Audio Interface Recommendations

Yo!
Just got my hands on maschine and i'm currently using it with a novation keyboard, and plan to add a turntable to sample off...
I've been doing a tonne of research but its hard to find people with experiences rather than people selling products... please, if you have any suggestions for an audio interface with the above setup using a mac laptop (which i would also like to sample off) let me know. Would also want to record live instumentation to maschine too. Oh man this **** is so exciting.. So many ideas...
budget would be around $400-$500

Any advice or pointers would be really appreciated
Cheers!

 

With a budget of $400 - $500, you would be most pleased with an Apogee Duet.

I had a similar thread to this a couple weeks ago and everyone who responded suggested (or demanded, lol) that I choose the Apogee Duet.

I've done some field research in the time being and found that you absolutely WILL NOT find a better sound quality from anything other than Apogee for that price range.

 

providing the guy has a mac, if your pc based, do some research, a good place to start rme, steinberg, yamaha, presonus .......

also ni do they own range of soundcards.

 

He does have a mac, c'mon homie...

 

For me, I will be PC based, so any ideas that route would be good for me!

 

my bad,

but my post applies to the guy above.

buy yea the apogess duet is cool if you do not need more then 2 inputs and the quality is great, but for those that will be tracking more then 2 inputs or need more outputs then i would look elsewhere.

 

good enough for Kraftwerk:
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_index.php

 

Thanks Dubnspace! They have some neat stuff on their site!

 

yo!
thanks for all the words. i looked at the duet, but it seems to have a limited number of inputs so i'm thinking that in order to run a turntable, maschine, laptop, and guitar through it alot of unplugging and replugging would be going down.
would my inference be correct?
i have continued my research and found the...

Focusrite Saffire PRO 24 DSP
http://www.storedj.com.au/products/product.php?id=2650

Focusrite Saffire Firewire Audio Interface
http://www.storedj.com.au/products/product.php?id=1494

MOTU Ultralite mk3 Firewire Audio Interface
http://www.storedj.com.au/products/product.php?id=1396

what do you guys think? is there any major differences between the two focus rites? i can get a pretty good deal on ebay for the ultralite so its not out of my price range.
again any words are much appreciated...

peace.

 

i like my Motu UltraLite Mk3 very much if that is a help.

however, if you have a recent mac, then you might have to think about a Firewire 400 to 800 adaptor.

sowari

 

nothing special.

i use a 2 year old Macbook mostly but have have access to my wife's Macbook Pro.
i still haven't got the 400 to 800 converter so i can use the UltraLite with the Pro. but it is great with the Macbook, especially nice when recording electric guitar into it.

btw, the latest UltraLites have USB2 as well as Firewire, at least i think they do.

not sure what more to say really? i have used 5 Outputs from the UltraLite with Logic Pro, that was nice.

sowari

 

Am I the only one who likes the Audio Kontrol by NI? It certainly blows away anything Presonus is doing. My only complaint about the AK-1 is that it only has 2 inputs and no digital out. But the pre-amps are solid. It is super portable. The midi buttons are great. The volume know is the best I have seen on anything below $1k. Plus you can generally get a free NI synth with its purchase.

To be fair I have not used the Apogee Duet, but its price is steep. Any Apogee products I have used have been SUPER SWEET.

AK-1 pros:
- $199 (and includes Full Version of your choice of Massive, Guitar Rig4, Absynth or FM8)
- Excellent pre-amps
- Monitoring Channels
- Awesome volume/jog wheel Knob and fully configurable MIDI Buttons
- Has an "instrument input" (for Electric Guitars w/o amplification)
- Very well made and Portable
- 2 Balanced Stereo outs
- USB Powered

AK-1 cons:
- Only 2 inputs
- of the 2 inputs only 1 XLR
- Stereo outs are 1/4' only
- Not Firewire
- No digital out <- this one hurts me bad
- Its not Apogee

Check out Novamusik.com for some sweet deals.

 

i just bought the m-audio profire 2626 HD interface, and I LOVE it.

Bought it after demoing the motu 896 MKIII, the digi 003 rack+, and the focusrite liquid saffire 56...

in the end, the profire 2626 was by far the best sounding and had the best routing options... plus its 24/192