Setting up a new studio with Pro Tools 9. Which interface?

[SawdustRecordings]

Hey guys,

I need to setup a little studio with PT9. I already have a 8 channel analogue console and a mac pro for PT9. All I need is an interface with 8 line inputs and outputs. As I don't need to buy any Digidesign stuff for PT9 I've really no idea which on I should choose. Can anybody of you give me a nice hint for a stable and nice interface with line in and outs?

Thank you so much in advance!!!

 

[Trevoire520]

Profire 2626 comes to mind. Focusrite Saffire would be good too.

No offence intended, but opening a studio with only 8 inputs available seems a bit daft to me. You can only just record a drum kit with that and tbh most people probably have more inputs available on their home setups.

 

[ahjteam]

RME fireface + RME Quadmic or other 4 preamps to get to the 8 preamps.

 

[AdamWathan]

I'm hesitant to recommend the Profire anymore to anyone, the drivers are just not very good. I get crackling and pops at ~50% CPU usage and it drives me insane, it's especially brutal during tracking where I have to throw away takes because of a pop or crack.

Outside of RME stuff, the only interfaces I've heard good things about and would recommend would be the Steinberg MR816s.

 

[JeffTD]

FF800.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Focusrite or RME. Good converters and pres with either.

 

[jipchen]

+1 for the Fireface 800. Keep in mind it has only 4 preamps (but 6 free inputs for other preamps), so an additional 8 channel ADAT preamp could come in handy.

 

[Trevoire520]

I'm hesitant to recommend the Profire anymore to anyone, the drivers are just not very good. I get crackling and pops at ~50% CPU usage and it drives me insane, it's especially brutal during tracking where I have to throw away takes because of a pop or crack.

Profire has never given me one single problem on my Macbook. No experience with it on Windows though.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I'm hesitant to recommend the Profire anymore to anyone, the drivers are just not very good. I get crackling and pops at ~50% CPU usage and it drives me insane, it's especially brutal during tracking where I have to throw away takes because of a pop or crack.

Outside of RME stuff, the only interfaces I've heard good things about and would recommend would be the Steinberg MR816s.

Hmm, that's strange. I've literally never experienced this with mine.

 

[barricade]

What do you guys think about the Rme UFX? Are the converters and preamps better then in the ff800?

 

[rcg]

just saw today http://www.thomann.de/de/mackie_onyx_1640i.htm any experiences ?

 

[AdamWathan]

Hmm, that's strange. I've literally never experienced this with mine.

It sucks and drives me insane...

I'm an OSX 10.6.4 running Reaper. Don't want to blame Reaper because it doesn't seem likely but it might be. Jarkko you are running an iMac right? Do you get problems tracking at 64 buffer with plugins and stuff? I'm on a lowly 2009 Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo so I don't exactly have a ton of extra power. At 30-40% I'm fine but once it starts getting higher it starts getting iffy. It's fine for mixing, I can go up to 1024 and have a field day with it, but at low latencies it performs poorly for me.

It's on and off too, not really consistent but some days it just doesn't want to co-operate at all. I mostly get it when tracking vocals when the session is already in the 15-20 track range. If I bounce down to a stem and track vocals in a new session it's usually fine.

I just want a Fireface UFX but I need more preamps. Suppose could eventually buy one and keep my Profire as well just as an ADAT preamp in addition to my Octopre, but lots of $$$...

 

[sys_fail_you]

I'm hesitant to recommend the Profire anymore to anyone, the drivers are just not very good. I get crackling and pops at ~50% CPU usage and it drives me insane, it's especially brutal during tracking where I have to throw away takes because of a pop or crack.

Outside of RME stuff, the only interfaces I've heard good things about and would recommend would be the Steinberg MR816s.

While I have never owned or used one of the Profires, this sounds like a sync source clocking issue.
--------------------

I'm still in PTLE 8 via BLA 002r + 2 Apogee AD8000s. I am looking for a way to I/O the AD8000s without the 002r in PT9, but the device needs to be compatible w/ 64bit and across Windows, OSX (Snow Leopard), and Linux (Ubuntu). For use in a triple boot computer, PT9 with Windows/OSX and Reaper with Ubuntu (unless I can successfully WINE PT9).

So far, I've seen Emu and RME take the lead of devices w/ ALSA support, but I do not need preamps or conversion. Any suggestions?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

It sucks and drives me insane...

I'm an OSX 10.6.4 running Reaper. Don't want to blame Reaper because it doesn't seem likely but it might be. Jarkko you are running an iMac right? Do you get problems tracking at 64 buffer with plugins and stuff? I'm on a lowly 2009 Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo so I don't exactly have a ton of extra power. At 30-40% I'm fine but once it starts getting higher it starts getting iffy. It's fine for mixing, I can go up to 1024 and have a field day with it, but at low latencies it performs poorly for me.

It's on and off too, not really consistent but some days it just doesn't want to co-operate at all. I mostly get it when tracking vocals when the session is already in the 15-20 track range. If I bounce down to a stem and track vocals in a new session it's usually fine.

I just want a Fireface UFX but I need more preamps. Suppose could eventually buy one and keep my Profire as well just as an ADAT preamp in addition to my Octopre, but lots of $$$...

