honest was annoying.
Any help would be appreciated in deciding, let me know you experience. My budget is about £100-200 (About $250)
I was wondering if guys can help me out a bit. My Presonus 2626 has had issues recently with noisy noise. Basically if you turn up the gain on the pres to record an sm57 for example it has a lot of digital style chattering. My only solution to fix this was to remove the case which acts like a heatsink to a power transistor. - not a good solution really. So basically its fucked as far as I can tell. Presonus suggested it can cost £400 to fix HAHA same as a new one.
I am a bit tight for cash and could do with just getting a good clean 2 input interface. One thing I am annoyed with is I have the Presonus MSR which I loved for the control of speakers. I don't want to spend much as I find other than RME I have not had much luck with other slightly higher mid priced units, so as long as it sounds reasonable I dont care, I want is cheap but usable. Something I can use and when it dies or the company decides it no longer wants to support it I dont cry.
I must have at least separate Phones and Monitor pots. I use a box for flicking between my speakers so thats not an issue. It needs to be able to do instrument in, I do use DIs sometimes but I am happy with just a Hi-Z input that works well for Actives. Something that doesnt fly of the desk by being too light (ie Apogee duet) would be good.
Anyway I have seen the following. I will add what I have understood so far, maybe you can help. By the way I use a Mac OSX 10.8 so no windows worry's for me. USB/Firewire - do I care?
Focusrite Scarlett : -Never liked the Platinum stuff, and I hear the 2i2 cannot handle Guitar DIs very well, but I hear good things about the 2i4 and up.
Mackie Blackbird Onyx 2x2 : This one peaked my interest a lot, but its got conflicting information about the convertors. However I love the idea of a solid little box. But are Mackie up themselves these days or are they still a good company?
Presonus Audiobox range : I am a little upset by my presonus experience but I dont hold it against them yet (my presonus was second hand after all). The little box looks good though.
Behringer UCA204 - or the new firewire stuff: These look interesting - I know Behringer has a bad rep but they are changing things around a lot - if anyone has one own up and tell me your experience.
A few others I saw are the :
Native Instruments Konnect 6 - looks promising is it worth the extra dosh?
Steinberg stuff ??
Tascam - Cheap but any good?
Any others ive missed?
Im not interested in these but just to add why for others who might be interested - these are just my views dont "slate" me, others may have had more luck with them but I wont touch again.
Mbox 3 : Just to add these are crap I had 2 and both developed the same faults after 6-8 months with the Volume pot dying- I have read all over that they are not well made. Great stuff inside but bad build quality - a real shame as I loved the idea of them and they sound good too.
Apogee Duet: I had no joy with these 2 died on me (Apogee confirmed with me the first line had an intolerance with the mic pres and they could fail but the new ones were to resolve that) - they are bit too pricey for me at the moment. I loved the idea again, but the breakout cable to be honest was annoying.
Any help would be appreciated in deciding, let me know you experience. My budget is about £100-200 (About $250)
