There is no denying that home and project studio owners have never had a better range of audio and MIDI interfaces to choose from, whatever their budget or feature requirements. The latest addition to your dilemma is M-Audio's Fast Track Ultra, which provides six-in/six-out analogue audio interfacing with 24-bit audio at sample rates up to 96kHz, alongside stereo S/PDIF digital I/O and MIDI I/O. This is all housed in a compact desktop unit with USB 2.0 connectivity to the host computer. However, the feature that perhaps immediately causes the Fast Track Ultra to stand out is its onboard DSP processing. So if you are in the market for a compact, multi-channel audio interface with a few bells and whistles thrown in, is the Fast Track Ultra worth a serious look?

With a footprint not much bigger than a Harry Potter novel, the Fast Track Ultra packs a lot of features into a pretty small space. The front panel is dominated by the four microphone inputs. Two of these (channels 1 and 2) feature combi XLR/TRS connectors suitable for balanced or unbalanced mic and instrument signals, while the other two (channels 3 and 4) use standard XLR sockets. A push-button located to the top right of each input allows the user to switch between the front-panel input and the corresponding quarter-inch jack inputs on the rear panel. Each input also features a single LED for use when setting levels, which flashes green for a healthy signal level and red when the signal is getting a little hot — basic in terms of metering, but not dissimilar to that found on many compact audio interfaces. The preamps are based on M-Audio's Octane technology, as found in the more upmarket Profire 2626.

The right side of the front panel hosts four gain controls for the mic preamps (offering about 60dB of gain). A 20dB pad is included, which can be useful for recording particularly loud signals and is engaged by pulling the respective gain knob out — it clicks firmly into either position. The other knobs control the main output level and the output levels of the two independent headphone outs. While fingers of the short and stubby kind are perhaps not best...