Yeah, iMac i5 and 10.6.4 here. Buffer at 128 with plugins running. Are you 100% sure it isn't a problem with a daisy-chained FW audio drive or such? A friend of mine experienced the same kind of trouble and turned out the FW HD wasn't happy working together with the Profire.

 

[sys_fail_you]

It sucks and drives me insane...

I'm an OSX 10.6.4 running Reaper. Don't want to blame Reaper because it doesn't seem likely but it might be. Jarkko you are running an iMac right? Do you get problems tracking at 64 buffer with plugins and stuff? I'm on a lowly 2009 Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo so I don't exactly have a ton of extra power. At 30-40% I'm fine but once it starts getting higher it starts getting iffy. It's fine for mixing, I can go up to 1024 and have a field day with it, but at low latencies it performs poorly for me.

It's on and off too, not really consistent but some days it just doesn't want to co-operate at all. I mostly get it when tracking vocals when the session is already in the 15-20 track range. If I bounce down to a stem and track vocals in a new session it's usually fine.

I retract my previous statment about it being a clocking issue in light of this detailed addition.

This isn't a Profire issue, it seems it's a CPU/RAM issue, unless you have more info to share. You need more power to handle the depth of processing you are using and/or the engine of your DAW has discrepancies with addressing your cores and your plugins.

For instance, I can make a whole score in FL Studio entirely of VSTIs, sample libraries, and mixed ITB realtime. Although my computer can handle WAY more abuse without flinching, the playback will stutter, crack, and pop because of how the mixing engine handles the plugs and how the engine address the cores of the CPU. As the song progresses and the mix develops, I have to keep increasing the buffer in order to avert the audio harassment. Eventually it gets to the point where I can not go any further. Bummer. Time for a bounce and a clean slate.

The on and off behavior may be related to CPU temperatures.

Good luck!

 

[Ionei]

I retract my previous statment about it being a clocking issue in light of this detailed addition.

This isn't a Profire issue, it seems it's a CPU/RAM issue, unless you have more info to share. You need more power to handle the depth of processing you are using and/or the engine of your DAW has discrepancies with addressing your cores and your plugins.

For instance, I can make a whole score in FL Studio entirely of VSTIs, sample libraries, and mixed ITB realtime. Although my computer can handle WAY more abuse without flinching, the playback will stutter, crack, and pop because of how the mixing engine handles the plugs and how the engine address the cores of the CPU. As the song progresses and the mix develops, I have to keep increasing the buffer in order to avert the audio harassment. Eventually it gets to the point where I can not go any further. Bummer. Time for a bounce and a clean slate.

The on and off behavior may be related to CPU temperatures.

Good luck!

I'm plus oneing the chance that it may be CPU/Ram related.
Happens to me with my USB interface and laptop if I try and do anything too intense.

 

[006]

I'm hesitant to recommend the Profire anymore to anyone, the drivers are just not very good. I get crackling and pops at ~50% CPU usage and it drives me insane, it's especially brutal during tracking where I have to throw away takes because of a pop or crack.

Outside of RME stuff, the only interfaces I've heard good things about and would recommend would be the Steinberg MR816s.

It sucks and drives me insane...

I'm an OSX 10.6.4 running Reaper. Don't want to blame Reaper because it doesn't seem likely but it might be. Jarkko you are running an iMac right? Do you get problems tracking at 64 buffer with plugins and stuff? I'm on a lowly 2009 Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo so I don't exactly have a ton of extra power. At 30-40% I'm fine but once it starts getting higher it starts getting iffy. It's fine for mixing, I can go up to 1024 and have a field day with it, but at low latencies it performs poorly for me.

It's on and off too, not really consistent but some days it just doesn't want to co-operate at all. I mostly get it when tracking vocals when the session is already in the 15-20 track range. If I bounce down to a stem and track vocals in a new session it's usually fine.

I just want a Fireface UFX but I need more preamps. Suppose could eventually buy one and keep my Profire as well just as an ADAT preamp in addition to my Octopre, but lots of $$$...

Really strange...

Profire has never given me one single problem on my Macbook. No experience with it on Windows though.

Hmm, that's strange. I've literally never experienced this with mine.

Yeah, iMac i5 and 10.6.4 here. Buffer at 128 with plugins running. Are you 100% sure it isn't a problem with a daisy-chained FW audio drive or such? A friend of mine experienced the same kind of trouble and turned out the FW HD wasn't happy working together with the Profire.

I too have never had this issue on neither my PowerBook G4 with OSX10.4-10.5.8, my G5 with 10.4-10.5.8 and now my new iMac with 10.6.6. Also, I am not sure it has anything to with a drive being daisy-chained to it, my Glyph external drive has been hooked to my 2626 since the day I got the interface (couple of years now) and, again, never had this issue.

 

[SawdustRecordings]

Thank you guys so much for your help! I don't want to setup a music studio. It's build up for recording foleys. So 8 channels are more then enough! I think i'll give the focusrite saffire a try!

 

[AdamWathan]

Is 53% CPU use really that "intense"?

 

[::XeS::]

I noticed pops and cracks running a blank session with podfarm, with an i7 3.06 Ghz at 128 samples.
It doesn't deal very good with low latency. Or better, when I track at 128 with no plugins, everything's smooth...but with plugins it's not so good.