What audio interface?

July 7th, 2010 by admin

My main DAW studio audio interface is the RME400, purchased in 2009. I’ve used Alesis, Roland (Edirol) and Motu, all of which are okay. Indeed, I still use an AlesisMM16 for live recording, but for instrumental music studio work I wanted to use what I felt was a more superior interface, and RME appeared to fit the bill. If you want the full technical specs, please visit the RME website, there simply isn’t room in this short review, which is a no nonsense user perspective. The RME400 is a professional quality I/O, half single U rack-mount unit, attractive blue and silver design and very solid in build, with 2 preamps and 8 audio ins and 10 outs.  Firewire connectivity is IEEE-1394, it has active jitter suppression, standalone functionality and complete front panel control. The preamps are excellent, very clean and transparent with no colouring. There’s MIDI, SPDIF, Word and ADAT and the unit can be bus or mains powered and has true +48 phantom power. It supports all sample rates up to 192 and its ASIO drivers are as solid as a rock. I’ve had no issue whatsoever despite shifting from various sample rates in various projects – brilliant! There’s also a powerful 648- channel mixer-matrix that needs some time to explore, but it quite intuitive and very flexible.It’s easy to get bogged  down in the technical side of these units, when for the most part what you want to know is, “Is it worth the money”? Absolutely Yes! The sound quality is sensational and as a professional in a project studio I was very surprised at the improved sound quality when I first used it on the electronica music CD Shifting Sands by Ian Boddy & David Wright. That is due in no small part to the “SteadyClock”, RME’s unique sync and clock technology, which refreshes clock signals, removes jitter, and takes care of optimal conversion quality, which guarantees a superior sound quality (well that’s the technical speak anyway!).There are eight balanced inputs and outputs (except 7/8 unbalanced) and you can switch of reference levels (-10 dBV, +4 dBu, Lo/HiGain) from the software matrix/mixer, giving the highest dynamic range and fidelity. The 2 balanced microphone inputs are Neutrik Combo connectors for XLR and TRS and they can also be used as additional line inputs. The specs mean that these preamps are superior to those of other devices that cost several times as much as the Fireface 400. Once again, I was very surprised at the clean, high quality sound when I first recorded using these pre-amps. All levels can easily be adjusted by the mixer/matrix software. Inputs 3 and 4 are very flexible, balanced universal inputs. Again, the input impedance can be switched from Line (10 kOhm) to Instrument (470 kOhm), via software, plus there’s an additional analog input amplification of up to 18 dB, so there’s no signal that these inputs can’t deal with! Inputs 5 to 8 on the rear feature RME’s proven level references. -10 dBV, +4 dBu. The high power phones output offers high volumes even with low-impedance headphones. All outputs can be used for ASIO Direct Monitoring purposes.There’s huge flexibility with the digital I/Os: An ADAT optical I/O allows for the connection and insertion of effects devices, mixing consoles or external converters. Of course, these 8 channels are available simultaneously with the analog channels. Using an additional ADI-8 DS or OctaMic D, provides 16 analog inputs and outputs, (12 at 96 kHz). The coaxial SPDIF I/O is fully AES/EBU compatible and works up to 192 kHz, which means that at the highest sample rate, 8 analog and 2 digital inputs and outputs are available. SPDIF can also be accessed through the optical I/O, which works up to 192k.If you want even more I/O flexibility, then look at the larger RME800. But I would have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending the RME400 as a key component of your DAW set up. Rugged, reliable, rock solid, professional I/O sound, for me, the RME400 is the Rolls Royce of audio interfaces.

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