There's a bewildering choice of audio interfaces on the market, but as the requirement for more I/O channels increases, so the choice decreases. More channels means more bandwidth requirement, so most interfaces of this kind use either Firewire or some form of direct PCI connection to hook up to the host computer. The TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48 is of the former type and offers 12 channels of analogue I/O, internal DSP effects and speaker management, and even comes with a handy remote control unit.

Compatible with both Mac and PC machines, the Konnekt 48 will work with Mac OS 10.4 or higher and Windows XP or Vista X32, and comes with its own NEAR control panel software. After you install the control panel and driver software the Konnekt 48 is ready for use, though with the version I used I had to restart after letting the software update the unit's firmware. When I first tried the unit some months ago the software was a little buggy, which is why I've held off on the review until now. I'm glad to say that the public Beta software I used for this review worked fine with my Mac, and audio playback was uninterrupted by unwelcome clicks or pops — even at buffer sizes of 128 samples or below. By the time you read this, the release version of the driver will be on the TC web site.

The Studio Konnekt 48 I/O section comprises 12 analogue channels — eight line inputs (switchable for -10dBv or +4dBu operation) on the rear panel, and four inputs for the TC Impact II series mic/line preamps, offering gain trim, switchable phantom power (global) and 20dB pad buttons, on the front panel. The four Neutrik combi XLR/jack (mic/line) inputs on the front of the Studio Konnekt 48 also offer high-Z guitar settings that use additional buffer circuitry to avoid loading the guitar pickups. A clever touch is that the input stage automatically senses when a high-impedance source is connected, at which point a relay switches in the high-Z circuitry.

There are eight analogue outputs on balanced TRS sockets and two further main outputs (1/2), featuring digitally controlled analogue level control, on XLRs. In addition to this, two sets of ADAT/TOS ports add eight further channels of ADAT I/O (two sets are needed for 88.2kHz or 96kHz operation in SMux mode). Then there's the S/PDIF stereo digital I/O — so there's no shortage of physical connectivity.

You should be aware that at 'normal' sample rates you can't use both ADAT ports at once to double the channel count, although you can configure one as a stereo Toslink port and use that in addition to eight ADAT channels at 44.1kHz or 48kHz. If you don't need ADAT interfacing, both optical ports can be configured as stereo Toslink ports, so nothing is redundant. As part of my testing during the review, I plugged in a Behringer ADA8000 eight-channel mic preamp, which...