Let's play another round of "Recommend me an interface"

@dominus_malas:
It's a desktop. I'd need a firewire 400 card, right? What exactly would be the benefits of firewire over USB?

Yeah, just grab a TI based PCIe firewire card. I just recommended the Syba Low Profile PCI-Express 1394b/1394a (2B1A) Card, TI Chipset, Extra Regular Bracket SD-PEX30009 from Amazon on another thread.

As for FW vs USB - Very few companies write drivers that are worth a damn on USB. (RME is one of them that does.) Most of the time firewire will give you more solid performance.. just the way the bus works, not to mention your interface is probably going to be the only thing using it, whereas USB will have more toys plugged in. :D

Drivers are the most important part of any interface. Tons of inputs and outputs won't matter if you get glitches.
 
Just wanted to let you guys know, that I decided to go with the NI Komplete Audio 6!

Thanks again to everyone for your recommendations :)
 
Recieved it today. It's pretty damn awesome :D

Only got one little problem with it:
I get a little ground noise (if thats what it is). Weird thing is, it's only on OSX… Dead silence on Windows 7
 
I was gonna recommend the KA6 too, but I'm a little late....

Not sure what's going on with the hum issue you're having, but FWIW, I've had mine for about 3 years, & have never had an issue with it, at all using Windows 7/PC...

I actually lucked out on the extra line outs (for re-amping) because I was using ampsims at the time, & have went to real amps now...

Hope you figure the hum issue out, again, I've never had any problems with mine....
 
Yeah as i said, I have Windows 7 on the same machine and there is no hum at all.
The only difference between the two systems (hardware wise) is that OSX is installed on an SSD.

I'll do some troubleshooting on the weekend

Edit: The noise is only present when I do something on the computer. Like opening a new tab in the browser, or scrolling down a page etc. so I'm pretty shure it's somehow picking up the computers noise. No idea why the heck only on OSX though…
 
Turns out I was wrong about the noise being only on OSX. No clue why it didn't appear there in the beginning, but now there definitely is noise on Windows too.

I did some research and identified the problem:
My place appears to have some weird kind of ground loop going, where the monitors pick up noise from the GPU. However, I never had this particular problem with any other Interface.

So maybe the KA6 is worse isolated than others, maybe I have a faulty unit. I don't know.
Anyway, I'll send it back to thomann. I've ordered a Firewire PCIe Card and a Saffire Pro 24. Let's see how that goes..
 
I use this everywhere I go. Works perfectly. Plug it into the wall socket and then plug your power strip into it.

7acbae410866e48c7fed118eeacc3b24.jpg
 
Man, I hate to hear you're having problems with the KA6, all the time I've had mine, I've never had any problems with it....Makes me feel like shit because I keep suggesting it (not only here, but in another forum too, & the guy who bought one there had issues too, not like yours, he had phantom power issues)...

But I'll say again, mine's been rock solid for years now, & it's the best interface I've ever had (but, this is only the 3rd one I've ever owned btw...)...

Hope you get it sorted with the KA6, or get another interface that works for ya dude...
 
The Saffire just arrived, and there was the exact same noise. So it's not the KA6's fault. The Saffire has a channel imbalance, in addition to the noise. So I'll send that one back to thomann and keep the KA6 for starters.

I'll try some stuff to get rid of the noise this weekend. One thing I don't understand at all, is why the UX2 didn't have any of those Problems...
 
Okay so I guess I figured it out. First of all: The noise is there with the UX2 aswell, but it's wayyyyyy quieter.
But there definitely is an interference issue with my Hackintosh, which the UX2 seems to be less sensitive to. I tried a different PC and the noise didn't appear there.

So I tried the following:
The noise reacts to GPU activity. So it had to have something to do with the GPU. I swapped the GPU, and the noise was still there. So it had to be either the Mainboard or the PSU. Swapped the PSU aswell and the noise was still there.

So I'm pretty sure it's the Mainboard. And I won't swap that. I guess I'll sell this one and get a new Hackintosh.

A different question:
Can anyone who has the KA6 record a short DI, peaking at -18db? The DI input on mine is pretty noisy aswell (different kinda noise) and I want to check if it has something to do with the other problems.
Thanks in advance ;)
 
You've gotta keep in mind that the crackling audio might be because your CPU can't handle such low buffer settings

I have the Saffire Pro 40. It's been running great for years, so I recommend anything from that line.
 
It's not that kind of crackling. It's noise directly related to what's happening in the GPU. For example: I hear a slight buzzing, when i open or close a picture in preview. I hear a little crackling when i scroll down a website. It get's extreme when running a 3D application like a benchmark, or a game. Then it sounds like coil whine, but coming from the speakers.

But the noise isn't the interfaces fault. It's my shitty PC (most likely the mainboard, see above) causing the interference, which some interfaces seem to be more sensitive to than others.
 
Can anyone who has the KA6 record a short DI, peaking at -18db? The DI input on mine is pretty noisy aswell (different kinda noise) and I want to check if it has something to do with the other problems.
Thanks in advance ;)

Here man, dunno if this will help or not, I had to lower the track fader so the highest peak was around -18, this is an older song/project, & I'd been recording my di's pretty hot...Lemme know if this helps or not, I've got all kinds of di's from the KA6 if this one isn't what you're after....And if not, lemme know what I need to change to help man....

This was recorded straight into my KA6 with an Ibanez RG350, but I have a Duncan Custom Custom p'up in the bridge:

KA6 di

Oh yeah, I'm sure you know this but just throwing it out here anyway, right-click & save as....
 
@minerman: Thanks mate! Do you maybe have a DI where nothing is played? Like guitar plugged in, volume poti all the way down and hit record?

@dominus_malas: I tried two Nvidia and one ATI card. Same noise with all of them.

I found this online, that sounds promising:
ximg.php


Edit: I seem to be to stupid to embed an image.