Presonus Audiobox USB vs. M-Audio Fast Track Pro vs. Steinberg Ci2

[HeadCrusher]

Title says it all...

Any major advantages or disadvantages with any of these if one would be looking for a small and affordable interface?

The M-Audio has two inserts an S/PDIF which is nice (at least in theory) and it comes with a lite version of Ableton Live. However it's two years older than the Presonus and I'm quite happy with Presonus customer support and the Firepod I've used for years. I kinda have the feeling that the Presonus would have better quality parts since it's more expensive with less features

Since I'm a Cubase user I was also looking at the Steinberg Ci2 but it's more expensive than the two others, lacks MIDI I/O and I'm not sure wether or not it could be used with other DAWS. Kinda feels like I'd be paying for the name, M-Box style.

Feel free to recommend other interfaces if you know any good ones in the 150 EUR range.

Thanks guys, have a nice Sunday.

 

[kramer1309]

focusrite saffire usb? It is 1.1 though..
I personally settled on the TASCAM US144L, seems to be decent (though they seem to update drivers for new OS's quite late, i.e. their vista and w7 drivers came out quite late..)

 

[aortizjr]

Well I guess what are you looking for? What sort of stuff are you looking to do with it?

Things like SPDIF are really only necessary if you want external AD/DA converters. Those are definitely nice, but not necessary if this is say for your home laptop or something and you have another high quality interface. I definitely can hear the difference between converters and clocks, but in the grand scheme of things, I typically hear way bigger problems elsewhere (bad micing, bad rooms, bad sounding source, etc.).

MIDI you can get a separate USB thing for that. Plus most MIDI controllers these days are USB already. So of course that depends on what you are doing.

If you are a Cubase user, then the CI2 is intriguing with the AI knob. I use the similar feature on my Nocturn all the time, and it works just ok. It basically simulates a click and moves the mouse pointer. The AI knob I assume would work better. But it really improves my workflow when dialing in plugins.

So personally I am interested in this, so I have a portable interface when I travel or am home, but then the cool AI knob when I am at the studio. All of them (even the Mbox) uses ASIO so they do work with other DAW's.

I think sonically you will find that they probably aren't that much different and perfectly fine for demo recordings and pro recordings with some work and a few tricks.

 

[botus99]

I've had a lot of driver issues with M-Audio products on Windows 7 (the problem being with M-Audio's programming, I'm far from the only person with these problems). My only advice is that if you're on Windows 7, stay away from M-Audio.

On the other hand, if you're on any other OS, I would recommend the Fast Track Pro. The guitarist in my band owns one (after I sold mine to him) and has gotten great results with it (although he's on WinXP)

 

[HeadCrusher]

aortizjr, thanks for the lenghty reply. I pretty much know what to look for in an audiointerface. I don't need anything fancy. Just something to record the odd vocal tracks and (DI) guitars and bass with. Ya know, mostly for writing and demoing purposes while space is limited as it currently is. I don't plan on getting another MIDI controller and my keyboard has MIDI so it would be nice if the interface had it as well. Not sure if I'm prepared to shell out those extra ~50 bucks for that AI knob.

I'm leaning towards the Presonus since I've made good experiences using their stuff. Steinberg, Tascam, M-Audio... all look kinda sketchy with their plastic enclosures, dunno?
So basically my question is if anybody has made any particularly good or bad experiences with any of those units.

Thanks botus99, I definitely wanna stay clear of any driver issues (even though I'm on XP).

 

[tgs]

I'm leaning towards the Presonus since I've made good experiences using their stuff. Steinberg, Tascam, M-Audio... all look kinda sketchy with their plastic enclosures, dunno?
So basically my question is if anybody has made any particularly good or bad experiences with any of those units.

You'd be well advised to steer clear of that one! I have one and I can't say anything positive about it at all. It has no line-in, which is a major drawback. The instrument input distorts like crazy, even with the input dial set to minimum (and it's not just my unit, google it for tons of complaints from others about the same issue). The only use I had for it was to get the sound out of my computer (albeit with a quite weak signal even at maximum level) but after I updated the driver last week, Cubase would crash on me every time I changed the latency settings.

In short, this product is an embarrassment. I bought it because I had heard good things about Presonus products, but this one is utter garbage. I could give it to you for free, but I'm not that malevolent as to punish someone I don't know.

 

[slashvanyoung]

I bought a Fast Track Pro off of Gabriel (from this very forum) for mobile use and I couldn't be happier with it for that money. Had virtually zero issues with it under both Win XP x86 AND Win 7 x64. I guess if there have been driver issues in the past, they've been rectified for some time now.

Apart from MIDI and S/PDIF it also allows you to use PT, which is also significant plus IMHO. The mic pres are solid as are the inputs in Hi-Z mode and besides it being plastic, the enclosure actually feels quite sturdy.

Your mileage might vary but I wouldn't hesitate to get another one.

 

[HeadCrusher]

Thanks guys that's the kind of advice I was looking for! After looking up some reviews for the Presonus one it really doesn't look like I'll be getting that. And I didn't realize the M-Audio would run Pro Tools which is definitely a great pro! However I'm still kinda unsure about the Fast Track Pro as it's really kinda old...