Hi

I'm giving my Terratec DMX 6 fire one last chance to work on Windows 7 64 bit before I
ditch it for a new one; but what to choose to replace it.

I'm still stuck on the idea of a PCI or PCI express card but there seems very little choice
around the £200 mark. Most of the non high end cards in the low latency perforance thread
seem to be firewire or USB.

I need at least two mic preamps preferably three plus a couple of other prefeably balanced
line ins. I also would like reasonably low latency performance for playing soft synths.

The only one that might fit the bill is the E-MU 1616m PCIe since it has 2 preamps and 6
line ins. However its quite old now and I'm not sure how the sound quality compares with more modern interfaces and whether it will work with Windows 7 64bit.

Alternatively M-Audio ProFire 610 is an option since my motherboard has a TI firewire chip,
but I'm not sure about the future compatibility of firewire divices

I'm put off the Focusright Saffire and Scrlett cards as the low latency performance seems
rather poor. The AKAI EIE Pro seems good on features but there are no reviews and it seems
as though no one has ever bought one. I thought the Roland Quad capture was ideal at first
until I relised two of the four inputs are spdif and I can't use these. The NI Komplete Audio 6 looks good and scores well in the low latency tests but I'm not sure about how good the preamps
are.

Has anyone tried any of these or have and other suggestions?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Cheers
Callum

What about MOTU you can pick an 828Mk2 or 3 fairly cheap these day. They seem to have a good reputation, certainly the Focusrite preamps get consistently good thing said about them on here, in fact I do not think I have heard a bad word about them other than all the gain being at the far end of the range.

Have a look on readers ads there are few on there that may fit the bill or at least inspire research.

Edited by DAGGILARR (01/04/12 02:10 PM)

I'm in a similar situation myself having just bought a Win7 PCIe machine. Bye bye PCI. I came across one of these. An Alva Nanoface.
From what I've read, the converters and preamps are up to scratch and the drivers are first class.
There is word on the interweb that the e-mu (PCIe cards) win7 drivers are not good enough. I was considering the 0404 PCIe (going for half RRP at the mo) until I read that e-mu had no plans for these 'older' cards.

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17ft here! Too deep for non divers.

Edited by Hamund (01/04/12 06:22 PM)

Do the mic preamps have to be integral to the sound card? A multi-port card with just Line In and Out plus a small mixer gives you a lot more choices, and a lot more flexibility in working.

I wonder if RME is going to sue the Alva Nanoface folks... they even stole the name!

Quote twotoedsloth:

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I wonder if RME is going to sue the Alva Nanoface folks... they even stole the name!

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RME and Alva are pals. They work together. My guess is that's where the duper driver comes from.

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17ft here! Too deep for non divers.

Hi Callum,

I have a Komplete 6 (and an M-A Fastrack pro and two PCs each with a 2496 fed from an A&H ZED10)

The K6 preamps are very, very clean, at least as clean as the A&H. One could wish for another 10dB of gain but in truth for low output mics like my SM57 there is not a lot in it between those and the ZED10. I can connect the 57, slam the gain to max and comfortably get quiet guitar picking to run at -18dBFS and the "house" noise is the noise floor, even at 2am.

I have not yet tried the MIDI latency but will check that as best I can if you like, in fact I have had the AI since Crimble but have been a bit poorly and have not really come to grips except to say absolutely no problems so far.

I wonder why you would pay the extra for Fwire for the low I/O count you need? I think the Komplete A6 is the best AI around in the £200 area and I know I am not the only one here to think so. Any chance of a review SoS?

Dave.

Quote 1Cal:

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I'm giving my Terratec DMX 6 fire one last chance to work on Windows 7 64 bit before I
ditch it for a new one; but what to choose to replace it.

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I couldn't get mine running stable on XP, so I'll be stunned if Win7 works for you!

Quote 1Cal:

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I'm still stuck on the idea of a PCI or PCI express card but there seems very little choice
around the £200 mark. Most of the non high end cards in the low latency perforance thread
seem to be firewire or USB.

---

KA6 for me at that price point.

Quote 1Cal:

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Alternatively M-Audio ProFire 610 is an option since my motherboard has a TI firewire chip,
but I'm not sure about the future compatibility of firewire divices

---

Suprisingly good interface for it's age. Perhaps better than the option above, but you have the problem of FW support drying up, so it is effectively a interface at the end of its live cycle.

Quote twotoedsloth:

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I wonder if RME is going to sue the Alva Nanoface folks... they even stole the name!

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I wondered the same, but it look like the distro in the UK at least is the same as RME's which would suggest that the two companies are already well aquainted.

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

RME forum comments on the Nanoface.

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10854

So don't expect it to behave like the RME stuff.

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ScanProAudio & 3XS Audio Systems
ScanProAudio Blog

Hi There,

I've been using the E-MU 1010 with the 1616m and I like it so much I've just upgraded from the PCI to the PCIe card version, the latter being compatible with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I think the sound quality is excellent. See my other comments on another related thread regarding setup on Windows 7:

E-MU thread on Sound-on-Sound

Regards
Toby

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Have a look and listen to our music:
TobesMusic.com