[capeconscience]

Hi,
I wish to record my sax along with a piano and a couple of guitars simultaneously. So I have narrowed my search to the M Audio Fast track Pro 0r the Motu Microbook. I would like to know if both these products do a good job at recording the saxophone, because nothing is mentioned about recording wind instruments with these products anywhere. Im leaning more on the M Audio Fasttrack Pro as of right now, due to the presence of physical knobs on the equipment. Please guide me on this matter, and as I live in india, i dont have access to many other products in this category over here.Waiting for you expert opinions.Thanks in advance guys.

 

[ericdano]

Depends on the computer. M-Audio/Avid is terrible about updating their drivers. MOTU on the otherhand is amazing about updating stuff for new software/hardware revisions (ie: Apple system updates, new hardware, etc). Plus, the regular fast track interface doesn't have the better preamps like say the Fastrack Ultra does. I have an Fastrack Ultra and the preamps are a lot better than the regular fastrack.

So, unless you need 96khz recording, I'd go with MOTU. They build solid, great sounding gear.

 

[skeller047]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the recording of wind instruments is no different than the recording of electronic instruments. Once the acoustic energy is converted to electrical energy (or digital data) there is no difference at all.

What you need to worry about is the microphone (the thing that does the conversion from acoustic to electric). Some mics just sound bad on saxophone. For live recording, there are many good choices, but the difference between audio interfaces is negligible. Choose based on reliability and preamp quality.

Having said all that, I too would choose the MOTU over the M-Audio.

 

[harmonizerNJ]

Hi, I wish to record my sax along with a piano and a couple of guitars simultaneously.....

The M Audio Fast track Pro appears to only have two inputs, so I don't think it will do what you want.

According to this: http://s3.amazonaws.com/motu/manuals/firewire-usb-audio/MicroBook_User_Guide.pdf
The Motu Microbook appears to be able to support 4 inputs at once:
1. mic input in front, 2. a direct guitar feed in the front, 3 & 4. two line-level inputs in the back (i.e. from a keyboard synth or guitar amp line out).
Note that this is a very specific connection scenario, and it is possible neither guitar player will feel like plugging his guitar directly into the Motu.
Also note that your sax mic will pick up some sound from the other players in the room.

 

[LampLight]

I bought my first and probably last M-Audio product a few months ago, a ProKeys Sono 61. When you turn it on, it sends unwanted midi commands to the rest of your system and changes the voices. :banghead: Plus as Eric Dano said above, they are historically very slow to update drivers. Do yourself a favor and stay away from them.

 

[BarrySax6]

The Fast Track Pro does have 4 inputs but two of them come from the SPDIF inputs on the back. I have several M-Audio products and they've all been very good for me. I have the powered studio monitors, an Ozone keyboard/audio interface, and I just recently bought the Fast Track Ultra for recording and to be part of my live rig and it's worked great...granted I've only used it on two gigs so far but it's been easy to use and the sound guys say it sounds great. I think the mic pres are solid and the routing is very flexible. I have buddy that is a rep for MOTU and I can't deny that their stuff works great as well but I've definitely been happy with my M-Audio stuff. They do tend to be slower on updates as has been stated above but that has never bitten me so I don't worry about it that much.

Steve is right both about the choice of microphone as well as the fact that there is very little difference in sound quality among interfaces in this price range.
-Barry