Sorry to start another "what do you think about this interface" thread.

I was ready to buy a PC (Inta-Audio i7 Project Music PC) from Inta Audio and after deciding against an Akai interface I had pretty much settled on the Focusrite Saffire PRO 14 interface, given that the PC comes with TI Firewire and there are limited USB ports (4 back/2 front). If I was getting a USB2 interface, the Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 would probably have been my choice, based on recommendations/reviews but this costs more and there could be a month's wait to get any in stock.

On Friday, I spoke to the Audio PC expert at Inta-Audio and he said that they had experienced problems with the NI interfaces and also advised me to choose USB over Firewire (odd, given that the PCs come with Firewire). He told me to buy a Roland UA-55 "Quad-Capture" USB2 Interface saying that the drivers Roland produce were far more reliable than those from other manufacturers. He also said that it had good low-latency performance compared to the alternatives.

There are not a lot of reviews of this unit out there (similar to the Akai in my other thread) and the unit doesn't seem too popular on the forums, other than in the USA with Sonar users (I believe there is some connection and that similar interfaces were branded as Cakewalk until recently).

So, I face a similar choice. On the surface, the Roland is expensive for a 2x2 interface (I don't have anything that connects digitally so those I/Os are useless to me) and I'll probably need to get another USB card fitted if I go down this route. The Saffire and NI KA6 offer more useful I/O (to me) but I feel that if I go against the advice of Inta, I'll not really have a leg to stand on support-wise if I get the latency/crackling problems that seem so common.

Sorry for the blather but I find this stuff to be a bloody minefield. Every unit that I hear about seems to have problems of one kind or another and I'm scared that I'll spend £1100 on a PC/Interface combo that won't work.

Any thoughts?
Brendan

I have it's big brother, the Octa-Capture.(Eight mic pres, instead of four). I've found it to be rock-solid with excellent sound-quality.

I used it extensively both in the studio, and live (weekly gigs), and it's never let me down.

I couldn't recommend it enough.

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www.thediplomatz.com

I have the Sonar VS100 which was a predecessor of sorts and it is excellent. I switched to it from a firewire interface because I found that when you overload the system with fw it outputs a full volume blast of white noise-not great for live use or for the ears at anytime. I found this to be the case with two different fw interfaces and there is plenty of talk on forums about this. I don't know if they all do that. With USB I find if I push the cpu to it's limit I just get the odd crackle or stutter.

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www.myspace.com/shambolic-charm

Thanks for the replies.

I had read about the firewire/white-noise issue somewhere and I would certainly rather avoid that!
Maybe there is some truth in the Roland gear being solid and reliable then.

For my purposes, it's just a 2x2 interface as I have no digital gear - sort of like a Focusrite 2i2 with added midi. Not sure how well the auto-sensing feature works or if the inbuilt compressor is of any use. Both seem to be well thought of from the few user reviews I've seen.

Might just have to go with it and see. The Inta PCs are comparatively cheap but you don't seem to get the level of support and commitment to the thing actually working that you get at Rain or Scan. I suppose you pays your money (if you've got it) and takes your choice.

Auto-sensing works very well... press the button, and get the musician to play as loudly as they can, and that's it, your levels are set.

I've never used the onboard compressor.

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www.thediplomatz.com

I'm intrigued to hear what NI related issues he had.

That aside I was going to the say the Pro 14 should be fine with Asus P67/Z68 boards in a worse case senario with a add in firewire card which they appear to fit anyway. Then I realised they were using the H61 chipset rather than a full size board so errr... I couldn't say for certain but in theory it should be fine.

As for Roland and Sonar. From what I remember I'm pretty sure Roland bought the majority share of Cakewalk a few years back, and have/had been joint branding with them on hardware for a while.

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

Quote Pete Kaine:

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That aside I was going to the say the Pro 14 should be fine with Asus P67/Z68 boards in a worse case senario with a add in firewire card which they appear to fit anyway. Then I realised they were using the H61 chipset rather than a full size board so errr... I couldn't say for certain but in theory it should be fine.

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Thanks Pete. It's odd as I was considering the ASUS P8H67 - Intel H67 Chipset upgrade for £29 in the hope that it would give me more USB ports but I believe you still only get the 2xfront/4xback setup.

I also thought this would do away with the firewire card but they still fit it as standard. It also strikes me as odd that theres no option to go with the motherboard graphics on a PC intended for DAW use as the Nvidia GeForce 210 also comes as fitted with no removal option

Yeah, it does seem a odd set of options, but I suppose they've probably got a reason for it.

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

The only issue that i've had with the NI interfaces was that they didn't like being plugged into usb 3 ports. this appears to have been rectified with the latest drivers as i had no problem getting guitar rig/ rig kontrol to run on usb 3 ports on saturday.

IMO... hold out for the komplete audio 6... you'll get a significant performance increase at low latencies from it in comparison to the firewire boxes. In testing, the ka6 has been getting up towards rme performance levels with the new drivers (rme usb interfaces get between 7 to 7.5 dawbench low latency rating, the NI stuff has got about 6.5 on the new drivers and the dice based firewire boxes get around 4.3)

just out of interest.... is there any reason you are not considering a overclocked system? The performance increase per pound has got to be a viable option, compared to a h67/h61 board that you cant tweak.

An overclocked system and the ka6 would probably give you more than 40% extra power at low latencies than a stock system and a entry level firewire interface.

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www.theautobots.com / www.scan.co.uk

Tombot - Thanks for your thoughts regarding the KA6. I must say that I've heard great things about it from a couple of chaps who seem to have had a lot of experience with it.

Quote Tombot:

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just out of interest.... is there any reason you are not considering a overclocked system? The performance increase per pound has got to be a viable option, compared to a h67/h61 board that you cant tweak.

An overclocked system and the ka6 would probably give you more than 40% extra power at low latencies than a stock system and a entry level firewire interface.

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Only one reason, and an all to familiar one: money!

I'm on a very tight budget and the Inta-Audio PCs, while very basic, are cheap. I figured that for my modest objectives I don't need the sort of power that most folks here require. I'm not a power user by any stretch of the imagination - I just want to use Reaper to run a few plugins (I use Jamstix for drums but would like to get hold of some entry level keys/synths) and bang a few tracks of guitar, bass and vocals on top.

In an ideal world, I'd buy from you (you're fairly local) but Scan don't cater for the bottom end of the market (I fully understand why). I need to bring in a new PC and interface at an absolute maximum of £1200 and that rules out the Scan machines.

Thanks again for your thoughts. I'll probably wait until the NI interfaces are back in stock.

Regards
Brendan

Quote ChromeDome:

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In an ideal world, I'd buy from you (you're fairly local) but Scan don't cater for the bottom end of the market (I fully understand why). I need to bring in a new PC and interface at an absolute maximum of £1200 and that rules out the Scan machines.

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I'm starting to think we need to run a advertising campaign for the budget range.

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog